by Will Sisskind (@theparisbuns)
On Xetas’ 2017 record The Tower, the Austin-based trio unleashed tracks with names that may bring to mind a deck of tarot cards. Besides the title track, headlines like “The Hawk,” “The Lamb,” and “The Future” accompanied Xetas’ punk symphonies. These inventions toed the line between song and story, creating little chapters in a loose arc of rage-tinged spiritual wandering.
Xetas continues this journey with The Cypher, their new record with ten more tracks of noise turned into blood-pumping melodies and riffs. The names of the songs on The Cypher depict less of the occult and more on the characters who might dabble in it. “The Doctor” tells a tale of a medic with their own sickness trying to continue their practice. “The Hierophant” introduces a spiritual interpreter with their own vision clouded by doubt. “The Martyr” sounds like a battle cry or a jeering towards some destined to die for their beliefs; perhaps a creed against cowardice, or a challenge to cheerleaders who raise their shaky hands to unfamiliar feelings.
But the album title holds The Cypher’s arc together. The title track calls out the listener and begs them to wake up and feel something -- anything -- rather than remain a placeholder or cypher for all that consumes them and all that they consume. “The Xero” -- a play on “zero,” another description for “cypher” -- has the band launch into the roles of the Bringers of the Apocalypse. They unleash hell in their voices as they speak of war, famine, pestilence, and death, totaling every life on Earth to equal nothing. With these two conflicting messages -- everything is important, and nothing is -- The Cypher speaks of the fear inherent in nothingness, and the reality of everything heading towards nothingness faster than we can imagine.
Other songs on The Cypher follow -- or can follow -- this theme. “The Objector,” which features bassist Kana Harris on lead vocals, attacks the lack of justice in the world and the lack of attention to victims and their experiences. “The Teacher” echoes Pink Floyd’s The Wall in its criticism of the education system’s quashing of individuality and distillation of the student into nothing more than an empty head to fill with rote. Not every song deals with the Void, or those who swim with wild abandon through it. “The Bystander” explores the world of someone who watches those lost in the darkness, giving them mild advice and sympathy from time to time. “The Mariner” -- the final track on the album, and indubitably its brightest -- is an ode to navigating the tidal waves of chaos and emerging on the other side. “Keep your head high, you’re almost home,” the band cries out in unison. “Lighthouse your guide, you’re not alone.”
Much anticipation preceded The Cypher when Xetas first announced it last year. With its release, the band has proven itself as one ready to emerge further in the new decade. The Cypher is at once cynical and hopeful, self-aware and glaring, hungry to make listeners understand the downward spiral of our world and the possibility of working to lift it up to a place where everyone can escape the crush of our current chaos and be able to breathe.