Deep in Arizona, tucked away in a dark corner of Tucson, is the Death Metal duo EXSUL. Having had a busy year, recording and releasing a couple of EP's today I am taking some
time to look at their debut EP, "Allegoresis". The artwork comes across, to me, as though it is some sort of archaeological find, and I really like it. It's striking in its simplicity.

Opening the EP is "Noesis" which grows from really humble beginnings, heavy and dense chords permeate through my headphones, accentuate by running and wailing guitars above everything else. But then the vocals come in, and I find all of a sudden that the sound is muddied. The quality of recording is struggling to really do justice to the music, some of the levels seem a bit off and it's just a bit difficult to differentiate the separate pieces / sections.
"Glaucon's Dilemma" once again starts with this really chilled and relaxed vibe, think dark smoky café with a spoken word session going on. Its all a bit hazy and mysterious and I was just waiting for it to evolve into something else. Whilst I was disappointed that it didn't move on, it did keep me hanging on in suspense for what was to come next.

It wasn't the smoothest of transitions, as "How In The Land Of Satin We Saw Hearsay, Who Kept A School Of Vouching" (And that will be the only time I write that track name in full). The quality issue I mentioned earlier seems to have abated and the music coming through is crisp and clear, delivering blow after blow of brutal Death Metal. "Phantagruelion" is just another bizarre, eerie and almost trippy experience. I could almost feel the damn hookah smoking caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland whispering disturbing thoughts in my ear throughout and it is again keeping me on edge.

"Psychomachia" again delivers some hard hitting and dense riffs, almost reminisce at times of some really quality Doom Metal. But when that pave picks up you can feel the Death coming through in droves. But this track is a great example of a band that is taking genres and melding them to create their own sound and really be their own true self. I won't delve too much into "Sweet Revenge", I'm a pretty big MOTÖRHEAD fan, and I mean for me personally, the stylistic changes to make it EXSUL's own brand of Jack drinking, Marlboro smoking Staffordshire badass... Just really didn't do it for me.

Overall, EXSUL have produced a solid EP. There are a couple things that weren't quite there for me, the quality at times was slightly off and I found myself struggling to cut through everything and make the music clear. For a debut, solid and there is a bright future ahead for the duo I am sure.