Blind

I really liked Exhale’s demo, but as I was a new reviewer I might’ve been a little too excited when judging it (and since I was new in the game I wrote a pretty much worthless review of it as well). The demo definitely stands the test of time, but it might not have been the masterpiece I first thought it was. With the release of the band’s debut album they took a somewhat different approach, and for Blind (the second album) they’ve honed their style into a monstrously heavy machine.

The guitar sound is utterly crunchy and raw, yet comes off clean as the production is pretty crisp, and it’s that combination of rough and clean that makes it a pristine sound for this kind of modern grindcore. There’s no doubt this is Scandinavian styled blasting. The opener Edge gets things off in a Rotten Sound similar manner, whereas the following track World of hate has a chugging sense of rhythm I find very familiar to a couple of Nasum songs. And as the album moves on to Anger I can’t help but to think of Splitter for that kind of ultra-slick riffing we’re offered, as well as the quick melodic guitar leads during the slower bits. But Exhale does remind me slightly of some older Napalm Death on a few occasions, although I’d say the bulk of their sound is carried by more modern flairs stretching from a dash of hardcore (as Spy tillbaka has a Ulcerrhoea vibe to it) to Vader-esque death metal. The main vocal style is a kind of yelling scream that sounds just on the verge of breaking out of key, and with a true sense of desperation. I can’t help but to love it, and as it’s intertwined with a deeper growl the two sets of vocals works extremely well together. The vocal patterns are never of an obvious recipe.

But as Blind is an almost entirely blow-out of masterful grindcore, there are a couple of tracks I don’t get. One of them is the slower Sick addiction, with its almost rapcore-horrific vocal style during the metalcore-ish breakdowns. I mean, that’s just abysmally bad. But I guess a murderous song like Erased with its short outbursts of ultra-fast bass drum work makes up for one bad track. Just as Parasiter and Spy tillbaka are complete nut-crunchers of tunes, and it’s too bad there are only a couple of tracks of with Swedish lyrics. I find lyrics in a band’s native language to carry a more honest feeling, regardless of genre and country of origin, so I would wish for more of those. But oh well… Exhale’s second album is nonetheless a killer one, worthy of its place among Scandinavia’s finest grindcore makers.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net