Vinyl Review: "Exhalants" by Exhalants

Exhalants

In Austin, TX there's a group of labels that send me vinyl to review from time to time.

They've sent doom metal, 90's alternative, punk rock, post punk, 90's noise rock, and whatever the world Quin Galavis is.

In the years of our association, I cannot find the common thread in what they release other than it's not death metal. (But who knows what's coming up right?)

So, this is the last of the three albums that they were kind of enough to send me recently.

I just kind of took them in the order that they were in the box and weaved them in and out of other vinyl reviews...it's been busy lately.

So, that's the very descriptive way of telling you that I really have no idea what's going to be coming out of the speakers when I drop the needle on this purple marbled (what?) record. (Apparently there's a limited run of random colors. Check that out HERE.

Exhalants

Years ago, when I was far too metal to admit publicly that I loved Nirvana... I read an interview with the late Kurt Cobain. 

He described the sound of his band as Black Sabbath after a sonic assault by the Bay City Rollers.

It seemed pretentious at the time, but what Cobain discussed was the beginning of the melding of genres. Or is the term genre bending better?

Well, Exhalants, like scores of bands before them don't fit squarely into a round hole. Checkmate.

At times, they're sludge metal, but then they move into punk, post punk, and maybe they're just in it to confuse us all. The vocals remind me of bands like Cloud Rat and Dakhma. They remind me of those bands definitely, except when they don't.

It took me a minute, but this band sounds like High On Fire after a sonic assault by Polly Wog Stew era Beastie Boys.

But that's only when they do sound like that, and not the other one hundred fifty other ways they sound during this record. It's been a long time since I've attended a pot luck, but I really remember it being like this.

There's an entire buffet lined up of foods that don't necessarily belong together, but hey, who said that mostaccioli doesn't go with a medium rare steak?

Well, this part...it sounds more like Evil Triplet crossed with Trendkill Era Pantera. Well, that makese sense because all of those bands are from Texas...

There's only one thing this album has going on through the entire duration.

It's a great, heavy record. No matter where they head, musically speaking, they're always heavy and awesome.

The colored version of this album is severely limited. It's interesting, because apparently, the pressing plant just nabs some spare colored blanks lying around and presses those. That's the version of the album that's spinning on my turntable now.

That being said, I can't speak to how the standard version sounds, by my thick and purple marbled copy sounds wonderful. The dynamic range is great and the funky bass tone rings clear through my speakers.

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