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Excruciate > Passage of Life > Reviews
Excruciate - Passage of Life

Not your average Swedish death metal album - 95%

UncleMeat, June 20th, 2009

I am a big fan of the late 80’s/early 90’s Swedish death metal scene, as well as just the old school Swedish “sound” in general. There has been a countless amount of classic recordings from that era, some have been somewhat buried in obscurity while others have stood the test of time. But while some were sticking to the signature Swedish sound, others were venturing off in their own world and doing something entirely different. Excruciate were one of these bands, and ‘Passage of Life’ is the perfect representation of this.

Although ‘Passage of Life’ was indeed recorded at the legendary Sunlight Studios, the production isn’t quite in the same vein as bands such as Entombed/Nihilist, Gorement, Carnage, etc., or just pretty much every band that recorded there in general. However, that is not to say the sound on here isn’t as heavy as classics such as ‘Into the Grave’, ‘The Winterlong’, or ‘Where No Life Dwells’; it’s just different. The vocals are up front, right where they should be, with the bass following not too far behind. It has a cool, not overly distorted low-end buzz sound, as well as a clean tone for certain sections. The guitars are double-tracked, one in each channel, and have a sharp yet thick, meaty sound that obviously took some work to attain. The drums are well mixed, with no one-thing dominating everything else, and considering how good this guy is, you really want to hear every little hit, fill, and kick he is doing.

Unlike many of their Swedish brethren who were generally writing pretty simple arrangements, Excruciate’s arrangements were much more intricate and all together just more advanced, but without ever getting too technical or falling into the trap of just sounding all over the place with no direction. They incorporate lots and lots of tempo changes that range from hyper-fast blasting to crawling doom sections, with also lots of mid-tempos, thrash gallops, non-wigger chugs, and everything in between. Like I said, they manage to do all this without ever sounding too all over the place or losing focus, as they really know how to weave each one of these with another in a coherent fashion rather then just haphazardly throwing random riffs together. They also use some build up effects, which is always a plus. One they seem to be particularly fond of is after going into a sluggish death/doom section, which usually consists of slowly individually picked notes, they then take the same riff but this time use tremolo picking. This is then accompanied by the drummer keeping the same tempo but adding double bass, and then eventually going back into a faster all-out death metal section.

I have no idea what the first reviewer meant when he said the vocalist, Lars Levin, had sort of a weak voice. It’s actually very strong, and is just as gut-wrenching as Ola Lindgren’s or Matti Kärki’s were back in the day. He has sort of a lower mid-range growl, which he spews forth in both a drawn-out fashion as well as a faster one, both of which are used accordingly where they fit. Where as a lot of Swedish bands were keeping their riffs in the lower, murkier department, Excruciate’s were more varied, and use just as much low-end chunkiness as they do higher, more chromatic notes for both leads as well as riffs on their own. The slower, doomier riffing uses a lot of singularly picked notes and hammer-ons, and sometimes do the Incantation and Autopsy-like lead where they repeat one riff twice, and then repeat it again but this time one guitar goes an octave higher, creating a counter-melody, which is always effective and adds dynamics to where some other bands may be lacking. This contrasts really well with the faster sections, where the riffing is more erratic and pummeling, using mixtures of chords, individually picked notes, palm mutes, etc. Both the guitars and the bass have powerful, meaty tones, making everything easy to hear, just as it should be.

The drummer, Per Ax, does a fantastic job holding everything together, which you can tell must not have been an easy task given the nature of the band’s songwriting, and therefore he deserves his own paragraph. He does a lot for the dynamics and variation the band was going for, employing a number of different techniques and patterns where deemed fit. Where the riffing calls for blasting, you had better believe he’s on top of it with perfect precision and efficient speed. And when the band slows down, maybe for a more mid-paced, chunky section, he’s right there with his impeccable double bass skills and effective use of crash cymbals. When the band wants to sludge along at a much slower tempo, he is filling the empty spaces with creative, thoughtful fills and some ride-bell action. This is some of the best drumming I’ve ever heard on a death metal recording from that country’s golden era, and I wholeheartedly mean that.

