Coming to us today from Vision Of God records is the full-length release from Exultet, ‘King’s Crusade Pt 1’. My first impression is to call this black metal or “unblack metal” given the nature of the label (whose mission, by the way, this editor fully supports.). But it doesn’t take long at all for Exultet to let us know that black metal influence is but one of numerous elements in this album. Most of the songs are pretty long – between nine and twelve minutes in most cases. But deep into the listen, it feels appropriate.
This was an incredibly challenging review to do because there are simply so many parts, elements and influences going on here. The vocals are good but I feel like the vocalist holds back a little. I get the feeling that there is some feeling down there just ready to be ripped open to soar. Other than that, no complaints and that’s not even really a complaint anyway.
There is so much going on in this album that it’s just impossible to digest even with a few listens. That’s not a bad thing as you will hear. The songs aren’t so complex that they are unmemorable. But it’s very apparent, very early that the artist is either classically trained or born with an unusual skill of merging different instrumentation even being mindful of different speeds. It’s not an album that is plainly layered with buzzsaw guitars and blast beat or half-paced drums. No… this is far more epic and diverse merging so many styles and instruments.
I absolutely loved track three, “The Third Crusade” especially with what appears to be harpsichord and perhaps sitar. Again, I feel like the mix itself is totally appropriate for a “Second Wave” black metal era album (Darkthrone etc) but then again, my speakers are limited to my laptop. So it very well could be that the mix sounds a lot better on a professional stereo or in ear buds.
In any case, there’s no question that “The Third Crusade” shows the outstanding musicianship and talent. I think if anything, I’d love to see the artist pull different elements apart like those shown in this track and perhaps do more with them… elements like the string sounds, harpsichord, sitar and other things that were tossed in. There’s a lot crammed into this one song. I’d love to hear full albums that maybe explore the individual instruments a bit more.
Then we come upon track four where we have some acoustic guitar sounds beneath the guitar work and vocals and string layers… some pretty inventive, even daring stuff in here. Again the artist takes into territories, sort of like adventures to new countries on the same continent. I loved the break where the narration appeared with what sounded to be like horse footsteps then some choral sounds like the clouds parted and some instrumentation came out of the sky. At least that’s the visual I got.
The last track, “Arsuf 1191” is an epic piece that clocks in at just under twelve minutes. We shouldn’t be surprised at the fact the artist explores some more territories but this time we are surprised with some lo-fi sounding keyboards.
This is an incredibly inventive, experimental album. We used a few references to exploration and territories but on the whole, these are entirely appropriate because the whole album really feels like the soundtrack to a story. Judging by the title, my guess is that this is in fact based upon a story. With that said, it would appear that Exultet succeeded in their mission. I look forward to seeing where they take us in Part II.
https://visionofgodrecords.bandcamp.com/album/kings-crusade-pt-1-the-holy-land
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