Recommended for fans of: Nile, Mithras, Decrepit Birth
First off… no, I’m not going to be typing out the band’s full name.
For one thing, they’re mostly known by the shortened version, Eximperitus, anyway.
And, for another… c’mon people, there’s only so many hours in the day/days in the week/weeks in the month, and by the time I’d have finished typing it for the third or fourth time it would probably be mid-March.
Suffice it to say, however, that this band… by any other name… would still be as brutal, as technical, and as mind-bending, and more than capable of goig toe-to-toe with the likes of Origin or Wormed, Wormhole or Defeated Sanity, or absolutely any of the very best of the Brutal/Technical Death Metal scene.
2016 – PRAJECYRUJUčY SINHULIARNAJE…
Wasting very little time,the brooding opening bars of “Transhręsiŭnaje Ŭšęście…” are soon buried beneath an auditory avalanche of dirty, down-tuned riffs and bowel-quaking bass lines, churning and chugging and chattering away with a brutish blend of sickening groove and ominous grandeur (you can already see/hear why those Nile comparisons keep cropping up across the warp and weft of the band’s back catalogue)… but the song doesn’t really kick into gear until just after the one minute mark, where the twisted tremolo and technical shreddery, bolstered by an array of rapid blastbeats and rabid gutturals, really bring the pain.
From then on the album just doesn’t let up, with “Imknieńnie Apantanaści…” blazing away with just over three minutes of punishing blastery and torturous technicality (including some seething, swarming lead guitar work) and “Da Pytańniaŭ Ab Suziraĺnym…” adding some darkly melodic vibes to the song’s nasty riffs and jagged-edged rhythms.
And while the band keep the intensity levels pushed well into the red at (almost) all times, they also don’t shy away from throwing the occasional curve-ball at the listener, so keep an ear out for the eerily infectious tremolo/lead hook that crops up early on in “Akružany Parallieĺnymi…” (as well as the song’s esoteric ambient outro, which provides a welcome moment of calm amidst the storm) or the grinding, off-kilter grooves of “Somnambuličnyja Tulliańni…”, and especially the unexpectedly subtle and sombre intro to “Apałohija Samaźniščęńnia…” (which also builds to yet another unashamedly epic, albeit still brutal, outro).
Punishing penultimate track “Rytuał Pryzyŭnoha Zaklionu…” serves as a welcome reminder that Eximperitus (like their British brethren in Mithras) are capable as being as hooky as they are heavy (the riffs on this track, and this album, are sharp and bite deep), and by the time that the majestic space-madness of ambient outro “Paświačęńnie Adęptam Salipsizmu…” is finished you’re probably going to be ready for another journey to the outer limits of the Death Metal universe.
2021 – ŠAHRARTU
A little darker, and with a little more weight and heft (you can tell that the band are also involved with Relics of Humanity), Šahrartu opens with the shimmering, brooding slow-burn of “Šaqummatu” – its epic, alien aura melding seamlessly with the song’s menacing metallic undercurrent – before dropping the hammer on “Utpāda”, which blasts and grinds and grooves for just under seven minutes of absolutely massive riffs, earth-shaking bass-lines, and tumultuous, tectonic percussion (all interwoven with layers of sinister, cinematic ambience and soaring, psychoactive lead melodies).
It’s a definite vibe-shift, that’s for sure, but not one that should… ahem… alienate listeners of their first album, as all it really serves to do is enhance that contorted, Cryptopsy-esque brutality with an even more epic (and, I promise, I’ll try not to over-use that word going forwards) sensibility that doubles-down on this Nile and/or Mithras comparisons without sacrificing the band’s inherent intensity (or their established identity).
“Tahвdu”, for example, is five-and-a-half minutes of utterly crushing guitar work – married to some swirling, pseudo-melodic hooks – that somehow manages to get thicker, slower, and heavier as the song goes on (culminating in an absolutely gargantuan, gravity-distorting finale), while “Anhыtu” steps up the grim, malevolent groove and ominous atmosphere… right up to the moment it erupts into a churning maelstrom of metallic madness, bludgeoning your senses with a barrage of bone-shaking guitars and ear-scraping growls, interspersed with moments of immersive, introspective ambience and passages of soaring melodic majesty.
But it’s “Inqirad” – ten titanic minutes of esoteric extraterrestrial atmospherics and chunky, chugging extremity which collectively makes up some of the densest, darkest (and, indeed, doomiest) material of the band’s career thus far (while also giving them ample room to flex their weirdest and wildest melodic muscles) – which really shows what the band are capable of now, with the song’s colossal climax (this low ‘n’ slow, chug-tastic apocalypse that just keeps on pummelling away as the song slowly fades out) eventually giving way to the creepy ambient come-down of “Riqыtu”.
2025 – MERITORIOUSNESS OF EQUANIMITY
With both the band’s previous two albums being subtly different in their own ways I’m sure a lot of you will be wondering how Meritoriousness of Equanimity will measure up… and one quick listen to opener “One Step Long Infinity” should answer your questions.
A little bit sharper, a little bit hookier, erring back towards the rapid-fire assault of Prajecyrujučy sinhuliarnaje… but still retaining the extra sonic heft of Šahrartu, “One Long Step Infinity” is just under two-and-a-half minutes of contorted, distorted riffage and bone-rattling blast-beats, permeated with just the right amount of malevolent melody to offset the blistering brutality, while “Contemplation of the Plastic Fibers of Perfection at the Second Level of Reality” is five minutes of chunky, gut-churning chuggery interspersed with sudden bursts of spasming, slammy snare and passages of imposing, imperious melody.
The greater focus on melody takes on greater prominence during the moody interlude of “Twelve Centuries of Triumph of the Third Kingdom…” and the grandiose “Finding Consistency in the Fourth Quadrant of Eternity”, the latter of which at times recalls the best of Decrepit Birth at their most spaced-out and extravagant (especially when the keening, cosmic leads take centre stage), but it’s the captivating clean vocals (which have a hint of Sulphur Aeon to them) that really emphasise the expansion of this side of the band’s sound.
Stomping grooves and soaring lead melodies (combined with the occasional eruption of explosive, Origin-esque intensity) are the name of the game during the killer combo of “The Untimely Fruit of the Unsaid” and “Golden Chains for the Construction of Individual Greatness”, both of which are as cunningly catchy as they are crushingly heavy… and if there’s one thing Eximperitus have shown themselves to be experts at it’s balancing their more grandiose melodic ambitions with a enviable knack for gargantuan metallic riffage.
“Molecular Disintegration of an Unattainable Solitary Will in a Vessel of Wisdom…” offers a brooding break in the storm, before the blast ‘n’ chug ‘n’ slam of “Chalkionic Wandering Among the Wreckage of the Future” and massive, semi-symphonic closer “Standing at the Skirt of the Ruins of Human Nature” (which has more than a hint of The Monolith Deathcult to it) bring the album to an impressively epic (damn, there’s that word again) close!