Thursday March 28th 2024

Exile – “Exile”

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Exile – “Exile”

 

Exile, originally known as The Exiles, is an American band from Richmond, Kentucky. They started out by playing in local clubs which led to touring with Dick Clark’s Caravan Of Stars.

They shortened their name to Exile in 1973 and hit the peak of their success in 1978 with the ballad hit “Kiss You All Over.” After a couple of minor subsequent pop hits they reformed in 1983 as a country music group.

But recently, after being a band for over forty years, a drastic style change was deemed essential to stay current with all the new teenage fads. Beatle cut mop-tops might have once been the rage, way back when, but since military cuts are more the fashion, they have now transformed themselves into a Massachusetts based hardcore punk band.

And though, all told, Exile has had thirty-five members, and current members need assistance in walking, and though now, they are working in the rambunctious world of hardcore. Exile will always be known as a band that provided pleasant, pop melodies to soothe the tired brows of middle America, while enriching their lives with a blessed sweetness of tune and melody.

And though they now swim in the dank waters of the music underground, in our hearts, forever, we will remember them for this song.

 

Exile – “Exile”
Kiss You All Over

 

OUCH!- Andy Bang just entered my office and hit me over the head with a xerox tuner tube. He informs me I’m talking about the wrong Exile. Now, I’m forced to white out the previous text on my laptop screen. White out, I was planning to use tonight in a huffing session to relieve the stresses of my daily duties at TNB while enjoying some indecent snapshots of participants in “Dancing With The Stars” and guacamole dip.

But I guess we won’t see any of this.

Exile are a hardcore/metal band with ties to Haverhill, MA and the band Brainrot.

And why is that significant? Well, that band snagged one of the positions in my top five CD’s I reviewed last year. In fact, they snagged number one. And though, in their promo package, Exile vow to kiss you all over with every ounce, every inch, every centimeter of bodily fluid they can muster out of their love. I would not hold this against them. Nor would I touch them with a ten-foot pole.

But I would give their new bandcamp a listen.

“Intro” starts with some mountainous feedback while what sounds like machines dancing but is actually, I think, a bass guitar clanging, sets us up a for the explosive, incisive vocals to detonate. The waves of harmonic feedback give into an industrial, metal feel that is energetic, propulsive and foreboding. The mood is dark, aggressive and cutting- the song is intense, powerful and great.

“Left Out” continues with feedback but soon we’re led to emphatic, emotional vocals with a hard-hitting, volatile music track. I can’t make out the lyrics but there’s a chorus background of death vocals while the high pitched lead vocals talk of a world of shit. (Obviously, not this world). This is one of the best songs I’ve heard all year. This tune blasts out industrial/hardcore without getting hung up by machines. In fifty-four seconds this song says more than most albums that are fifty-four minutes long. Concise, brutal, powerful, emotional and intense and you can tag whatever genre you want onto this song but I tag it fuck’n’great.

With some heavy ricocheting chords “Second To None” plows straight through your eardrums into your brains to cause musical convulsions inside your head. Though there is metal sounding, grinding guitars with some guttural vocals sprinkled in here (like angel dust on your cocoa puffs) this song has too much punk/hardcore energy to be classified as metal by me. But it has enough spunk, guts and power to be deemed impressive by anyone.

Though Exile, reasonably enough, tag themselves as metal/hardcore on their bandcamp, I see them as a genre I just made up- “creative hardcore.” And that’s where I put them, right over there beneath the geranium plants.

And the band I want to put with them is Haggard Bastard from Vermont. And like Brainrot the year before, they have put out my favorite CD I’ve reviewed this year.

Do these bands sound the same? No, not at all. But what they’re tapping into is a new presentation of hardcore punk- and though Exile has some metal influence and Haggard Bastard some experimental as well- what comes out is hardcore that is true to it’s original spirit and integrity but showing it in a new, original light.

I hope to hear Brainrot again. I hope to hear more from these guys, too. Tyler is the singer in both bands. His high ranged vocals, which is a change from the usual low grow-ly death vocals I commonly hear, are unique and carry a piercing intensity. And he seems to surround himself with some pretty, deft dudes.

I only hope he stays steadfast, and resists the urge to become the the thirty-sixth member of the seventies band, Exile.

(Slimedog)

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