Exist Immortal – Breathe (Primordial Records)
Thursday, 3rd November 2016
Bands will often state they pay little or no attention to what’s going on around them. It’s a diversionary tactic when in fact, most bands are aware of what their contemporaries are doing, hence why a lot of modern metal bands sound pretty much the same. For instance, the U.K.’s Exist Immortal, who on their second full-length foray Breathe, come across as very grab-bag like. You’ve heard this type of production, clean vocals, down-tuned/djent-y riffs, and arrangements before. It’s all a matter of positioning.
The brick-walled production and wet paper bag drums indicate the Exist Immortal gents are less considered with sonic individuality than they are with common fare angry dude/soaring clean vocal volleys. Singer Meyrick de la Fuente has an admirable set of pipes (see: “In Hindsight”), but he’s also a bit too privy to get worn down in the slog that is burly man vocals, however fitting for the riffs they may be. And Exist Immortal takes the staccato bait on “Invisible Lines” (which sounds a bit too perfect, if you catch our drift), as well as would-be airy prog shots on “Escape.”
Essentially, Breathe is a summation album of everything that has been tossed out, recycled, and debated upon in the context of modern metal, which at this point, is polarizing enough to keep bands like Exist Immortal out of the next-level bracket. Seriously, if there was a “right now in 2016” band, it would be Exist Immortal. Fire up ‘yer time capsule. We’ll see how this sounds in 2036.
