I thought I'd get some black metal when this arrived. I must have confused ID with IC (Rex) or something... Anyways, these fellas too hail from icy Finland, but the music is far from black metal. The band have a bunch of EP's out, but this debut full length was my first ever contact with five guys united under the name ID: Exorcist.

ID: Exorcist offer some heavy modern metal. Their mixture of aggrometal, metalcore and some Gothenburg melodiousness isn't bad at all. The music is mostly about angry vocals, riffs and heavy rhythm work. Sometimes sounding like a metal version of Korn, sometimes flirting with death metal (blast beats and churning guitars), and the guys probably listen to newer Sepultura, too. Especially the guitar tones are similar to newer Sepultura. The problem, and this is a universal problem mind you, with Gothenburg melodies is their blandness after all greatness In Flames and such made back in the day. However, majority of the band's melodiousness does work well, because it's not all bland Gothenburg imitation. But when talking about metalcore and its general ghastliness, I must say ID: Exorcist manage to jump over the pits of shitcore. Sometimes the band sound very Finnish, too, for example on the title track and the following 'Remains'. While I don't care about Korn, and newer Sepultura has never worked well for me, this album rocks! Maybe because this band has its own kind of characteristics.

While the bass guitar is loud and pounding (yay!), the drums could be way heavier. Same goes with some guitar sounds, or at least they should be more ripping. Shouted, screamed, growled and cleanly sung vocals fit in well to all the noise. And one voice sounds like Mille of Kreator! While this is well enough sung and played, the production is too amateurish, ending up sounding like a demo.

ID: Exorcist can build up enjoyable rhythm movements with some nasty riffage and vocals added, and at times cover it with nice melody work. I think that about 99% of metalcore is pure bull, but this album is actually good listening when I want something heavy. Plus, it beats nowadays' In Flames 100 to nil. While that might not be a big achievement in itself, just give this one a spin, you might get hooked.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/03/2011 23:43