Xiphos are a martial industrial project that brings together three key/ important figures from the genre- Matteo Brusa (Medhelan/La Tredicesima Luna), Miklós Hoffer(HERR/Donderdag), and Troy Southgate( HERR/Seelenlicht). Released in October of last year The Rise And Fall of Athens is the project's debut album, and it features eleven tracks- these are nicely varied in pace/ type, as well of course decidedly moody/ atmospheric air whisking the listener back in time to rise & fall of the great city of Athens.

The CD release appears on the German label Lichterklang. It comes presented in a colour four-panel digipak- which takes pictures of the grand ruins of Athens. It's finished off with a twelve-page colour inlay booklet- featuring the tracks dense & detailed texts/ lyrics, overlaying more pictures of the ruins and statues of important figures relating to Athens's rise & fall. The CD can be purchased direct from the band here. 
 
The album is based on book of the same name by Plutarch (c. AD 45-120), a Greek philosopher & historian, who lived at the height of the Roman Empire. Matteo Brusa handles the music/ sonic side of the project, while Miklós Hoffer & Troy Southgate handle the vocals/ spoken words. And what we have here is dramatic and atmospheric martial industrial music, with touches of pop & theatrics weaved in.
 
Both Mr Hoffer & Mr Southgate have wonderful clean and clear diction- managing to move effortlessly between spoken word storytelling, blends of spoken word & singing, and all-out harmonic singing. The musical back is a heady mix of layered synthetic orchestration, grandly bounding & bombastic percussion, keyboards, and the occasional clean/ harmonic guitar tone.
 
The eleven tracks featured have runtimes between one and nine minutes. And as you can imagine the album is very dense in its texts, but these are skillfully weaved and blended with Brusa's music. Even on the longer very word-heavy tracks one attention is firmly held, and this is due to the talent of both the vocalist, and Brusa's expressive to majestic musical backing.
 
I was always a big fan of H.E.R.R.’s grand and epic take on martial industrial, and very much missed the project when it went into hibernation/ finished.  Xiphos very much take up the mantle of H.E.R.R, but expands & increases its epic-ness, sonic detail, and storytelling flare. The Rise And Fall of Athens is a very impressive & beautifully crafted debut album, and I do hope this will not be a one-off. If you enjoy very wordy & epic historic-based martial industrial this truly is a must-have release!- but don’t hang around, as this CD has a decidedly Limited pressing.