Exivious

This is what Cynic's second album could look like, if Paul Masvidal's band hadn't ended up right after "Focus", and if they had reactivated and had not started developing the formula in a clearly different direction from that of 1993. Also, I hope that this illustrates the ingenuity of Dutch Exivious enough - the more insightful should know that Tymon Kruidenier (guitarist) and Robin Zielhorst (bassist) joined the lineup of reunion Cynic. If not, then in the description below I will try to bring the topic closer and encourage you to check what they released as Exivious. After all, composing and recording a meaningful continuation of "Focus" is not common of this style.

Contrary to the demos, Exivious definitely decided to drop out the vocals on their debut. The Dutch relied on classic rock instruments and based everything on them - which in the absence of singing in jazz-metal style is associated with even more difficulties in perception. Fortunately, the Exivious quartet managed to record equally interesting and memorable material with this approach - each track containing a separate, unique idea. Obviously, it does not mean that the Exivious's self-titled album is one of the easiest to digest, on the contrary!, although fans of early Cynic or newer releases from Tool or Dream Theater (which "Exivious" easily beats), I think they will find a lot for themselves in these sounds.

I have already mentioned that the Dutch reached the "Focus" level on "Exivious". Now it's time for the greatest lure of the record - the atmosphere. This one is, of course, sleepy, calm and gradually increasing, but at the same time...extremely free (e.g. in "An Elusive Need"), pleasant (even in two parts of "All That Surrounds", which are closer to the ambient) and - most of all - not over-progressive. The Dutch from Exivious have perfectly balanced the proportions between jazz, melodies, technique (with bass like Malone!) and classic metal sound. In the absence of vocals, it was all the greater an achievement to create such an interesting album from start to finish. However, I can assure you that the Dutch came out of the task unscathed. I also suppose that Paul Masvidal heard it himself, because "Embrace The Unknown" featured a solo...performed by him!

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/08/exivious-exivious-2009.html

The concept of jazz mixed with metal is no longer a new one thanks to the explosion of the (in)famous sub-genre known as technical death metal. However as quite a lot of reviewers seem to have already pointed out, this is one such album where the jazz/fusion influences are strong enough to almost overpower the metal segments completely at times. The calm soothing sounds of "All That Surrounds [Pt. 1 & 2]" and "Time And Its Changes" should be enough of an indication of that fact. Furthermore, this is not a heavy album at all. Sure they are riffs, but the main point of the music here is a wondrous display of every single musician of the band presenting their ideas, each of them perfectly flowing into one another in a gorgeous display of musical mastery over not just their instruments, but even the songwriting aspect of the music as well. All of you looking for wanky displays of instrumentation will be quite disappointed. Also one never feels the absence of vocals for even a second as the instruments clearly do all the talking here. Just like the technical death trifecta of Atheist, Death and Cynic, the bass is used as an extension of the rhythm guitar itself constantly dazzling you with weaving bass-line and spidery licks through and through.

I stumbled upon their music by looking through the profile of drummer extraordinaire Steve Broks of Textures fame. As far as the other band members are concerned, each and every one of them contributes their absolute 110% equally, with no exceptions whatsoever. The music will hits a few high ended peaks finally settling on a valley of bass and guitar interplay only to fall into a river/waterfall of soothing and laid-back jazzy licks and grooves. The guitars are simply godlike and sublime in every sense of the word, with even the rhythm guitar in the background providing some amazing riffs and echoing chords further enhancing the trance-like vibe and overall atmosphere of the album in general. The lead guitar playing is for course completely influenced by the Allan Holdsworth school of blistering legatos and tapping, though not as maniacal and technical as the man himself, with a larger dose of melody. The end solo in "Waves Of Thought" is fucking epic. Regardless of any particular song, there's always something exciting and fresh constantly happening in this album, be it with the bass, guitars or drums, which is why it's almost impossible for me to really pick standouts.

At the end of the day, this is hands down one of the best instrumental albums I have heard, metal or otherwise. My preference for most other instrumental album mostly depends on my mood, but this is one album that I can put on at any given time and never be bored of it. Exciting, challenging and varied influences put to superb use making for a cascading wave of musical perfection all the way.

As the genre of metal has virtually reached its creative peak, attempts have been made to crossover this relatively extreme sound in music with many other genres, most notably being classical music, and jazz. As one could guess, many of these attempts to transform the sound of heavy metal into something else fall through and only come out half-baked, perhaps showing potential, but often fail to do anything that has not already been done before. Exivious' full-length debut comes at a stage where jazz-metal fusion has already been up and running for almost twenty years, and some could argue that it was perfected shortly afterwards. Regardless, there are few acts I have heard that incorporate the two styles as fairly together as does Exivious, and along with a better performance than I could have hoped for in an album like this, 'Exivious' is one of the best instrumental metal albums I have ever heard.

