Thrash Sells... But Who's Buying?
The thing was simple: I bought the
newest issue of Metal Up! magazine, read an intie with enthusiastic
review, and purchased my own copy of the debut Exist's Ep. Well, this
is how it works, doesn't it? Modestly released in an independent way
as digipak it struck my tired eyes with terrifying sentence 'all
lyrics available on our Youtube channel' placed down under the band's
photography. I avow you, after reading the last word, I fell my chair
off. And I'm asking you right now: what the hell is that? Is this a
complete PHYSICAL release? You can call me a geezer and I might know
nothing about our modern metal times, but believe me, it's not the
proper way. You know, all or nothing. Damn, of course, the fact I
didn't get your own lyrics in the booklet doesn't mean I would throw
this into fireplace (well, it's fake, I have gas heating...). So, I
got up quickly and put cd into the deck without delay.
Anyway, thumbs up, as the band made my
blood run definitely faster before the first second of the music. But
fortunately, the whole musical content brings positive emotions only.
Supported by faultless sound realization being so far away from
nowadays Sneap template, those four rookies don't follow the way of
Fokus Group, DJ Rodrigo, DJ Jacek, Etna and the likes, and execute
thrash metal in the vein of the biggest dinosaurs from the States,
including Bay Area movement unaffectedly, with a pinch of madness of
„Beneath the Remains” / „Arise” authors. But their flirt with
such paradigms enforces high technical skills and precise ideas on
the members. Otherwise, it sucks. Luckily, both elements work fine
during the clocking time. They know how to handle their own
instruments (three of them know Szosa Chełmińska street by heart, I
guess), and there's nothing to complain about. The band concocted
four tracks, two of them with running time over seven minutes. The
opening title piece surprises from the very start with pretty long
but very interesting introduction-like. A couple of memorable guitar
leads, tempo changing, and seven minutes turn into three or four.
But, if the vocal lines are concerned and especially when the debut
is on the table, Kacper doesn't scream his lungs out. His middle
range fairly convinces me, however adding more harshness and venom to
the pharynx should him teleport to something better. I hope, it's the
only matter of time.
To get things absolutely straight, the
second song „Lawlessness” is a fantastic example how to
obliterate poor lambs during the gigs. Extremely good riff-driven, a
bit with Exodus lick, it mashes my tissues, giving a breather at 2:54
when short slow-down appears. It seems to be the fastest in the
family and the most neck-breaking, and if the first duo is with
thrash sigil exclusively, the next „On Your Own Accord” shows the
narrow entry to heavy metal dimension. Maybe not so obvious and not
the whole piece, but guitar passages starting at 4:12 and 5:27 take a
deep bow to the heavy legends from the eighties. And as opposed to
the rest, the closing one is fully heavy stuff, scandalously catchy
it makes my brain cells rolling all the time, just take a listen to
the fragment starting at 1:48 and admire Exist's fascination with
title track from the fourth Running Wild album. Man, with my vivid
imagination I can see Rock 'n' Rolf Kasparek chiming with them and
shouting „they fuckin' rule!”. But wait, it's not over, there's
also Steve Harris casting a smile at 5:40 and saying „Rolf, you're
fuckin' right”. All in all, adding such tunes determines this song
to be the softest, although I do hope Exist will be exploring thrash
dimension obstinately.
We live in crazy world and it's almost
impossible to keep a watchful eye on every day titles and even if
band's name wasn't completely unknown for me as I found their drummer
to be live Savior's musician, I didn't decide to listen to anything
on Youtube (you know, the place where the lyrics live...) and just
followed Tomek Woźniak opinions about „Get Your Own”. Without
any expectations back then, now I'm totally amped up listening to
this four-piece thrashing insanity. The next thing is the first case
on the beginning of the mentioned interview broaching speedway issues
in Toruń and Bydgoszcz. Well, I wouldn't be myself ignoring such
topic here as I have had methanol in my veins for forty years. In a
nutshell, leaving the shameful last season and comparing Exist and
its debut shot to the present Toruń's situation, it's a polar
opposite to Jason 'I don't need my legs to ride a bike' Doyle, Niels
Kristian 'the porky cat' Iversen and Rune 'I want to ride for
Częstochowa till my last breathing day' Holta mercenary spirit.
Exist seems to be like Paweł Przedpełski, maybe not yet from his
best performance as being under 21, but with all chances and hopes to
reach similar level. Simply, the youth is coming from the city of
Copernicus. But I should take a notice of „Get Your Own” is still
underground execution, kept within the genre canons, and done in a
right way. I know that statement 'the best metal comes from the
eighties' or, as translated into modern Polish 'kurła, kiedyś to
było' is quite stock today, however absolutely unfounded are the
charges tagging the band an unoriginal one. This stuff simply kicks
my thrashing ass, there's a speed, metal madness and catchiness,
sometimes Exist goes straightforward, sometimes more complex. It's
great they want to play it and they can do that but I'm really far
from claiming their parents give them meldonium to the school
breakfast every single day. Youth is coming, I repeat once again...
Paraphrasing a bit Britney Spears song
„I'm Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman”, Exist exists somewhere in the
middle of the road, I would say. The first step towards glory has
been done: there is cd, there is a truck for carriage as shown on the
front cover, there are stage performances. Now it's time to record a
full-length, I do believe with more technical touch served completely
without restraint and with lyrics in the booklet. And summing the
thing up, let's summon the mighty Sesame Street for a while: surely
three letters 'o', 'w', 'n' are major sponsor for my review. Three
letters, three combinations: 1. own, as they already have own
stuff, 2. now, as this is their time, their chance, 3. won,
as definitely they won bringing me such a killing release. A little
bit childish and funny, but the whole is very serious. Can't wait for
your next move, youngsters!
85/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in March, 2018)
