Liminal --- Exivious
So what do I know about Exivious? Like many of the bands here, I know nothing about Exivious. But I can find out! Just amuse yourselves till I get back ... I'm back! Okay, so the story behind this Dutch progressive metal band seems to be a long and confusing one. And here it is. Exivious appear to be the band that died twice and came back to life, er, three times. This birth and rebirth seems to have some tenuous connection with US band Cynic, which is odd as they are or were a brutal death metal band, although it seems they mellowed and changed their focus later in their careers. Even so, these guys are from Holland and while some of the members of Cynic appear to have Dutch or Dutch-sounding names, I can't find any evidence of there being any connection between the two.
At any rate, Exivious appear to have been together since 1997 but not have released anything until a two-track demo in 2001, and with little or no exposure for them they broke up and then again in 2006 got together with a new lineup which released, well, nothing again until 2010 when their debut album hit, but shortly afterwards they broke up again and seemingly the two founders joined Cynic (?) but left at the end of the year to try to resurrect Exivious. Again. Confused yet? I know I am!
The point about all the above is ... what is the point? Nothing really. I guess in the final analysis (hah hah Trollheart! You said anal!) No I didn't: I said analysis! Really, how old are you?
So AS I WAS SAYING the above doesn't really matter all that much because we're not terribly interested in charting the history of the band and more focussing on the music. I say this in the clear knowledge that I am dodging the issue of my not being able to really tell you who these guys are. So sue me.
What do you mean, subpoena for you, Mister Trollheart?
This, then, is the second album from Exivious, a total I guess of three years in the making after their debut, and it's entirely instrumental, as was their debut. It opens on “Entrust”, with rising low synth line and chiming guitar, a slowly pulsing bass that seems to be building to something, the guitar getting louder until on the back of rolling percussion it takes off in, yes, a very progressive rock way. It's a little unfocussed for my tastes, their fondness for jazz fusion perhaps leaking through here. It does settle down a little after the first minute though, much of the tune driven on that sumptuous fretless bass handled by Robin Zielhorst, one of the originals. Actually I may be in error about that synth line, as no keyboard player is shown in Exivious.
There's a screeching guitar solo in the fourth minute as founder Tymon Kruidenier puts his axe through its paces, and honestly if that's not synth then he is one hell of a guitarist, though I know this effect can be achieved. I would definitely have said it was on keys however. The album has a mere eight tracks and unlike you would expect, no epics. The longest of them don't even push the seven minute mark, and there are three under five. One of these is “One's glow”, just four and a half minutes, another good showcase for the guitar, with some thunderous drumming from Yuma van Eekelen; in fact, he (or she) gets to perform something of a solo here, backed by Zielhorst on that fretless.
“Alphaform” is a more slightly laidback and slower track, with a nice guitar line and some measured drumming, a kind of jazzy feel to the guitar and another hypnotic bassline, and it gets more intense as it goes along. I'd say it's my favourite so far, but to be honest I haven't exactly been blown away by this album up to this point. Mind you, instrumental albums are always something of a tough sell to me. “Deeply woven” is much more frenetic and uptempo, with machinegun guitar and some that's almost reminiscent of the great Carlos Santana at times. Pretty impressive. There's definitely some sax here, I don't care what anyone says. Otherwise this guy is just a genius on the frets. No, it's got to be sax, and it's all over the place the way I hate with free jazz, but to be fair it sounds really well.
I'm assuming that's the fretless bass opening “Triguna”, which picks up on some frantic and urgent guitar and some almost Waitsesque bass. It bounces along nicely then the guitar takes the tune with a very clean and crisp passage. Some very nice fretless on the sweet and gentle “Movement”, very relaxing, though like it seems most of Exivious's work it can't stay that way for long and kicks up with hard guitar and strong drumming. It does quieten down again though as it heads into its final section. “Open”, meanwhile, is again a little too rooted in jazz to excite me, though it does have its moments. The album then comes to a close on “Immanent” (their spelling, not mine: back, fellow grammar Nazis, back! I am still one of you!) which is another heavy number but to be honest at this point I've lost interest. It's okay but nothing special and nothing particularly different.
TRACKLISTING
1. Entrust
2. One's glow
3. Alphaform
4. Deeply woven
5. Triguna
6. Movement
7. Open
8. Immanent
The thing about instrumental albums, as I've said a few times before, is that they're tough to review and they really have to hold my interest. Progressive rock, as much as I love it, is a real culprit when it comes to instrumental albums, as they can often be nothing more than an excuse for showing off and displays of technical brilliance which, while undeniably well played, become boring after a while. There's another album coming up later with yer man from Dream theater in it, and as I find them one of the principle proponents of “technical wankery”, I expected the same from his band. I was not disappointed. Or I was, depending on which way you look at it. Suffice to say I began to dread when one of their tracks would come up on my playlist.
Exivious fall it would seem into the same category. There's no questioning the fact that they're all great musicians, but an album of technically perfect music can be terribly boring, as I found out with the last album from Journey's Neal Schon. There needs to be some spark about it, something to hold the attention, and on this release these Dutch proggers have failed to exhibit that. To be honest, I was bored from about the third track in and it didn't ever pick up after that. I find myself wondering why they're even on this list, and can only really award them a fairly paltry
4/10.