Death Redemption

This is without a doubt one of the best black metal albums of the last decade; that much is essentially inarguable. It's rare to find a band that pulls off a synthesis of modern and oldschool styles well, and rarer still to find one like Excessum that succeeds to a degree essentially unheard of in the metal scene. 'Death Redemption', the band's first and last full-length album, absurdly overshadows the vast majority of post-'94 black metal by doing the seemingly impossible: being balanced yet having an identity of its own. This quality is something that seems to have gone completely forgotten in the majority of metal, so it's an incredible relief to see that it's not wholly dead yet.

Excessum frequently gets compared to Dissection, which, while I understand, is not the best articulation of the band's sound possible. Dissection even at their best never sounded as melodically coherent and straightforward as Excessum does, and the lack of melodeath leanings and thoroughly modern sense of delivery helps distance them even further from their fellow Swedes. Excessum's style of black metal is fairly melodic but devoid of keyboards, and often brings to mind some of the more ultra-minimal, riff-based bands of modern black metal such as Absolutus, where nearly all changes in mood and texture are due to shifting, binary riffs. Now, Excessum isn't quite that obsessively bleak; a strong drum performance with an almost rock or metalcore-like sense of rhythmic breaks is used to establish variation in the music even when the riffs are exactly the same. The song structures are fairly simple and based off a handful of riffs; a riff is played, and either the drums or the riff change(s), repeating as necessary and occasionally returning to previous riffs to provide a somewhat verse-chorus style of songwriting.

What makes 'Death Redemption' so masterful is the band's fantastic riffcraft and flawless sense of pacing. This album genuinely has some of the most memorable riffs of the last ten years in black metal; 'The Mournful Held Within' is without a doubt one of my favorite black metal tracks of all time for its riffs, and the others are only slightly weaker than it. There's a sense of patience and restriction to the riffcraft, but it doesn't feel artificial so much as a band working within the boundaries they understand. The riffs tend to be constrained within the same general chords, keys, and scales, but the arrangement and re-arrangement of the simple ideas is done in such a memorable and effective way that you never feel like something is being missed by it. Of course, an album of great riffs isn't anything but a collection of guitar demos if there's no sense of pacing and articulation to it. Fortunately, Excessum has that in spades, and surprisingly enough, it's owed mostly to the drums. The aforementioned usage of rock and metalcore-style rhythmic breaks is immensely effective at increasing the longevity of individual riffs and providing musicality of its own. The drumming is very natural, organic, and about as good as you can get in a relatively minimal style of black metal.

The tracks on 'Death Redemption' are roughly broken into two halves: more melodic, mournful tracks and rawer, more dissonant ones bringing early Darkthrone to mind to some degree. The former tend to be a bit stronger, more because Excessum is just so damn good at writing dark, melodic riffs than because the dissonant tracks are weak. Few bands are able to play two styles of black metal that are so far removed from each other but make the overall delivery of the album coherent and excellent throughout, but Excessum manages to without trouble. The raw but rich production adds to the overall presentation; harsh and raw midrange screams balance out the bassy drum production and broad, strong guitar tone; it sounds professional without being sterile and maintains an underground rawness which keeps anything on this album from sounding like a Dimmu Borgir release. All the elements of this album work in perfect unity to deliver a fantastic musical experience.

'Death Redemption' flew mostly under the radar on its release, which is very unfortunate, as just about any fan of melodic black metal would most certainly fall in love with it on first listen. It's accessible without being cloying or dishonest and professional without sacrificing songwriting, and in the end comes across as a perfectly balanced and eminently memorable album is a genre that seems to do nothing but grow more stale with each passing year. Highly recommended.

After a ritualistic intro building up high expectations of pure darkness and despair I’m eagerly awaiting to hear what this band has to offer. And as the intro fades I’m greeted by a hail to the early days of Dissection, which means cold, melodic death-inspired black metal. And while I’ve heard on numerous accounts that Excessum are just pedalling water I can tell you that I, for one, think this album’s superb!

This is utterly bleak and dark black metal, not a cheerful note on here. And while there are so many bands out there that are trying to do the Watain, Dissection thing there are not many that succeed at it, and even less that nails it. Though lacking in sound quality this album’s a great approach to the 90ies melodic black metal. The grim, monotonous chants supplement the satanic lyrics perfectly, and combined with the fast-paced drumming and slick riffs it lays to waste the listeners mind. It might’ve been done before but I sure like it. But for the next time I’d advice the guys to go for a bigger studio budget if possible, ‘cause I think that’d enhance the negative emotions of the music.

Originally written for www.mylastchapter.net