Going on ten years in the game, France’s Exocrine are heralding their fifth album laden with extreme progressive death metal daggers, The Hybrid Suns. Adhering to the title, there is a subtle cross-germination of genres occurring throughout this flashy display of technical brutality.
The four-piece waste no time flaunting their instrumental skills in the opening title track, as a hyper double-bass roll accompanies fluttering guitar arpeggios and ascending synths. Vocals join the action once the verse is carried out via gravity blasts and frantic guitars. Bassist/vocalist Jordy Besse certainly holds his own with the band’s guitarists as the bass player, but his vocal tone and patterns could be more varied. His whispery growl is synonymous with the sub-genre and becomes overshadowed by the band’s flamboyant instrumentation.
“Dying Light” follows with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it drum intro by Théo Gendron that flows into the dramatic, guitar-tapping chorus riff. Partnering with Besse on vocals for the choruses is guest Clémentine Brown—her clean, synth-wave-style voice throbs—as the guitar-tapping riff ramps up its intensity level. Toward the end of the track, she gets the spotlight and solos over a colorful variation of the chorus. This is undoubtedly the full-length’s single.
“Vortex of Shadow” offers disorienting wiry riffs and elongated gravity blasts a la Cryptopsy, along with an elevator muzak section coated with guitar-tapping. You’ll find the grooviest track on the record in “Burning Sand,” and you’ll unfortunately also hear the album’s only blemish when the guitar-tapping becomes a little shaky toward the end. The nine-track chaotic flurry concludes with “Shrine”, which features a drop-tuned, glitchy, Meshuggah-style guitar lead.
The Hybrid Suns can absolutely hang its hat on its innovative guitar work by Sylvain Octor-Perez and Nicolas La Rosa, especially the leads. The album’s production could’ve benefited from sounding a bit less digital, though, overzealously bordering on clipping at some points. It was recorded at Triceraprod Studio and mastered at Roadster Lab. With all that being said, this release will satisfy fans of the band and its contemporaries like Archspire and Obscura. It drops on June 17 via Unique Leader Records.
Buy the album here.
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