Exdestrier – Glorious Barbarism Review

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My dear child of the night knows that I made a rule that intros deceive. It’s no secret to all metallers that bands use intros to satisfy their egos or to give the fan some strangement or all of this. But what if is the opening track that deceives the fan? Would it make my theory flunk? Would it make me change my my mind? No to both. I’m writing all this because album opener “Widowmaker” showcases a very different vibe from all the tracks of “Glorious Barbarism.” First, because it’s instrumental. Of course, this isn’t a real problem. It’s just that when the album opener is an instrumental song the impression the fan gets – I do too – is that all the album is going to be of instrumental songs. Does it really? Besides all that the mood is totally dissimilar. The fan who listens to “Widowmaker” might think “Glorious Barbarism” is a Heavy Rock or Stoner Metal album. No, it isn’t. By second track “To Glorious Oblivion” my dear fan will notice that what we’ve got here is a Doom Metal band. However, to say this right now maybe be simply jumping to conclusions. “Glorious Barbarism” is really an album that my dear child of the night must listen to it all to get the essence of the band. On second thought, my theory is that Exdestrier willingly organized “Widowmaker” as album opener just to give the fan this idea. Clever. Very clever. It’s because all this that I make sure to listen to each album I rfeceive two or more times just to be sure about the real essence of the band.

Ok, by doing this, my dear child of the night will get to know that “Glorious Barbarism” is a varied album with lots of changes of heart and cadences and tempos. When second track “To Glorious Oblivion” comes  with vocals everything changes here. The alum acquires a very different reality and this reviewer had to change all the thoughts about the album. “Mine Enemy the Sun,” for instance, is an uptempo track that borders Extreme Metal faster tracks. But it’s not all this. The track has many changes of heart including some Jazz inspired instrumentals. Grand finale “The Place of Grim Reckoning” also brings surprises to the listener. It’s the track where Exdestrier showcase everything that they’ve got in terms of instrumental dexterity. The track isn’t only intricate, the band here tries some new harmonic and melodic solutions making it almost an experimental track. By far the very best track of the album. It’s the track where some melody is also introduced giving it some different aura and taking it near the 1970s monsters.

A great album to my dear fan have a notion of what bands are doing these days. It’s one proof that Metal music is by far more interesting than any other due to the quality of its musicians.

Exdestrier “Glorious Barbarism” will be released on April 07th.

Track Listing:

  1. Widowmaker
  2. To Glorious Oblivion
  3. The King – the Void
  4. Mine Enemy the Sun
  5. The Place of Grim Reckoning

Watch “To Glorious Oblivion” official lyric video here:

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