(As you’ll learn in greater detail below, Exxûl is one of a collective of connected bands from the south shore of Québec, and their debut album was released this past January. It drew the attention of our Comrade Aleks, who succeeded in interviewing the band’s songwriter/guitarist Defender (aka Phil Tougas).)
To start with, Exxûl is one of the bands belonging to The Stygian Oath circle. TSO is Canada’s semi-virtual community founded by members of the bands Atramentus (funeral doom metal), Chthe’ilist (death metal), Zeicrydeus (black, thrash metal), and now Exxûl (epic doom metal).
All of these bands are located in Québec and all of them share the same mythology filling their lyrics. All the lyrics are tied to the Perpetual Planes, which is a fictional, dark fantasy world, and “the stories created are often allegories to real life events & personal experiences”.
Musically, Exxûl’s first album Sealed into None has a lot in common with orthodox epic doom bands yet with a good emphasis on their power metal potential. It’s very classic-sounding material with a damn lot of hooks and a quite modern touch. I can’t just pass it by, so here is another “exception of top the rule” interview.
Hi Exxûl! How is it going? What’s new in your camp?
Our camp known as the TSO inner circle is very active. Both Exxûl and Zeicrydeus are doing album launch shows in April, while Dissimulator, Noor, and Chthe’ilist will put out records in 2026 and 2027. Incandescence is also launching an album this coming March, and DDT is re-issuing many releases this year through TSO.
Exxûl is a new name for most of us, so what’s the story behind the band?
Exxûl is a Power Doom band created in 2020 and we’re the only Québécois band to play Power Doom metal.
Is that bad or good? I mean, is it important to have fellow doom bands nearby to be able to organize common gigs and so on? But actually, yes, I remember really very few doom bands from Canada – Cauchemar, disbanded Funeral Circle, psychedelic Zaum… and… Well, can you name a few more?
Playing Power Doom means we can play with Slow Doom bands and fast, shreddy Power Metal bands on any live bill and not appear out of place. This is a good thing. We are a live band, first and foremost. Sadly, the bands you named are either split up or from a completely different province than ours.
By the way, how did you see Exxûl when you started the band? What was your vision?
We wanted to blend Power, Doom & a bit of black metal. From day one, this was the intent from the moment “The Screaming Tower” was written in 2020/2021 until now. We wanted to create a sound that felt both ancient and new at the same time. We write riffs that are played both slowly and fast within the same song and we use black metal chords as well as the chromatic median. We also have a production style that is a crossover between ’80s Power Metal & ’90s black & doom metal for the type of guitar and drum tones we go for as well as the overall sound design.
How do you define this production crossover style? What is it technically?
The drum sound I made is based on Evoken’s early albums as well as Fates Warning’s No Exit. One band is funeral doom, the other is US power metal. They’re two different bands we draw influence from for our music and production style. There are other examples. The guitar tone I used on the record is a cross between Bolt Thrower’s Warmaster, Enslaved’s Frost, and Solitude Aeturnus’ debut album, while the synth sounds are inspired by Funeral Doom and Greek Black Metal bands. These bands are completely different, but they all serve as the foundation for the sound we hear on Sealed Into None. Our different musical backgrounds appear evident not just in the music, but in our production style.
I was surprised when I discovered that the album’s concept is connected with the lyrics of Chthe’ilist, Atramentus, and Zeicrydeus. Do the bands have some common members?
All of these bands have common members and are part of the TSO collective here in Longueuil, Québec. All of the lyrics of these bands are tied to the Perpetual Planes which is a fictional, dark fantasy world. The stories created are often allegories to real life events & personal experiences.
So is TSO a kind of your personal club or a symbiotic artistic unit?
Yes, and no. All the bands in the TSO circle share common members and hail from the south shore, but have different goals. I am not in all the bands in the TSO circle either, like Incandescence or Dissimulator.
It’s said that you spent almost four years trying to find a proper vocalist. It’s easy to lose faith in the process as it took pretty long, and yet you were lucky to find the right candidate. What are your memories about this quest?
Nothing in life comes easy. We asked a few vocalists in the US & Europe but they weren’t interested. We decided it was best to find someone from Montréal in the end and it was for the better. After playing a song during our first rehearsal together, the electricity went out in the neighborhood. That’s when we knew this was meant to be.
Exxûl tends to colossal songs of epic duration — was it natural for you to grow compositions of such scale? Was it a part of your plan from a start?
No, it wasn’t the plan at first. But we’re partially an epic doom band. We play slow riffs and slow riffs take longer to resolve. All songs are built around a central theme that evolves through tempo changes through the course of the song and longer songs tend to make this process easier. There’s just more space to allow the theme to flourish that way.
Then how did you know where to stop developing the theme or melody? How do you know when it’s “enough or too much”?
The theme is everpresent and develops until the end, like a movie or a play. There are multiple peaks and valleys throughout the song to justify the theme being everpresent, instead of just one point of climax in the song. The theme of “Blighted Deity”, for example, shows up right in the intro, the 3 choruses, the second solo, the faster paced section of the song, and then the outro. It holds everything in place.
How would you summarize the album’s concept?
The lyrics of this album aren’t stringed together to create one single continuous, linear storyline, like Atramentus for example. However, the songs act more like short stories that are all tied to the Perpetual Planes mythos first created in the 2010s through the Chthe’ilist releases and the Eternity’s End album Unyielding. We sing tales of end times, death, gods punishing mankind, the atrocities of genocidal warfare, forgotten subterranean realms, and cursed islands full of dread & terror. All of which are of course canon to the lore yet allegorical at the same time.
What influenced your decision to create your own mythology instead of relying on some already carved-in-stone lore like Lovecraftian Horror or whatever?
Everyone’s doing the same thing so I figured why not create my own universe and expand it through my multiple bands. There’s so much more I want to say. Besides, I can’t use Lovecraft’s universe to metaphorically portray my own experiences and feelings. The lyrics for the song ‘‘The Screaming Tower’’ are based on real-life events that happened to me, after all.
Almost each metal band, traditionally, follows the same circle: composing of songs, recording an album, performing it live. Canada is a difficult place for touring. What’s your experience of playing live with Exxûl?
We’ve only played Québec & Ontario and all our gigs have been very small shows. This style of metal is not appreciated here much anymore. We did a gig with Eternal Champion in Toronto and we counted maybe 150 people there. We’re definitely going to do a full Canadian tour at some point, as it is a rite of passage for all true bands, but we don’t expect a high attendance at these shows. We’re only going to play to bigger crowds when we set foot in Europe.
Do you see a sense to perform abroad in the US? Do you have any expectations in this field?
Not unless an offer is made. We’re likely going to play in Europe first. Playing in the US is more complicated as it requires P2 visas.
What are your plans for 2026?
Play more shows in Canada, promote Sealed Into None, and hopefully play in Europe and release more cassette-only live recordings that won’t be heard by the internet, much like our demos.
Okay, thanks for the interview! Did we skip something important regarding Exxûl? Would you like to add a few more words?
That is all for now. Keep supporting the TSO circle and the underground! Cheers.
https://productionstso.bandcamp.com/album/sealed-into-none
https://www.loudtrax.com/productionsTSO