EXIVIOUS — Exivious (review)

EXIVIOUS — Exivious album cover Album · 2009 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Phonebook Eater
Exivious is a “Fusion Metal” instrumental band formed by members of both legendary death metal band Cynic and prog metal band Textures. It seems that they are currently on hiatus, and so far the only album they put together is this self titled debut. I saw all the infinite praises they gave to this album, but I have to admit that I’m disappointed by it.

One thing no one can deny, by listening to this album, how excellently prepared these musicians are; especially the rhythm section, with jazz influenced drummer Stef Broks, the virtuos bass player Robin Zeilhorst, with his amazing fretless bass that enriches the music, a style that is obviously inspired by legend Jaco Pastorius. The guitars are also phenomenal, thanks to Cynic guitarist Tymon Kruidenier, with also Michel Nienhuis from Sengaia; thanks to them the riffs are extremely complex and technical, and when they play the slower parts they have a much jazzier touch.

Since this features members that all come from prog metal bands, the main style of the album is of course this genre, but what makes it really original is the surprisingly massive fusion and math metal influences. The rhythms are very fast and esoteric, the melodies very challenging to listen to, because of the guitars, and even the bass at times. The production is clean, the mixing is perfect, so what is wrong with this debut? First of all, I noticed that this album has a weak structure: It sounds a lot like a cluster of songs that frankly have all a similar structure, and they kind of sound all the same, so I’m not really understanding the philosophy of this organization. The only thing that makes the album a little more solid is the presence of the two parts of “All That Surrounds”, and both parts are very similar even melodically. Also, some songs turn me off, just for the fact that they aren’t at all memorable or hardly have any emotion or attitude, and so I forgot about them pretty quickly. It sound just like a few musicians just jamming for 44 minutes, with most definitely some very good ideas that come along. I don’t deny that many parts are mind blowing, like the entire opener “Ripple Of A Tear”, or even the next track, “Time And It’s Changes”, but other songs just aren’t as good, said in a much more simple way. Another one of my favorites is the closing piece “An Elusive Need”, with just great musicianship, especially from the guitars.

An album that I partially enjoyed, but didn’t light my day in a particular way. “Exivious” is most definitely an ambitious project, but they really should try to put a little more feeling to the songs (please keep in mind that I’m a huge prog metal fan, and that I don’t mind technical virtuosity at all, if used correctly). If you’re a big fan of this genre, you should check this out, but don’t expect too much from it.
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