EXIVIOUS

If ever there was an album that could boast the culmination of metal and true jazz, this would be it. Could this be the first bonafide metal FUSION album? Certainly that is a controversial statement, but I stand firmly beside it. Where luminaries such as Cynic flirted with and indeed utilized elements of jazz, vis a vis playful and jazzy interludes, drumming, bass playing, and even jazzy guitar licks galore; now members of the newly reunited Cynic (Tymon- guitars, Robin Zielhorst- bass; members of Cynic) have taken Tymon's much lauded one-time Cynic-"clone band" (who can boast that? few indeed have tried- let alone succeeded) and have given it years of development and fleshing out. With this their debut, they have taken all of the previous metal trappings and refined them into a well-oiled, complex, and stunning heavy fusion band; not unlike Cynic crossed with Allan Holdsworth. I hear each member playing their integral parts (independently) in each song; and yet they come together cohesively to mesh into an unstoppable and energizing concoction of marvelous proportions. I will not go into details song by song, as I am sure others will tackle that conquest... Suffice it to say that while the band has their own unique sound, they do not necessarily make the unbearable mistake of essentially writing the same song over and over again; there is character in the songwriting- from song to song, there are dynamics galore, whether it be a well-placed tempo change here, a bass solo there (with such feeling- what a lot of prime metal lacks!), or a general feel of free-flowing (often times improvised) and lyrically eloquent lines that spiral around each other in a novel direction... songs clearly have purpose and individual voices. This is not one to be missed; for metal fans OR fusion fans- I say both crowds will be equally pleased. This disc has everything a person could want in virtuosic music... chops, chops, and more chops and yet it is tempered by emotional interjections and verses. If it weren't for the fact that Cynic has released their reunion album "Traced In Air", there would be no comparison in terms of exceptional metal release of the last year (or even recent memory). There are obvious likenesses on display here, given that the bands share members, yet they retain their own qualities... Cynic having the vocals added, whereas one could view Exivious as an instrumental likeness to Traced In Air, but I would like to dig deeper and say this one goes the extra mile; where some may complain of vocals, they may find everything to enjoy here with Exivious(yet I love the vocals on Traced In Air)... space freed up by lack of a vocalist only allows unused space for more layering to be built up by the four musicians on display here. They layer, they inspire, they blew my mind, and leave me wanting more. Let's hope these guys don't fade away into obscurity like so many great technical metal bands of their ilk (though Exivious is obviously on another level alltogether in comparison to the majority of so- called "tech-metal" of today). I am not sure if I have done this album justice with this obvious fanboy- of-a-review, but I will close by saying; give this one a try, very few albums of this calliber come along that often!