siLLy puPPy
So what do you do when you are a technical death metal band that has found itself to be just one of a million others that can crank out the progressively infused death metal chops at the speed of light without atmospheric interference and can banter with bombast like a pummeled Hiroshima at the end of WW2? Well you craft some attention getting gimmick of course that hopefully will lead those who notice to pay attention to your music as well! Coming from Minsk, Belarus this band chooses to remain anonymous as far as band members are concerned and has received more than its fair share of attention for its 51-letter long name which is:
Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum
But anyone who dares even try to write about this band in any way shape or form has adopted the shorthand version EXIMPERITUS which looks better anyway. The name is supposed to mean “An author's individual agglutinative neologism. In its creation there were used some Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Akkadian and Sumerian terms of the Chaosatanic tradition. It entirely reveals the unutterable name of the antiuniverse. When divided into fragments, it creates the magic spell of the formless Lords of the prior Darkness” which sounds as ridiculous as the moniker itself however it gets worse!
Formed in 2009, EXI (my own shorthand here!) has released a couple EPs but only a single full-length album in 2016 titled (yeah i’m not kidding!):
“Prajecyrujučy Sinhuliarnaje Wypramieńwańnie Daktryny Absaliutnaha J Usiopahłynaĺnaha Zła Skroź Šaścihrannuju Pryzmu Sîn-Ahhī-Erība Na Hipierpawierchniu Zadyjakaĺnaha Kaŭčęha Zasnawaĺnikaŭ Kosmatęchničnaha Ordęna Palieakantakta […]"
which is a transliterated form of archaic Belarusian but in the end who really cares. If that wasn’t bad enough the album that just misses clocking in at 30 minutes has eight tracks with even MORE ridiculously long track names. Track number 8 seems to be the longest and it’s called:
“Paświačęńnie Adęptam Salipsizmu Uwažliwym Da Pastuliawańnia Von Hartmana Ab Nieswiadomym U Z'jawach Cialiesnaha J Duchoŭnaha Žyćcia, Što Skažajuć Azimutaĺny Kut Palinhienęzii Ad Zawieršanaha Ŭwasablieńnia Liutaści Šywy Da Stęły Adkryćcia Toţa Nad Prorwaj Samaręalizacyi Partałaŭ Inšabyćcia… (all other tracks are pretty much as long!)
If by chance you were able to decipher all this gibberish and read it aloud, it would no doubt take you longer to read off the track names than it would take to play the album but considering this is extreme death metal with indecipherable growls and beastly groans from the abyss, it’s not even important that the tracks have titles at all! This album must surely hold the record for most words and letters used to craft the band name, album title and tracks and if you bothered to add it up would also win the title for most words per second of playing time but after all is said and done and the gimmicky eye-catching novelty wears off, how’s the music?
Well, EXI displays a very adept form of technical death metal that falls into the brutality camp of bands like Nile and Suffocation but with a more modern production job that evoke the contemporary sci-fi themed like Gigan, Mithras, Pyrrhon and similar acts however despite EXI’s amazingly creative mythology of catching your attention rarely lives up to keeping it as the eight tracks on “Prajecyrujučy” (album shorthand) falls into the trap of sounding a bit too generic for its own good. Competent pyrotechnic flair is flattened out by compositional impotence as the band that has honed its chops also misses the mark in crafting memorable and interesting tracks that offer little variation. Only the intro and outro sounds deviate from the one-trick pony methodology which keeps this one from really living up to its potential.
Overall this is a decent slice of tech death metal but it’s also sounds like a million bands that have come before and a million more will probably copy. Often it’s the case that such novelty extremes in name sizes and other gimmicks are simply masking the fact that the band is seriously lacking in some other department and that is exactly the case with EXI which lacks any original contributions to the fertile tech death metal camp. The album certainly checks off all the boxes and is even graced by an extraordinary eye-catching album cover but when it comes down to what REALLY matters when experiencing an album of tech death, it completely fails at living up to the hype that is aroused through all the longest name business. Yeah, it’s hardly the worst tech death album I’ve encountered but it’s just all so predictable and instantly forgettable. Meh.