From the world of technical progressive metal come Exocrine with their sixth album. I know two of them, and recall that they manage the complexity very well. So I hoped for more of the same here.
After easing us in, Exocrine launch into the fast and furious, deathly and technically-inspired title song. A little bit of trumpet enhances the mood but ultimately this is the dark assault and battery that I was expecting. A break takes us into a different direction, but still in overdrive as if everything has been speeded up. It’s a wild ride. Round and round in circles goes the guitar, injecting life into “Life”. The vocals are more akin to brutal death and now a dark djentiness emerges. There’s almost a song in there. A break takes us into another dark avenue, and misty deathliness ensues, with a haunting voice cleverly emerging through the mist. I was still absorbing this when the song came to an abrupt end. They don’t make it easy listening in any way. The ferocious attack continues with the technically flamboyant “Eidolon”. “The Altar of War” passed me by a little – more of the same, frenzied but unexceptional. The start of “Dust of Naught” is like Mediterranean jazz in style but it quickly moves on to the template technical death metal style. It’s a pity because I find it’s the diversions that can be the most interesting. In the middle there’s one but it’s fleeting, and it’s back to the admittedly abundant richness of the technical metal. I’d be interested to know what the intention is of these teasing diversions, of which more could be made.
“Dust of Naught” even has a section of dark electro at the end. As with “Life” it ends abruptly, leaving us in mid-air.
Normal fury resumes with “Warlock”. The drummer’s aim seems to be to batter our head in. A little jazzy guitar section which leads smoothly back into the usual ball of death energy was the highlight for me of the more approachable “Dragon”. Glimpses of electro appear again in “The Oath”, another mighty piece delivered in the customary stormy style. “Heavy and technical” is my summing up, and in this respect it is typical of the album as a whole. Symphonic darkness now appears in the final piece “By the Light of the Pyre”. There’s about a minute of it, and as if the band is bored with it, the stormy clouds return, the growler growls brutally, drums trigger and barring the odd break and the guitars respond to the changing tempos. But it’s all heavy and dense, shading out the faintly epic tones, as happens across this album. There is a bonus track “Cyrogenisation”. I’m always dubious about bonus tracks, and this one is no exception. It doesn’t take us any further forward than we already know.
“Legend” is a lot to take in but it’s worth the effort. I do however think that Exocrine try to do too much and instead of defaulting so quickly to ferocious technical death metal I wish they’d make more of the interesting musical ideas that they have. That minor frustration apart, once again this is a decent album from this French band.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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