Begrime Exemious - Impending Funeral Of Man

Begrime Exemious is a ghastly Canadian horde that has only been around since 2005 but has released a demo, the excellent Set Ablaze The Kingdom Of Abraham EP and now their full-length debut, Impending Funeral Of Man. The former now merely a battle cry for the full on assault of the more diverse and fully realized full-length effort. Begrime Exemious seems poised to make a major impression with this release as it continues both the success of Canadian extreme metal bands and the upstart Dark Descent Records - the label having released the excellent Rituals of the Grotesque demo by Burial Invocation earlier this year.

Begrime Exemious combines the best aspects of Demilich, Grand Belial's Key and even a little Argholsent to form their bulking brand of metal. The reason I think those bands are particularly apt as comparisons is because not only do they fit in terms of style and genre, but like those bands, Begrime Exemious is a unique, riff-first type of band. I am not sure about you, but when I think metal, my first thought is always the riffs - a surprisingly significant flaw of a lot of bands these days. But Begrime Exemious has riffs in abundance and a style that carefully balances subtle melody with hefty brutality and really sets them apart from a lot of other metal practitioners.

The primary attack of the band is the way they seamlessly shift from charging, often times bouncy rhythms (think Argholsent and Grand Belial's Key) to a heavier, sometimes jerky delivery (think Demilich). The other thing that really separates the band from their death metal peers is how they effectively incorporate other key metal elements with this attack. The band has a skillful way of allowing the bluesy, bounce of "Ancient Crypts Asunder" to slam straightaway into its doom-y follow-up passage or have the eerie, arpeggiated atmosphere of "Sanctum Sanctorum" serve as the backdrop to its charging rhythms. Also, like a lot of the Canadian extreme metal bands, Begrime Exemious is a little chaotic in their delivery. This chaos and a highly varied drum performance makes the material here incredibly urgent with regards to how the songs twist and dip as the band strings together all of their riffs. Throw in some severely catchy riffs (see "Filthy Sodomite Of Christ" and highlight "Psalmody Of Sacrificial Blaze") and the whole album will quickly bury its rusty barbed and tetanus-infected hooks into your cerebrum.

The most significant flaw on the album is the production. It carries enough weight to make the material here hit sufficiently hard, but it also gets really mushy in spots where the rigidity of what the band is playing is lost. My biggest gripe has to do with the production on the drums, which is really a damn shame because the performance is excellent, but the toms sound like shit and almost disappear in places while the snare has that "metallic" sound that may turn some of you off. The production overall is by no means horrible or even terribly bothersome, and I hope the actual CD sounds better than the MP3s I currently have, but I think the production is not as crisp and as ballsy as it should have been and robs the material enough to mention it here.

Impending Funeral Of Man is exactly how I want a metal album to be and is precisely what I needed over the last few weeks. I had some time to reflect on things over that time, and when I really look back at all the albums I have reviewed, it amazed me how so many bands are so eager to send over new band photos, paragraphs of promotional hyperbole, logo-filled stickers, patches and other merchandise, which I realize is all necessary to promote an album properly, yet too many of those bands fail at what really sells an album: the riffs. Well, there are no gimmicks, distractions or useless info here. Impending Funeral Of Man takes six strings, a pick and cloaks the results in grimy death.

April 28, 2010

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