EXIVIOUS

Growler

The only output currently available from Dutch band Exivious is this two track sampler from 2001, which can be downloaded from their website.

With a line up consisting of guitars, drums and vocals, the opportunities for variation are limited, but the band do show instrumental proficiency. The music is progressive metal, straying very much towards the death metal of OPETH and ANATHEMA. The vocals are of the growling variety, which I have to say do not appear to these ears at all. It's a pity, since behind those vocals, the music is enjoyable if unremarkable.

It is difficult to see what the band hoped to achieve with these two brief tracks. They are hardly original, and lack the dynamics required to make an initial impression.

Band leader Tymon Kruidenier has indicated recently that these songs are no longer representative of Exivious, and has posted samples of more recent songs he has been working on with a revised line up.

As mentioned above, these songs are available for free download, unless you are a lover of all things metallic and death metal related, they can safely be passed by.

Hugely overlooked, even by die-hard fans of the prog-metal genre, Exivious is a tech metal band that obviously are influenced by Cynic (one of the legendary tech prog-metal bands of the early 90's) with same sound and heavy use of computerised vocals in addition to the music. So far, this Dutch progressive metal band have only released this short EP, which is fairly good but not really enough to showcase the bands real song writing talents but still manage to serve the listener two fine songs that both are very enjoyable. As said, these guys have learned a lot from Cynic both in overall style and performance, only that this one is heavier but still progressive and interesting. But as Easy Livin said before me, the music isn't very original except for the complex song structures, and overall it should have been more dynamic. Metal fans that are into this style of prog-metal should dig this though!

The musicianship is very good and tight, and the production is fairly good as well. The computerised vocals might not appeal to everyone (though there are growls here too, so don't worry too much) but I think it adds a nice effect on the music, even if it might appear weird or even cheesy. If you are interested, but can't find it anywhere, don't worry. This EP is available for legal download from their website. Cynic fans should like this, as well as fans of harder prog-metal with a technical twist. Good stuff!

"Demo 2001" is the debut demo by Dutch technical/ progressive metal act Exivious. At the time this demo was released Exivious were totally unknown but that has certainly changed with frontman and guitarist Tymon Kruidenier´s temporary membership of legendary US technical/ progressive metal act Cynic. At the time of the release of this two-track demo CD Exivious was a three-piece act with Tymon Kruidenier on guitars and aggressive/ raspy vocals, Jan Henningheim on guitars and vocoder vocals and Iwan Hendrikx on drums. The lineup that recorded and released Exivious self-titled debut full-length studio album in 2009 includes yet another temporary member of Cynic in bassist Robin Zielhorst and Textures drummer Stef Broks.

To say that the two songs on this demo CD reminds me a bit about Cynic would be an understatement on the grand scale. This IS Cynic. Well not completely but the similarities are so many that I will go as far as to call the music on this demo a tribute to Cynic. The two songs are actually pretty good and the production is also pretty strong for a demo but it´s hard to come around the fact that Exivious were a total Cynic clone at this point in their career. The aggressive vocals sound one to one like Tony Teegarden, the vocoder vocals sound similar to Paul Masvidal´s vocoder vocals, the death thrashy riffing, the new age jazzy sections and even the guitar solos have similar sounds and choices of notes as the ones Cynic play on "Focus (1993)".

All the clone talk aside the two songs on this demo are actually rather impressive and fully showcase what a talented act Exivious were even this early on. They would soon ditch the vocals completely as heard on their 2002 demo which is fully instrumental and while I usually prefer music with vocals I think it was the only wise choice for Exivious. Had they continued down the path they started on "Demo 2001", they would never have escaped Cynic´s shadow. A 2.5 - 3 star rating is deserved for this demo. If you can´t live with the almost scary similarity to Cynic you´ll probably rate it lower.