EXCUSE "Prophets From the Occultic Cosmos"

EXCUSE

"Prophets From the Occultic Cosmos"

Here's proof that all the good band names have been taken in metal. What kind of name is EXCUSE? There's just no excuse...

This band hails from Finland and taps into a very ancient and respected kind of metal sound. They can be described as thrash but with tons of galloping style riffs that you might find in IRON MAIDEN and US power metal bands like OMEN, OBSESSION and the like. They add to that a kind of fierceness that's found in early SLAYER and German thrash. The result is something definitely very headbang-able, with a touch of majesty to it. When EXCUSE is at their peak, they can blow doors off. I would suggest the song "Goddess Injustice" as that peak, as this killer is a near perfect merging of furious oldschool thrash with MAIDEN-style riffing. I even detect a strong similarity to MAIDEN's "Genghis Khan" here and that's not a bad thing at all. There's even just the slightest touch of melodic black metal ala DISSECTION as well.

The only big weakness is the average and bland vocals, which are given so much echo and reverb that it's ridiculous. They also over-reach themselves on the ten minute plus "Watchtower of the Trans-Dimension", which drags too long for this kind of music. But on the whole, if you fondly remember the elder days of powerful thrash with epic atmosphere, EXCUSE is a band to check out, dodgy name or no.

SHADOW KINGDOM.

EXCUSE