Instrumental progressive metal pretty much died out in the late 2010s, right? Wrong! While it can feel like that at times, there are still plenty of bands out there toying with the legacy of the genre in interesting ways. One of them is ExxoStack, on which I’ll be focusing today, particularly the latest record, Terramygdala.
ExxoStack took off as the solo outlet of Jonathan Gabriel Jr., who handles all duties within the project, taking inspiration in name, albeit stylized from one of NASA’s experiments. So that already nails the cosmic element of the band, which almost feels like it’s a must have in prog. ExxoStack aims to act as something of a disruptor in the bland mass which this whole djent/deathcore/prog metal devolved into. I’m definitely picking up the intention as I’m listening to Terramygdala, although it’s still in an incipient form.
Taking heavy cues from Modern Day Babylon, Plini, and the likes, Terramygdala is firmly rooted in this particular area and stays true to the aim of the band, attempting to add more nuance to what was once considered tried and true. That’s quite a burden to pick up and carry out if you ask me. Although, it’s still too early to say whether this will be accomplished successfully or otherwise.
After having spent a couple of dozen listens with Terramygdala, I can definitely say there is potential to live up to that claim, even if in its current form the project is subject to some of the things it wants to change.
The songwriting adheres to certain tropes, as aforementioned, although it’s clear that it wants to break further from them, using them more as a crutch rather than the actual foundation, even if it may seem otherwise.
Venturing through basically every incarnation of instrumental prog, more technical, more laid back, more spacey, Terramygdala is trying its hand at being diverse in an organic way. It sort of works, but not quite. There are a lot of ideas thrown together at the same time, sometimes even through the course of the same song and while it doesn’t end up feeling actually cluttered at any point, it can be a little overbearing and some details just fade into the background.
There are quite a lot of things going on, with plenty of layers to account for, but there isn’t yet a healthy variety between the types of layers and instead it’s just between their densities. This kind of gives the record a certain uniformity which can verge on monotony over repeated listens.
It’s obvious that the project is still in the throes of finding its vision and voice more clearly. It needs time to toy around until it settles on what feels right. In its current form it’s honestly quite fun and a good listen, especially for fans of the genre, but with no actual memorable moments, it’s a hard sell outside of that.
For whatever reason the moment I remembered and stuck out the most was most of the seventh track, “NeuroPlasticity”. I’d like to pinpoint what exactly was it about it that made it pop, but for whatever reason it seems to be the part I ended up enjoying the most and it definitely has a particular kind of charm.
The upbeat, sometimes epic, sometimes melodic, sometimes heavy, sometimes laidback kind of attitude of the album definitely makes it easy on the ears in spite of certain drawbacks, so that works well in its favor.
The production though, is kind of rough. There’s a lot lacking in the low end, the guitars feel overly compressed, while the rhythm guitar seems to lack a bit of crunch, although that one’s probably more a matter of personal taste rather than an aesthetic pairing that doesn’t work. Overall, there’s plenty of clarity between all the layers playing with each other, which is obviously a plus and quite honestly a surprise.
The staging feels a little flat and could benefit from less compression across the board. The presence of the bass in the mix is a welcome aspect, seeing it more at the front while supporting the foundation, although this also kind of falls flat on its back due to the final lack of low end.
I do want to reiterate though, while there are clearly many drawbacks, they aren’t particularly jarring and seem to be things that can undergo change easily. Obviously, all these remarks sound worse than they are meant to be really. You could consider I'm practically nitpicking. I would consider said nitpicking justified since ExxoStack holds promise as an ace in its sleeve.
I'm sure things will take a leap forward, especially since Jonathan assures us there’s a new ExxoStack record in the works. So we’re bound to see some improvements, the same way Terramygdala is a step forward compared to the preceding EP and record. Terramygdala is entertaining enough, and packaged just the right way as it is to offer us a nice ride.
