The Pitch: Portland, Oregon's Burials and Los Angeles, CA natives Exhausted Prayer join forces to bring the best and brightest of the West Coast extreme progressive scene.
What I Like: As some of you may know, I recently caught Burials at the Ulcerate show at The Raven. I'm not sure if it was the sound check or where I was relative to the stage, but the complaints I had about the vocals are not present on their recordings. In fact, the 4 tracks presented here are pretty flawless. The band has evolved an interesting fusion of melodic mathcore with technical death metal a la Wrvth. The compositions are dizzying and very rewarding. Exhausted Prayer do an excellent job as well, falling only just slightly shorter than their counterparts imo (though I do like the clean vocals on "A Grim Homecoming"). The two bands' sounds gel nicely to create a cohesive release.
What I Don't Like: When full swing, Exhausted Prayer create some really interesting transitions; but there are other times where they seem to dwell a little too long in a particular melody and it can get a little boring.
The Verdict: I intend to follow up on both of these bands quite a bit more in the future. This split is starting 2017 off on a strong technical note and I look forward to hearing more maniacal madness soon. Hear the whole album on Friday.
Flight's Fav's: "Ten Peaks," "Laccolith," "Sewer (Shitgazer)"