This a fantastic piece of Swedish death metal history and I recommend it to everyone into ancient death metal, even those generally not into the Dismember/Carnage/Unleashed etc sound, as this really is something entirely different. The album was just given a fantastic reissue by The Crypt on thick, heavyweight vinyl with excellent sound, as well as an extremely high quality jacket that is pretty much a direct reproduction of the original. And by extremely high quality, I mean there are absolutely NO signs of digital pixels or any of that shit that some labels seem to be okay with. Unfortunately, it was only limited to 300 copies (mine of which was #27), so it sold pretty fast. But if you want to hunt down an original pressing, then by all means do it, unless of course you’re not into the whole, you know, “paying for music” thing. Then at least give this a download.

Another Piece Of Swedish Brutality - 88%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, May 30th, 2008

After some demos and three years from the foundation, finally Excruciate are back but this time with a brand new, first album. Their style hasn’t changed a lot from the last demo but here we can find a lot of new Swedish influences that in the past were a bit hidden; maybe it was a production fault. Now the sounds are cleaner and the band reached the top in songwriting and violence.

The classic guitars sound and the classic Swedish growls are truly impressive for power and evilness; while the drumming is always precise and intense. Like in the previous demos, there are perfect alternations of doom, rotten tempo to hyper fast ones with blast beats. This is the main Excruciate’s characteristic. During the blast beats parts the guitars are more on grindcore patterns with lots of fast riffs while the doom parts are full of long notes, often played singularly to create a really hellish atmosphere.

There are some more weird and dissonant riffs in a song like in “Endless Suffocation” where the drumming is a bit more concentrated on the bass drum with lots of galloping parts and sudden mid tempo. Sometimes the lead guitars lines play an important role in the sound for their obscurity, as the use of some keyboards too at the beginning to the first track or also in “Inhuman Postnatal”, where the band is heavier than in the rest of the album with massive, rotten riffs and incredibly speed restarts.

We can find also some more galloping riffs, instead of the classic tremolo pickings, that are directly taken from thrash metal to fill the sound with a different kind of heaviness, impact and brutality. The lead guitars are again very important in a song like “Eternal Incubation”. They are not stuck at the beginning but the fill the entire songs during the more mid paced parts or the one with thrashy riffage to maintain the obscure atmosphere also when the band plays more classical without the blast beats or the suffocating mid tempo.

All in all, an excellent debut. We already saw their skills in the previous demos, but finally with the first album, this band reached the top in songwriting (there are lots of tempo changes in these massive death songs), in production and abilities. Obviously, this album is recommended to the old school death metal fans in general and to all those who love early Swedish brutality.

choice shit! - 93%

HemlockxSociety, July 4th, 2005

Excruciate is one of those awesome oldschool swedish bands that never got the full recognition they deserved. Lots of good riffs can be found throughout this album. They go all over the place, with constant tempo changes, keeping you on your toes, not knowing where they'll go next. The vocals are a little weak, however I'd gladly take them over anything with pitch shifters and other shit bands do these days to make their vocals sound like they're gurgling out of their anus. They just sound like they're a little forced or something, I can't really describe it, maybe its just me. They don't take away from the awesome riffs at all though, so I don't really have a problem with them.

Endless Suffocation is probably my favorite track on this album. It just bends your spine and twists it into a pretzel and leaves you in agony. There isn't really a weak song on this, its just this particular track stands out to me. There are alot of hammer on/pull off riffs to be found here, but fortunately they don't over do it, and actually most of them are pretty good. The drummer uses near constant double bass, and breifly stops doing so here and there, but again that doesn't really bug me either, like it does with many other bands. There are blast beats on here, but I wouldn't call it blasturbation. Infact there are alot of slower and mid paced riffs here right alongside the faster ones, keeping you from getting bored. Fans of Swedish Death should check this out, however rest assured; this is no Entombed clone, its much better \m/