When describing the sound and music of this band, it is very useful to point out that the guitarist and lead man of this project Tymon Kruidenier is a member of the legendary progressive death metal act Cynic, helping to make one of my favourite albums 'Traced In Air' as incredible as it was. For anyone who has heard that album, the same style of melodic, yet highly technical riffs translates well onto an even jazzier template. The music here is completely instrumental, and for the style that Exivious are playing, that is a good thing; having vocals to work into this music would have been a confusing and distracting move. Instead of the progressive death metal that Cynic played, think of something quite a bit more mellow, yet retaining every bit of technicality. As opposed to a metal album with hints of jazz as I was expecting, Exivious finds themselves dead in-between the two genres. The music is constantly shifting gears and dynamics, light on recurring ideas but heavy on complexity and dynamic flow. Think of Pat Metheny at his most complex, amp up the heaviness, and you begin to get an idea of what Exivious is about.

One thing that could be complained about here is the apparent lack of melody in the music, and while there is certainly nothing here that a listener will find themselves humming along to, there is more than enough here that keeps a listener engaged and interested in what the band is doing. Although there is a definite focus on keeping things technically impressive, Exivious plays their material with a surprising amount of feeling, thanks in no small part to the sort of freedom that the jazz style gives its musicians. On top of the main course, there are respites from the technical jazz metal, sometimes taking the form of mellow sections within songs, but most notably being the pair of interlude tracks called 'All That Surrounds', which each form a masterful ambiance using laid-back tapping easily reminiscent of Animals As Leaders. These comprise the most accessible slice of what Exivious is about, and the rest of the album takes quite a bit more time to really become involved with. At first, 'Exivious' is an album that while a technical marvel, seems to meander around and scarcely leave the starting grid. My first impression with the music was certainly wrong though, and while the music of this band may only appeal to those who are able to appreciate both metal and jazz, it stands as being one of the most enduring masterpieces of the metal fusion genre, and I can only hope that they do not stop with their debut.

Sean and Paul from Cynic know what they’re doing. They found Robin and Tymon, two of the guys in Exivious on the basis of two demos and added them to the band that would go on to create “Traced in Air”. Since that album came out, Exivious has reunited and released this, their first full-length album.

All I have to say is that this album is unbelievably constructed. There isn’t a band around that is able to take jazz fusion and meld it with heavy metal the way that Cynic does. Until now. This album is as true of a blend of jazz fusion and heavy metal as I have heard since “Focus” by the aforementioned Cynic. This is actually, I think, a better blend of jazz and metal than even “Traced in Air”. These guys make it clear that they listen to as much Al DiMeola and Mahavishnu Orchestra as they do Death and Dream Theater.

The musicianship in this album is mind-boggling. Yet, the songs don’t feel like complete wank-fests the way that, say, Spiral Architect feels. Every note that is played has a purpose. The guitarists are absolute beasts, and know the fine art of subtlety. He knows when NOT to shred. The drummer is equally adept at playing a straight jazz swing feel as he is playing a heavy metal beat. The bassist is all over the place, in a great way.

Of course, the influences and overall theme of Exivious and Cynic are the same. However, Exivious’s ability puts them in their own class, for they are able to take something that has been done before—albeit only once—and make it all their own. They have added a much greater jazz influence than even Cynic did. All the songs are instrumentals, there is more jazz influence in the drumming and tone, and there is a bit of a tribal feel at times. All of this leads to being taken on a journey throughout this album that is at the same time heavy and relaxing, light and dark, heaven and hell, jazz and metal.

All in all, this album takes you on a meditative journey. This is the perfect album to sit back, close your eyes, and just take everything in. If I were to go to a heavy metal yoga class, this would be the soundtrack.

I had recently got into Cynic through a friend just in time for the release of Traced in Air, and then he posted me a link to a myspace page, with the comment “this has the guitarist from the new Cynic album in. Listen to it.”

I believe at first, I neglected this command; it was foolish of me to do so.

As soon as I DID get around to listening to this mysterious band by the name of Exivious, I was astounded by the musicianship, fantastic writing, and blending of styles presented by the lone song available for listening – “Waves of Thought”.

Well, the fact that this was my gateway to jazz, which I now own a substantial amount of, says a lot. Many bands do claim to be fusion/rock or fusion/metal. And I have listened to a lot of these bands, and along with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Exivious are the only band who stand true to this self-proclaimed explanation of their style.

