Exocrine – The Hybrid Suns (Unique Leader Records) [Zach Scott]
Hybrid Suns is the fifth full-length from French technical death metal outfit Exocrine. Released through Unique Leader Records, the album clearly shows the band’s maturity and songwriting prowess that has grown since their debut album back in 2015, and they are clearly at the top of their game here. Sprawling, intense, melodic, and unrelenting, this record is an excellent display of the characteristic sound Exocrine have been building over the past seven years with incredibly consistent releases. This is a must listen for any fan of tech death.
The album kicks off with some dreamy shredding leads and synth lines in the single and title track The Hybrid Suns, which showcases some incredible lead guitar work from Nicolas La Rosa and Sylvain Octor-Perez as well as huge breakdowns. Théo Gendron’s drum work is nothing short of fantastic, with a relentless hammer blast pounding the music forwards throughout, with virtuosic fills scattered tastefully throughout, such as the one that opens Dying Light. There is a good balance between the ferocious intensity of most tech death and deathcore and slam-influenced breakdowns to break up the flow of the songs, as well as some slightly less intense interludes. Woven across this record is some synth work and clean vocals, which harkens back to the groundbreaking early technical death metal of Cynic.
In terms of melody, Exocrine opt down the more progressive route, taking heavy influence from bands like Obscura in the record’s dreamier sections, while the breakneck intensity of the faster sections derives clearly from contemporary kings of the tech death scene Archspire. The songwriting is exemplary, with sections and parts weaving in and out of each other well, and each song containing a diverse array of tempos and feels, from brutal breakdowns to soaring guitar solos to verses that simply require a circle pit. Transitions are well-executed and rarely feel forced or awkward, a difficult thing to achieve in such a complex and often chaotic subgenre that jumps between tempos and time signatures like they’re nothing.
A standout is the intro to Watchtower, which shows some electronic influence, showing that Exocrine is a band that is not afraid to push death metal to its limits. More exotic influence is shown in the flamenco-inspired intro to Burning Sand, again displaying their affinity for adding unusual textures into an otherwise relentless death metal setup. One thing the band would have improved on was to interweave these more exotic textures throughout the songs rather than just using them mostly as intros; this would have enriched the sound much more and made the unusual influences more pronounced and bold, although they are still well done as it is. Jordy Besse’s vocals are great, with a powerful midrange scream giving way to slam-influences gutturals when the song calls for it, as well as some more ambient clean vocals in the more progressive sections of The Hybrid Suns.
Overall, this record is a strong mix of face-melting leads, relentlessly fast technical passages, and devastatingly heavy breakdowns. There is a strong current of groove that underpins this entire record, somewhat unusually for tech death; this cements Exocrine’s reputation as innovators within a sometimes saturated subgenre. Again, their more bold choices (synths, electronic/folk influence) could’ve been done with more gusto and used more prominently, as this would’ve made the album even more unique than it already is, and some more prominent and melodic bass parts would’ve made for some more dynamic textures with the possibility of interplay between the various instruments – a band that is excellent at this is Archspire. However, it is still all-in-all an album that showcases a very high level of songwriting and technical proficiency, and this is truly technical death metal at its finest. 9/10
Anders Johansson (HammerFall, Manowar) concocted a band with his two sons, Nick and Karl back in 2016. What could easily have devolved into a messy family affair instead became Tungsten, an epic outfit self-appointed as Industrial Power Metal with hints of Northern Folk. A more poignant synopsis could be ambitious fantastical metal alongside folksy magnificence, since that’s precisely the formula put into Bliss. The unique take on at-odds styles coming together in unison is majestic. The record is audacious, daring and most of all, a home run. The elements presented throughout the 11 tracks sparks wonderment and breeds heroics.
It doesn’t take long to metastasize, either. Dreamers is a sensational Folk Metal song that claims victory via a one-two keyboard-wind flute knockout blow. Mike Andersson is tasked with the clean singing while Karl handles screams (as well as bass). That synergy reigns supreme with a harsh bridge wedged into an otherwise awe-inspiring composition (Heart Of Rust). The flutes return on Afraid Of The Light and are this time partnered with luscious bagpipes. Perhaps an oxymoron; bagpipes are always luscious. Bliss would be nothing without a hearty drinking song (On The Sea), a tale presumably shared on many a pirate ship as land is spotted and loot eagerly anticipated.
