Album Review: Exocrine – Legend (Season of Mist)

French technical death metal juggernaut, Exocrine continue their unstoppable march to greatness with their latest full-length release, ‘Legend’, out on January 26th, 2024, via Season of Mist.

This is f**king great but isn’t a surprise as everything we’ve covered from Exocrine has been weighted in gold. 2018’s Molten Giant, 2020’s Maelstrom, 2022’s The Hybrid Suns, and the singles that have been released in the run up to this album landing.

Exocrine are on another level when it comes to showcasing tech-death, and Legend is one hell of a release. A showcase of their immeasurable heavy talents, but also their ability to make the heaviness mean something.

Presage is an intro more than anything else, but with this opening track, Exocrine show some melodic depths and how quickly things can turn dark. Bringing forth a clattering of heavy instruments that chug along with the weight and devastating power of a runaway train. It’s just the f**king intro, and it goes seriously hard, transitioning into the title track where Exocrine show just how much they developed as a unit.

Blending erratic and emphatic progressive soundscapes with epic brutality, the instrumentation from this band is staggeringly good. How about the jazzy section though? Absolutely mental stuff and one of the more unique moments of the entire record. The bar has been set.

Life is up next and brings the fire with some immense guitar riffing and soloing, but this is another great example of how Exocrine change the game, as it’s almost catchy. Even though it is blisteringly fast and brutally heavy. The whole album will be getting replays throughout 2024, but this track might find itself being played the most.

The good stuff keeps coming at a startling pace with the mentally taxing Eidolon. Has the power of the drums been mentioned yet? Or the absolute skin-flaying delivery of the vocals? The entirety of Exocrine is on incredible form and that continues with The Altar of War and Dust in the Naught. Both of which feature technical intricacies that need to be heard to be believed.

Then along comes Warlock to pick the listener up and slam them hard on the ground. Exocrine at their most erratically heavy and emphatically destructive, but still creating music that sets the senses aflame. So much so that you’ll feel like you’re going to rupture something as your body spasms in time to both Dragon and The Oath. Especially with the latter’s ‘spacey’ intro and the roaring vocals that come near the end.

Finally (excluding the bonus track Cryogenisation, which is a banger to make you gurn in appreciation) it’s By the Light of the Pyre and guess what? It f**king slays from both a technical and a heavy stand-point. Yet, it’s the fact that it has a touch more ‘cinema’ about it, that really makes this a worthy finale. It’s one of the most egregious examples of what Exocrine can do and how far they have come.

Exocrine – Legend Track Listing:

1. Presage
2. Legend
3. Life
4. Eidolon
5. The Altar Of War
6. Dust In The Naught
7. Warlock
8. Dragon
9. The Oath
10. By The Light Of The Pyre
11. Cryogenisation (Bonus Track)

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