Hey there tech fiends, it's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual reminder that if you're looking for more sick music, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
When I was growing up, the unholy gospel of Demilich was just finding it's newfound importance as it spread through the internet, gaining the group the revered status they now have, albeit long past the actual launch of their brilliant effort Nespithe many years prior. That seems to be how things go, it takes time for the scene and upcoming acts to hone in on oddball groups with a decidedly odd take on technical focused death metal. While it may have been Chthe'ilist who sparked the new wave of Demilich inspired acts, I'm psyched to be covering the new Exlimitir – It Weighed Itself In Silver. Because this release is possibly the only group within this new wave doing anything fresh in this vein.
The crushing nightmare realms It Weighed Itself In Silver builds up are impressive in and of themselves, but it's their desire to craft material with a modern skronk and oddball technical edge that forces this outside the realms of new OSDM inspired by Demilich. More specifically, it's the many moments on each song here that clearly fall more in line with modern dissonant tech-death that impress me. The prominent bass guitar focus in the mix offers a uniquely textured and more multi-faceted approach than most of their peers who aren't opting for this approach to murky death. At their most forward-thinking, Exlimitir call to mind the underground German giants in Pavor in their bold uniting of past and present death metal frameworks, along with an early Behold The Arctopus style instrumental adeptness that few bands currently seeking inspiration from Demilich are delivering material at this level of complexity. The end result really does satisfy both old-school heads and modern wave technical death metal fans at the same time, a rare feat that I can really only mention a handful of groups such as the not talked about enough Norway-based modern geniuses Diskord or the recent Replicant for having achieved.
If what's new is re-hashed, and what's old feels further re-hashed, maybe you'll find the new Exlimitir as exciting and wonderfully bizarre as I do. It's certainly an interesting take on Demilich inspired murky madness if nothing else, yet even that feels like a disservice to everything this release offers musically outside of that core influence. I'd strongly suggest picking this one up and jamming it in a cold dark room alone surrounded only by alcohol and maybe a bit of peyote if you can acquire it.
