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EXUL
Path To The Unknown

Self-released (2022)
Rating: 6/10

Out of Poland come this solid thrash metal act and their debut full-length album Path To The Unknown. I’d not been familiar with these guys previously and on first listen I wasn’t too impressed by the vocal shouts of guitarist Bogdan Sroka which seem to overwhelm and dominate the record, and not in a positive way. Musically, the band are certainly competent when it comes to their level of playing tight, crunchy thrash, but those vocals seem too high in the mix and too generic and barky for my liking.

Opening track ‘Stupidity Regime’ has a nice Anthrax-style of efficiency, particularly in the spine-snapping bass work, and the groove the band generates is easy on the ears, propelled by some solid leads. However, with there being so much generic thrash around nowadays tracks such as ‘Rise Again’ become more akin to irritating hardcore shouts; the outbursts of an angry youth not aware of his surroundings as he attempts to out-do everyone else on the block.

I’m somewhat thankful the album only features seven tracks as most of the time was spent attempting to blot out the confrontational macho vocals, if only to enjoy the lead work of Jakub Wróbel.

Other tracks of note are ‘Fight For Liberty’ and ‘Weaker Ones’ where Wróbel really does excel himself, but I can’t lie, when Sroka stops yelling I can enjoy this record more. Clearly his intention is to set fire to the ears, but unfortunately the vocal rants just spoil what is essentially a solid thrash album.

I’ll be keeping tabs on Exul and see how they develop for next time round. Hopefully, Bogdan Sroka won’t be imposing himself vocally to the detriment of others as evidenced here.

Neil Arnold

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