THRONE OF EXILE is an American Progressive Metal band, hailing from central New Jersey. Since forming in 2019, they have been hard at work at their debut EP, titled "Dimensions Adrift," which was released on March 12, 2021. The album contains five tracks.

"Precognition" leads off the album. It opens with a chaotic dissonance, and heavy harsh vocals. Around the half-way mark, the chaos is replaced by gentle, melodic tones. But the heavy tones return soon after. It's almost like two separate songs. The heavy passages are absolutely punishing, while the gentle passage was pure beauty. "Retrocognition" begins with a slower sound, equally as heavy as the first track. Justin Gogan is a beast on the kit, as is Rob Babcock on those dexterous leads. The bassist Ed Barringer is no slouch either. Like the first track, it takes a clean pause around the half-way mark, with alluring bass notes and guitars, but the attack resumes shortly thereafter.

"Distraction" is punishing out of the gate. The heavy and brutal sound is beginning to weigh on me. Indeed, this dissonant and punishing sound can get old after a while. Unlike the previous two tracks, there is no pause for clean sounds to come through. "Dimensions" begins with some melody in the instruments, while the vocals rage over top. The guitar solo clearly shows a very talented artist, as well as the audible bass notes. The dissonance is dialed up a notch in this song as well. "Apparition" feature more of that aggressive, brutal sound, coming from the individual instruments as well as the angry vocal utterances. After the half-way mark, it slows to whispers and clean guitars for just a few bars.

Overall, the talent level of the band is clear. But their over-reliance of the punishing sound gets old after a while. More of those clean, ambient passages would go a long way to balance out the heaviness. It's an honest first effort from a band who have an abundance of musicianship but need to find away to work in some more melody, in my opinion. It's good, but could be better. Any more than five tracks, and I would have been completely annihilated.