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Exeloume: Fairytale of perversion
24/05/11 || Habakuk
“Does all new thrash need to be shit?”, thought 5 fellas to themselves on a cold Norwegian summer day (fuck man, even the summer days are cold?). They sure had heard their fair share of Legion Of The Damned, and all these other bands trying to bring back the old school failing one after another.
They decided to push their luck and gave themselves the shittiest moniker they could conjure up: Exeloume, which they borrowed from the bassist’s Dungeons & Dragons character (who also happened to be gay). That wasn’t enough to satisfy their burning ambition though. They commissioned the local kindergarten to come up with an album cover concept, had it painted by Ed Repka (yawn…) and tried to get a shit title involving fairies, like … “Fairytale of perversion”. Yeah, that should do it. Success on all accounts! Everything was shit. Then they went on and made music.
And lo and behold, it was still possible to not suck!
What’s the secret? Well, most importantly, it doesn’t sound fucken dead. As in lifeless. As in industrialized, overdone production. As in post-2000 thrash. While certainly having a modern edge to it, the production on here makes the instruments feel like they’re actually being played. That’s already a plus these days. But hey, it’s a Dan Swanö job! Secondly, the songs show somewhat interesting technical riffing and rhythmic patterns that go a far way from the rehashed same old formula and don’t end in a total wankfest either.
However, not sucking is still a far cry from full-on domination. As always, production is not everything, neither is knowing how to play your instruments. Don’t get me wrong, but you know, continuously reviewing shit I don’t really want to listen to, I’ve just gotten a bit more appreciative for instantly great shit. And to keep me interested for 43 minutes, there should be a good deal more songwriting quality, which, granted, is here in rudimentary form. However, still a lot of the material sounds like too many good ideas have been fitted together somehow. It just lacks the engaging momentum of, say, a “No more color”, which I boldly assume these guys enjoy. So even after a few listens, I can’t point out any favorites or especially memorable parts. And that’s not a plus at all.
A few years back I saw a killer live band that sounded a bit like these guys, but on record, they were merely above average. Maybe it’s the other way around with Exeloume. They sure are competent enough. Not a real keeper yet, though, and not even an Andy Larocque guest appearance (this one goes out to my boys in marketing) can change that. As if that had ever been a real possibility.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: ViciSolum
- Website: Exeloume MySpace
- Band
- Øystein Haltbakk: vocals
- Tom Wahl: guitar
- André Ulriksen: lead guitar
- Johnny Wangberg: bass
- Alessandro Elide:drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Lex talionis
- 02. Blind billions
- 03. Ignorance is bliss
- 04. Fairytale of perversion
- 05. Locus Cereleus
- 06. Share my pain (Stalingrad)
- 07. Hellhole
- 08. Psychopath
- 09. Tool of God
- 10. Faceless children
- 11. The Bitsa maniac
- 12. Our poisonous creation
