Exist Immortal – ‘Breathe’ [Review]
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When most people discuss bands in real life, they rarely do so using hundreds or thousands of words; they sum it up succinctly. Face to face with a metal-enamoured mate in a rush, I’d describe Exist Immortal as “a sick tech-metal band,” and recommend the person in question check them out. But if that same guy or girl hadn’t yet heard Meshuggah, that same task would become far harder; pushed for time, I’d tell them just to listen to Nothing and brace themselves.
On Darkness Of An Age, Exist Immortal managed to combine an impressive range of influences from the increasingly ubiquitous Meshuggah to Fear Factory and Devin Townsend. The result? An album I described at one point as “heavy as God’s balls,” a statement I still stick by today.
Arriving two years on from Darkness Of An Age, Breathe is more refined than before. The grooves are deeper, the guitar tones sexier, the production slicker, sicker, tighter and meatier. There’s a definite sense of both expansion and consolidation – not to mention the employment of influences that will never fail to get me on-side, ranging from Protest The Hero to Between The Buried And Me.
Musical trainspotters will have a field day listening to Breathe. It is a disgustingly high-quality album that marks Exist Immortal as purveyors of the finest riffs, licks, and Jens Kidman-and-Daniel-Tompkins-evoking vocals you could reasonably ask for. If you try to scream along, of course, you will have to make this face:
Exist Immortal have finally reached a point few metal bands manage to hit. They’ve proven themselves great at saluting their heroes while penning great songs that have always been and will never cease to be worth your time. But once the Breathe cycle is over, it’ll be time for Exist Immortal to graduate to the only level left for them to conquer.
That would be the ultimate musical boss level: The Masterpiece.
As awesome as Breathe is, Exist Immortal’s best music still awaits us in the future. Listening to the face-savaging riffage that opens Saviour, the Periphery-esque intro to In Hindsight, the Devin Townsend / Tesseract-style chorus hook that pushes Invisible Lines skyward, the classic solo from Follow Alone, and the low-mixed BTBAM arpeggios that sweep Chi toward its mathcore-ridden conclusion, it’s impossible not to be impressed. But still, there remains the unmistakable trace of potential yet to be fulfilled.
Meshuggah made Nothing. Between The Buried And Me made Colors. I have no doubt that Exist Immortal are capable of creativity on that level. If they rise to the challenge, they will succeed – and from that point on, they will literally exist as immortals.
TMMP RATING: 93% (Essential Listening!)
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4 responses to “Exist Immortal – ‘Breathe’ [Review]”
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Amazing band, amazing album. One of my favorites of 2016. :)
Sounds like you have good taste, Jeremy! m/
I use to drum for the band Byzantine, not sure if you’ve ever heard of them? ;o). Aren’t you a member of Exist Immortal? You look like the singer. ha!
Dammit – I’ve been rumbled!