Exist Immortal
Darkness of an Age
(Deluxe Edition)
T
Review by Jonathan Monahan
3.2
he review itself starts a bit further down, the first six paragraphs are
just a brief explanation for those people who have no idea what any
of this metal stuff is about.
Metal is weird, but not in the way that the people who listen to it would
want normal people to think. One of the many reasons it’s so odd is its fans
– again, not in the way you’d think. They’re among the most loyal of any
fanbase, really. Sure, a gang-banger might shoot you for dissing Tupac, but
a metalhead will find your Facebook and tell you you should die in all manner
of inventive ways because you don’t get it. Some people mistake that as
aggression, but it really is loyalty. This loyalty is why absolutely nothing I
have to say here actually matters, but I’ll explain that toward the end of this
summary.
You see, there are three types of people who will see this review is about a
metal band and they’ll all react predictably. The first set will see the name
Exist Immortal and see the genre and immediately think ‘NO. Not a chance
in hell, I’m going back to listening to The Notorious D.R.E and his nice music
about police framing drug dealers by arresting them for carrying drugs; or
some Avicii Guetta, because he’s a super cool awesome talented guy.’ These
people were a lost cause from the get-go, so I don’t think it’ll bother the band.
The second set will have heard Enter Sandman at some point during the
noughties, through a quirky male friend with long hair or female friend with
short hair, and assume that’s all that metal really is. They will or won’t listen
to the track attached, depending on their reaction to the above-mentioned
sandmanning. If they do, almost all of them will panic and do something
violent to their keyboard to turn it off, some will laugh a little out of fright,
and maybe one person will feel a connection and read/listen on. Things could
only have gotten better than type one, in fairness.
The third set is the one Exist Immortal is aiming for – the true blue
metalheads who grew up on a steady diet of Sabbath, Slayer, Anthrax, and
later on, Killswitch Engage – remember that last one. This third set makes
up about 2% of the market, according to the numbers I just pulled out of my
arse to prove my own point. You’d think that these people would all love it,
being such a small group with so much in common, but you’d be very wrong.
Because… METAL. Or more specifically, subgenres of metal.
Black metal, classic metal, power metal, thrash metal, nu metal, hair metal,
folk metal, metalcore, neo-classical metal, and goblin metal (whatever the
fuck that is) are just a few subgenres. There are a bunch more if you want to
check out on some fact-based website; in fact, there are quite possibly more
subgenres of metal than seats in a symphony orchestra. So, why is there such
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