The guitars here, in tone, riffs and solos, are both brutal and soft, when circumstances dictate. The jazz tones are fantastic, as are the distorted metal tones, and the transitions between sections and sounds are seamless. The riffs often encapsulate both aspects of the bands diverse and original sound simultaneously, and this creates some very interesting listening.

The rhythm section here is flawless; Stef Broks from Textures and Robin Zielhorst of Cynic play together perfectly. The drums avoid any kind of tired/predictable beat and the bass neglects to play any fixed figures, instead opting to play freeform lines complimenting the guitars nicely. This album is, in fact, bass heavy, with the instrument mixed very high up, as in Cynic’s seminal “Focus”, or Spiral Architect’s only album (to date) “A Sceptic’s Universe”.

This album is a must for fans of Cynic, Textures, etc. or anyone who likes jazz as well as their metal.

Fuck it. Just buy the album.

You know, there's alot of absolute crap polluting the library of bands put in the "math metal genre". You have The Dillinger Escape Plan sounding like Foo Fighters ripping off Atheist. There's PsyOpus making the worst of the genre, spitting out pure unadulterated garbage with their (un)technical "riffs" that have no composition skills applied to them whatsoever, and then there's Behold...The Archtopus, who'd be excellent if they focused on writing an actual song as opposed to randomly jamming and calling it a song.

Fortunately, those who were not impressed with the math-metal/mathcore genre, fear not, as there is hope. The Netherlands has an excellent export for those of you whose tastes are similar to mine; Exivious. While they aren't entirely within the math-metal genre, the traces of jazz-insipred melodies and drum fills is sure to make any fan of tech/prog metal excited (especially if you're a fan of Cynic, who two of Exivious's members play for).

So what does Exivious's self-titled debut full length have to offer? Excellent instrumental material, that's all. I would end it there, but due to Metal Archives's rules, I'll extend it and go into depth for you.

As you read above, this is an instrumental band, but don't let that falter your judgement. Exivious brings some very interesting and inspiring material to the table, and it never gets old. The guitar melodies are very akin to something you'd expect from such genres as jazz and progressive metal, and unlike alot of these types of bands, they never end up in some random formation of pointless arpeggios and right-handed hammer-ons. Take for example, the song "Time And Its Changes"; here you have an excellent display of this band's ability to combine a fair amount of jazz influence with actual phrasing and dynamics that throws the listener into a land that matches the themes and concepts the song is trying to portray. This results in an instant bond between music and listener that is created by the atmosphere and overall composition of the music.

The production was also pulled off fairly well. While you shouldn't expect something that sounds cleaner than a G-rated Disney animated film that revolves around sugar and spice and everything nice, it doesn't sound like an Anal Cunt record (ie; indecipherable guitar and rattling drums). It almost reminds me of Cynic's Focus album, in regards to the mixing of the instruments.

If you want some technical/progressive metal that actually has musical aesthetics to it and doesn't sound like a bunch of special-ed kids giving their instruments hand-jobs, you should pick this up. Even if you do want music that sounds like a bunch of special-ed kids giving their instruments hand-jobs, you should pick this up as well, because it just might appeal to you, too.

Since the first day that a friend of mine sent me a link to a website, where there was one song from the upcoming debut album of a band called Exivious, I immediately knew that something extraordinary is going to be released. That song simply hit the spot directly in my musical taste.

And I was right.

This album is limited to 1 000 copies and it was really difficult for me - here in my country - to get a copy, since it's not being distributed here. But it was damn worth every penny and the time.

The band itself calls their musical style "fusion metal" and I it couldn't be more true. Very often you hear (read) claims about this metal band or that metal band that it has jazz influences, but after getting to know this record in particular I finally fully realize how completely deluded those statements most often are. This is the first attempt of combining metal and jazz music I ever heard where there really are STRONG jazz influences. In fact I'd say that this album is about 50% metal and 50% jazz. You can clearly hear jazz methods in every instrument and in the compositions themselves. They flow very freely - kinda like a jazz improvisational jamming session (and the man behind this project - Tymon - states that the songs contain lots of improvisation) but on the other hand you have the typical metal instrumentation and orchestration and the songs have solid logical structures. Seriously, you can't get any more progressive than that. This is something new, something unique, it pushes the envelope of music scene general. Also each song has a progress of its own!

The music is strictly instrumental but there really is no need for any vocals here. This is a manifestation of pure essence of music and each instrument sings on its own.

I have to say that this record is a huge challenge for any listener. I am listening to this album for some time now and still each listen I hear something new. I still feel like I don't know the songs much even though I heard each one about 20 or 30 times. This album grows slowly on you but you can be sure that it hardly can ever loose its beauty.

I seriously recommend this to anyone who likes to challenge himself/herself with complicated music. If you like jazz and fusion music, then consider this an absolute MUST HAVE.