Exousia - Welcome to the Kingdom of Light

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Unlike some albums that get reviewed and then collect dust on my shelf for all eternity, Exousia's new disc "Welcome to the Kingdom of Light" is one that I'll be going back to quite frequently.  This huge, seven-person band from Mexico dishes out some very interesting melodic death/black metal with some slight thrash influences.  There is lots of variety between songs, but the band manages to keep the sound very consistent throughout.  Exousia is very brutal, but will throw in the occasional piano, acoustic guitar, or female vocals to keep things interesting.  The female vocals, however, tend to be overused at times.   Miriam Lopez has a beautiful voice, but at times you wish they would just jam instead of doing another calmer passage.  In fact, she sings the last song "Bebed Mi Sangre" all by herself.  It's not as bad as I am making it sound though.  Most of the times it compliments the songs nicely, I just feel it happens too often.

 

I'm eating up all the terrific guitar solos and blazing double bass that saturates this release.  The overall mood of the music is very dark, but the lyrics are extremely well written, bold, and full of hope.  The production could have been better in spots, but is very nicely done overall.   The packaging is absolutely tremendous!  They've included a sixteen-page booklet with English and Spanish lyrics for each song, tons of cool band pictures, and great cover artwork.  Four of the songs are sung in Spanish and five of them are sung in English.  Exousia has put a ton of effort into this release and has made an instant fan with this reviewer.  (Review by Matt)

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