In a way, _Xenosapien_ is a divisive album, in that the grind influences are utilized to establish color and character within the death metal songs themselves rather than existing for their own sake. Even _Anomalies_ had its fair share of stand alone grind and experimental instrumentals, but in all honesty those indulgent moments were just as responsible for making prior albums patchy and inconsistent as they were in positioning Cephalic Carnage as an inventive, all-over-the-place ensemble. They've really reeled it in this time, trimming the fat off their muse to maximum extent, focusing primarily on song craft, whereas in the past they've got by on an effortless, breathtaking energy. Here they've traded off a certain amount of that sustained, pedal-to-the-metal momentum for a more structured, often melodic approach.

Songs like "Heptarchy" accentuate the subtlety of their experimentation compared to the old days, with a brazen, rubbery bass solo imprinting itself on the dome with the first listen -- like nearly all older material -- but other, less noticeable departures, such as Lenzig Leal's dabbling in clean vocals, may not hit until repeated listenings. Those clean vocals continue more prominently on the follow-up slow doom ditty, "Global Overhaul Device". The latter is almost black metal-esque in its sheer cold hopelessness. Even when they squeeze a filtered sax solo in there midway, it fails to cheer things up any. And that's the main difference between 2007 Cephalic Carnage and the late-'90s vintage: instead of using (and abusing) grind and extreme metal for their cheeky amusement, they've begun to take it almost dead seriously. Whether this is what any given fan is looking for out of this proud quartet is debatable, but whatever skepticism may confront the band's motives will be found highly inappropriate to the actual quality of the material.