Nothing, though, can hold a candle to Come This Way, a bouncy affair with the catchiest, easiest to remember and most enjoyable keyboard harmony I have ever heard. The song was instantly stuck in my head, and that synth is the culprit. Even methods that draw from genres less enjoyed personally (Industrial, Nu-Metal) can’t stanch the flow of intriguing dominance. The Johanssons unequivocally proved family can co-exist with flying colors. But that nearly buries the lead. Bliss is an expedition through vast landscapes differing in breadth, climate and scenery. As such, each song stands to tell each of those stories independently. Granted I probably ruined it, but listen to Tungsten as simply a band. Pay attention not to the genre or label, but rather the spectacular music churned out from front to back, and every glorious moment in between. 9/10
Wicked Stone - Synergy (Hard To Stay Quiet) [Finn O'Dell]
This upcoming release by these British rockers is definitely worth adding to any collection. They started in 2015 and released their first album in 2017. This release sees them adding some hard hitters to their repertoire. The opening track, Same Goodbye To Yesterday, is a great introduction to this band as it seems to optimize their sound - heavy, melodic rock. Production here is flawless with great volume and a rich mix that isn't over done. Joe Hawx handles the vocals and his voice is perfect for this sound. Kind of gives me overall Alter Bridge vibes.
The next couple of songs maintain the positive messages: Not Alone and Reclaim The Crown (some blistering guitar solo work on this track). Lots of fist pumping motivational anthems here. Totally fits them have a song called Adrenaline later on this album. Going Wild has a fun intro and bouncy party feel to it. Of mention here is the fourth track, Now You're Gone. Straight hard rock ballad that almost takes be back to some old Skid Row. Powerful song that needs radio play for sure: soulful and smooth. Only ballad amidst a release full of heavyweight rock. I highly recommend this album. 9/10
Caravellus - Inter Mundos (Rockshots Records) [Simon Black]
Caravellus are a Brazilian five piece Prog Power outfit, with Inter Mundos being their third full length album. It’s a beast with a long gestation period too, clocking in at nearly an hour and fourteen minutes and its been gently cooking since 2018. In fact, three albums over twenty years can hardly be regarded as prolific, considering the rate the likes of Dream Theater crank them out. But then it can be hard breaking out of South America, although the band seems to have established a good fanbase in France, having been picked up by French label Metalodic back in 2010. Now, much as I love both Power and Progressive Metal, they are remarkably challenging to knit together whilst remaining accessible, especially when the dreaded concept album approach is used. Even the undisputed masters of the genre Symphony X have had their fair share of rambling epics that fail to retain the attention earlier in their career, so a band needs to be pretty on form to make this combination work. Or you need something else unique going on here, of which we do get touches.
There are three sides to this particular opus. There’s some belting and well-written Power pieces, with anthemic choruses and catchiness, there’s some at times impenetrable, but technically blistering progressive pieces and then there’s the moments when things get really experimental, with instrumental influences coming from eclectic directions like Jazz, Folk, Big Band (yes, really) and some highly effectively traditional Brazillian acoustic guitar elements. Now the positive aspect is, that whatever they choose to play, they do it with dizzying skill and aptitude, but the problem is the word “dizzying”, because these styles bounces around all over the place and can be quite challenging on the listener. I am guessing that this is a side effect of a five-year writing and recording exercise, as for a bunch of proficient musos like this, that must have meant a lot of material to hone down.
Performance wise I can’t fault it and I also found Leandro Caçoilo to be a highly impressive and charismatic frontman who is never overshadowed by the four technical virtuosos he works alongside. To be fair that’s no mean feat, because the skill of the instrumentalists is formidable, with a particular shout out going to keyboard player Daniel Felix, because that’s some seriously fluid Kung-Fu…Overall though, despite the skill, variety and incredible virtuosity this album feels like its trying to cram way too much in and would really have benefitted from a more selective stylistic approach, as this is clearly a record that needs plenty of spins to fully appreciate.
Nevertheless, an absolutely fascinating and well produced piece, that just needed a strong production hand to focus a more distinct mode range to stop it meandering so much. To be fair it’s a lesson many bigger acts have had to learn, because being technically great is no help if you can’t catch less technically inclined ears and then dazzle them afterwards. 7/10