Album Review: Exocrine – Molten Giant (Unique Leader Records)

Exocrine will unleash their Unique Leader Records debut Molten Giant on August 17th 2018.

A modern progressive technical death metal band from Bordeaux in France, they originally formed in 2013 by Sylvain O.P. Bringing to mind such giants as Necrophagist, The Faceless, Obscura, Beyond Creation, Gorod, and Cynic, the band delivers their own progressive, atmospheric take on brutal and technical music.

Molten Giant pays homage to Kaiju movies and is a concept album about a nuclear war between a gigantic lava monster and the surviving human beings.

What an awesome concept for an album. An idea that lends itself perfectly to the barbarous style of progressive death metal that Exocrine spit out here. Face-melting riffs, scaring bass lines, drum beats that crack skulls and a vocal performance that is liable to shake the earth to its core.

Scorched Human Society gets the album off to a smouldering start with a tempo that is incredibly high and wild sounding. Hayato follows by introducing a touch of synth to proceedings before opening up into an absolute treat of nastiness.

The synth that showed up in the previous track was not a one-off thankfully as Backdraft also brings some out to play before the title track unleashes agony. The former has some of the most mind-numbingly complex riffs of the album. While the latter is just deep groove reminiscent of a mad amalgamation of Gojira and Meshuggah.

Flamewalkers halts the momentum briefly by being an ultimately forgettable middle of the road track before Lavaburst brings things back around to high levels of unsparing death metal with just a drop of melody.

Looking to end things in style, Exocrine throw out a brief epic that sounds like it belongs in a big-budget movie before Shape of New World crushes all. An ending that takes everything great about Exocrine and shoves it all together to create the most consuming track of the album.

Exocrine – Molten Giant Full Track Listing:

1. Scorched Human Society
2. Hayato
3. Backdraft
4. Molten Giant
5. Flamewalkers
6. Lavaburst
7. Behind the Wall
8. Shape of New World

The new album can be ordered from Unique Leader Records here and merch bundles can be picked up here. Find out more/keep up to date with news by liking Exocrine’s Facebook Page and following them on Instagram.