NE OBLIVISCARIS Exul | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Season of Mist on March 24th, 2023

Quick Background

Ne Obliviscaris (Latin for "forget not"; the motto of the Clan Campbell, one of the largest and most powerful of the Highland clans) is a six-piece Australian progressive metal band from Melbourne. Well actually they are now working with a session drummer so technically a 5-piece band. The trademark and uniqueness of their sound comes from having two singers, Marc "Xenoyr" Campbell responsible for the harsh vocals and Tim Charles who not only does the clean vocals but also is the full time violinist. 

The band is known from writing long pieces, that are dynamic and complex. Often using a string quartet and choirs in their compositions and arrangements. Their second album, Citadel, from 2014 made quite a splash that year being featured in several year-end lists. It consists of only 3 songs! But still clocks-in at 48 minutes. And honestly the other 2 albums are also quite good and also featuring just a handful of songs, so let's see what 2023 has to offer.

Exul

Exul is now their fourth studio album following 2017's Urn. It features 6 tracks in 52 minutes. The album has been in the works since 2020 but the pandemic caused several delays. Now here we are finally ready to enjoy a new Ne Obliviscaris album. And there's no kidding around, the album already opens with the single and longest song on the album, "Equus" and its 12min30sec of length. Within the first couple of minutes we already have a pretty decent sample of the Ne Obliviscaris sound. A solid rhythmic session with interesting drum groves and prominent bass sound, we also have a flavor of the violin and the two singers performing a duet in the second verse. Ah, and very nice guitar work, complex and interesting guitar riffs. The vocal lines, specially the clean ones, are melodic and even catchy at times. But that's of course in contrast with the harsh aggressive vocals.

"Misericorde" is a 17min-long song broken into two parts. Part I is titled "As the Flesh Falls" and it starts quite brutally, nice heavy riffs and harsh vocals. The bass is one of the highlights of this song and album. When the clean vocal kicks in the bass is shredding on the background. And it goes like this for most of the song. The mixing really helps as the bass sound is clear and prominent. I also love the violin heavy section, it's pretty Mozart-like. "Misericorde II - Anatomy of Quiescence" is mostly instrumental. It features a really beautiful start with soft piano and melodic string solos. This leads to a fantastic guitar solo, one of my favorites of the year. Honestly I did not know those guys were such good guitar players. Those 3 first songs are certainly my favorites of the album. 

"Suspyre" features a melodic intro leading into the harsh vocals and more beautiful violin phrases. It builds up into the clean vocals super catchy kind of chorus. During its 10 min the song continues this journey of ups and downs. Some cool features of this song are the acoustic guitars and relentless drumming. Both subtle but noticeable. "Graal" goes directly into a sort of heavy symphony, classical music meets metal sort of feeling. It's fast pacing and again we hear the bass shredding on the background and the drummer going nuts all over the kit. "Anhedonia" which is by far the shortest song on the album functions more as an outro and reminds me of Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" and while that's OK, I am not sure we needed an almost 4min outro.  

The Picky Guy

It's not always easy to keep focus when the songs are that long. I feel the band can improve their music writing skills further to make the full songs even more engaging from start to finish. Other than that, not much to complain about this album. It is however for prog music nerds, there's nothing direct and simple on Exul. 

Wrap Up Opinion 

Ne Obliviscaris is back with an album that builds on previous releases. The technical proficiency, a prominent string quartet and the melodic sensitivity combined with Death Metal influences is their hallmark. The songs are long and some may have difficulty keeping the focus. With that said Exul is a further improvement from previous albums as a whole. However, individually none of the 6 songs stood out compared to their older best songs. I think fans will dig this album and it won't change the opinion of those who didn't enjoy their previous releases. To me a good album, 81/100. 

SCORE: 81/100

Genre: Progressive Metal

Released by Season of Mist on March 24th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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