Woohoo, A Thrash Band! And a good looking one too! With a cover that reminded me of old EVILDEAD and TOXIK album covers and an album name that reminded me of how politically charged old school thrash metal used to be (and how modern thrash metal should continue to aspire to be).

Needless to say, EXARSIS set a good first impression. But reviews aren't supposed to be about how hormonally affected reviewers are, but about the music, and for EXARSIS, the intro was the perfect place to start, and it proved to be a beyond necessary tool that would serve to open up the minds of listeners to the band's message. From the initial examination of the album cover to the first spoken word of the intro, one realizes that the running theme throughout the album is the Greek economic crisis. The acoustic intro plays away a very wistful, morose atmosphere but intensifies it with the wildly applicable, powerful words of John F Kennedy: "The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society." Damn, EXARSIS, you are deep.

"Mind Poisoning" kickstarted the brutality of the album, with the band demonstrating that they can certainly play their instruments to a pulp. They are definitely one of the more technically gifted thrash bands I've heard recently. Vocalist Alex started on a strong (and very high) note, continued throughout the song as a series of angry shrieks against the Establishment and their never-ending evil. The band nicely touched this off with some tribal masculinity by adding a (lower-pitched) chant along with Alex's pissed off ranting, and it was a fireball of a track. In Malaysia, we have a plant called cili padi which literally translates into "field chilli". The plant name is used as a metaphor to describe anything small (typically a petite female), with the spirit and ferocity of a cili padi (If you bite into the damn thing, it will murder you - much like a petite female). In this case, "Mind Poisoning" is a cili padi. It's short, but it packs a killer punch. It's Napoleon Bonaparte.

Much of the other songs were structured much like "Mind Poisoning" was, with the chants and manic instrumentals, and I can see the symbolic message behind the structure. The chants signify the angry people of Greece who are coming behind the band's message. The instrumentals represent a chaotic Greek government, spiraling into insanity as the Euro continues to fall and the Greek people continue to scream. It's quite badass.

The album is filled to the brim with genius riffs and explosive drumming, each song packed full with its own weapons of musical destruction, while Alex continues to do his thing. All of the tracks are brutal-ass, killer, heavy as John Goodman, and fierce as cili padi numbers which I enjoyed beyond understanding. They had so many musical elements to them and so many different aspects to like that I can barely comprehend anything anymore. Plus, the solos are insane. It heats up the entire song nicely and adds that dash of "Fuck the government" attitude that is so propagated in this album, and Alex and his troupe of angry citizens embellish the music perfectly with their raw anger. What I further liked about the songs was the prominent bass with its splendid splendor, despite the fact that this is thrash and usually during the hard riffing of the verses, the bass is downplayed just a little. Not for EXARSIS though, they don't give a shit about your rules, they're in the middle of an economic crisis.

The only thing I can critique about the album, and it is the only thing, is how listeners may not like the vocals too much. It is almost how people initially reacted to Bobby Ellsworth of OVERKILL or Mike Sanders of TOXIK. While the execution of the vocals are so energetic and insanely effective musically, I can just imagine long-haired snobs getting together whining about how "high-pitched it is" and how it's "ripping off Rob Halford but in a bad way", bla bla bla endlessly, like the eternal whiners they are. Problem is: these whiners may have a point (they usually do, to some extent). The vocals do seem to be executed too similarly in each song and can be overwhelming for some people. Personally, I thought it was perfect for the band's music and their message, but not everybody will receive it well.

In the end, my brain was numb from the full-on assault by EXARSIS and their music. My ears were mush and I was all spacing out, barely functioning. There and then, I could only think of how amusing it was that Greek EXARSIS was signed to a German label. Oh, I would just like to add now that "Vote for Crisis" is an insanely clever song name.