The need to continuously redefine the word “weird” carries on. A weird album used to stand for something like Celtic Frost’s Cold Lake, or anything that came from the mouth of Mike Patton, but the landscape of metal now allows for virtually anything to take place, including a relatively stable-sounding Swedish metal band using sonic props to their advantage. That’s what Grandexit does on their The Dead Justifies the Means album.
Thanks to the album description from the label, a crossbreed of The Black Dahlia Murder, Mastodon, and System of a Down doesn’t seem as far-fetched as initially thought. The album is more The Black Dahlia Murder mongering than anything else, although the quirky vocal pop-ups heard on “The Striven” are ear-catching, and totally unexpected. As slippery and sliding as the album can get, the congenial death metal plow of “Box of Glass” is a winner, while the chaotic grinding of “Are You Even Alive” is a menagerie of everything that has happened in extreme metal the last ten years. All that was missing was a slick and well-timed beatdown.
Thirteen years into their existence, Grandexit sound more like a band that came together a few years ago after watching Headbanger’s Ball (the recent version, not re-runs). It correlates into a rocky sounding album in the form of The Dead Justifies the Means, one whose appeal might not be enough for the intended parties. However, it probably was a real laugh to throw the kitchen sink into the proceedings.