Exarsis – The Brutal State

Ain’t it amazing to see new bands from your country making it big step by step? Exarsis are one of those bands in the field of thrash metal alongside with their comrades Bio-Cancer and Chronosphere. Playing as many live shows as possible, with an explosive stage presence giving them the place of the support act for German legends Sodom and British Onslaught in their last year visit over Greece. They were then promoting their really good self-recorded-and-released debut album “Under Destruction“, showing potential for great things to come and their love for Bay Area Thrash (Vio-Lence, Exodus, Testament, Possessed), Nuclear Assault (vocally) and the Brazilian newcomers Violator. Lyrically they’ve always dealt with conspiracy theories, privacy violation, environmental destruction and so on.

This time they recorded with George Bokos (ex-Rotting Christ guitar player) at Grindhouse studios their new album “The Brutal State“. The album starts with the beautifully melodic “Annihilation…Proceed!!!” including the press speech of John F. Kennedy on the subject of political conspiracies the day he was elected as the president of the United States. “Mind Poisoning” kicks in at full-speed and the Sean Killian-influenced vocals of Alex take you by storm with razor-sharp riffs in the vein of Vio-Lence backing him up and lyrics about TV propaganda. The gang vocals are simply exceptional for a Thrash metal band. “Addicting Life Waste” is an anti-drug song starting with a top notch fast riff reminding me of Sacrifice then to mid tempo and groovy riffage in the middle only to return to the original speed including kick ass melodic soloing. “Vote For Crisis” coming up next is an up-to-date song about the sociopolitical consequences of the Mnimonium singed by the parties of the Greek parliament, translated in high speed Bay Area Thrash riffing and soloing. Next we have a re-recording of the song “Dying Earth” which in the bands’ opinion deserved the best possible production. It’s one of the first songs that showed the vocal change from the crossover like vocals of “Under Destruction” to the paranoid shrieks of Vio-Lence’s Sean Killian (one of Exarsis’s biggest influences) and it’s really done justice by the great production.

“Toxic Terror” is another high speed tornado (they made a video for it as well indicating the bands undeniable live energy) including even a blastbeat before the solo trade-off courtesy of the Tsitsis brothers and an amazingly catchy chorus lead by the once more exceptional gang vocals! This is about air spraying planes polluting the skies. And then comes “Surveillance Society” showing a bit of Slayer-esque feel in the verse riff and some of the bands finest riffs in general! Let alone the intense lyrical content about personal data being collected by surveillance cameras which makes it an even more special song. One of the longest and best songs of the album.

Then “Apathy Ignorance Oblivion” kicks in with a great mid tempo groovy thrash riff followed by a piercing scream by Alex addressing once more the issue of apathy and ignorance in today’s society. The headbanging mania continues with the great drum intro of “Suicide Disorder” (the title pretty much explains itself) showing some Dark Angel influence in the riffage. The album comes to an end with “Under Destruction” with it’s midtempo intro going into a Slayer-esque riff after a blastbeat, a midtempo headbanging chorus and one more kick ass riff fading out after the final chorus!That’s another track cauterizing the political decisions and how they affect the people’s lives.

All that great material got the professional production it deserved, showing many aspects of the band that were seen only on their live performances. With this album Exarsis take the first big step in becoming a significant force to be reckoned with mostly on the outside of the Greek Thrash scene. 19/4/2013: Suicidal Angels/Bio-Cancer/Exarsis/Domination a date that’s going to go down in Thrash history!