siLLy puPPy One of the best things about loving extreme metal is that bands tend to use obscure words that i’ve never even heard of. Here’s one. “Exuviate” means to shed or cast off and thus EXUVIATED, a death metal band from Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium has taught me a new word! Yay! This is one of a gazillion death metal bands that have been roaming the Earth in the 21st century. Formed in 2008, this band released 2 EPs and 2 albums proper before ending it all in 2020.

This band was all about the old school death metal of the early 90s and featured the members of Jean-Philippe Sonnet (vocals), Renaut Van Oeyen (guitar), Cédric Grandhenry (guitar), Léo Ivanciu (bass), Pierre Pish Minet (bass) and Grégory Grandhenry (drums). The band failed to break through the crowded world of soundalike death metal bands but did experience a robust touring schedule having played at the famous German Wacken Open Air Festival in 2012 and with bands such as Suffocation, Cattle Decapitation, Abiotic, Six Feet Under and Dark Tranquility.

This second album LAST CALL TO THE VOID features all the now well established death metal attributes which includes thundering riffs, blastbeats, guttural growling and breakdowns. While rooted in the old school methodology, EXUVIATED adopted some of the more modern elements such as the occasional pig squeal, slam death palm muted techniques and rhythm changes. There is an underlying melodic quality to this album as well with thundering riffs stampeding over more sensual higher register sweeps.

Overall this is a decent if unspectacular death metal release. Reminding me a bit of Amon Amarth only with more adventurous twists and turns that include aspects of more brutal death metal moments, LAST CALL TO THE VOID is certainly an entertaining listening experience but fails at achieving what sets most death metal albums apart from each other, namely there are no advanced technical wizardry moments, the compositions are rather generic and the dynamics and diversity are set on autopilot. As with many of these bands, if the album had simply been peppered with some more creative moments it would have made the album a lot more interesting. As it stands, it’s definitely a competent album that just misses the mark.