Despite Exile-Re-Evolve

Self-Release/Independent Release

2012

Despite Exile's debut release, "Scarlet Reverie", was a EP that I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I apparently reviewed it twice! (see link below) These things happen when you get promo after promo showing up in your inbox. Not that I'm complaining because "Scarlet Reverie" was a great introduction to this Italian band. With the new EP, "Re-Evolve" the growth is obvious. This progressive deathcore band has matured and found a way to tighten up the lose ends. While it is only a 3 track EP, with a mere run time of 11 min and 47, there is more than enough here to properly gage the band's growth. The first track “Oscillate” (which had already been made public thanks to the fact that it was exclusively premiered at Got-Djent.com) finds Despite Exile as intense as ever. It is a brutal slab of technical death metal filled with thrashing leads and melodic moments. Here is a band that can equally balance both the melody of progressive/technical thrash and madness of brutal death metal. Next up is “Perfection Neutralized” which is, yet again, nothing short of insane in it's full-on intensity. You certainly get the feeling that Despite Exile are pumped up and full of serious rage. Obviously they smell blood in the water. Even the last track, “Mechanical”, is a brutal beast. Even as the song flirts with melodic moments things take a turn for the worse (by which I mean sick and nasty) and before you know that blood that Despite Exile smells in the water has them in a feeding frenzy. I love a song that exercises moments of restraint only to rip everything to shreds in the end. This really is one of the more exciting EPs I've heard in awhile. I always love to see how much a band has grown which each new release and for Despite Exile things have taken a turn for the better. Since their first EP they have only gotten stronger. "Re-Evolve" shows a band poised for bigger and better things.

http://metalmark.blogspot.com/search?q=Despite+Exile-Scarlet+Reverie+

Despite Exile-Scarlet Reverie

Self-Release
2011





I had the great hard rock band Vanadium on my mind when I sat down to listen to Despite Exile's 2011 EP over the weekend. Not that these two bands have anything in common other than being from Italy mind you. I was only thinking about how there have been quite a few excellent bands to come out of Italy. Do Despite Exile fall into the excellent category? Well, a few facts first before we get into that. The band was formed back in 2010 and unlike Vanadium (who every fan of early eighties metal should check out by the way) play a heavy (as in brutal baseball bat to the head heavy) form of deathcore with a small dose of metalcore thrown in as a last thought. I can only guess at to the band's exact influences. Maybe some early Death, Morbid Angel, Venom, Obituary and Deicide on the death metal side of things and stuff like the Cro-Mags, The Accused, Cryptic Slaughter, Terror, early Suicidal Tendencies and early C.O.C. on the hardcore side. Throw in a salt shakes worth of American metalcore and your there. Its almost like 60% death, 30% hardcore and 10% metalcore. Now seeing as these guys are only a year or so removed from their formation when this EP hit the scene I'd say the results are quite excellent. The band manages to be both technical in nature and drenched in brutality at the same time. With this being only a six song affair the beat down is over with though before the fun even begins. As it is an EP it clocks in at under 30 minutes so I'd like to see what happens when the band has a full-length to work with. Deathcore fans should like this one quite a bit.