Exit Ten - Give Me Infinity

Exit Ten - Give Me Infinity
Genre: Metal/Alternative
Rating: 4.5/10

Exit Ten are a little known metal band from Reading who started up in the mid noughties. The bands sound started of as a merging of melodic vocals and heavy metal riffing and breakdowns leaving much of the music press to christen them as metalcore, a genre that describes a baffling range of more commercial melodic metal like Killswitch Engage and their ilk. By the mid to late noughties this metalcore trend was slowly becoming a huge movement. With the end of nu metal and the explosion of emo the market for heavy bands was wide open and metalcore seemed to fill this void. Unfortunately like most trends it wasn't long before the market was oversaturated and the initial buzz wore off. In spite of this Exit Ten stuck to their guns for their debut album 2008's Remember The Day. After an extensive tour the band return this year with new album Give Me Infinity which also see's them adopt a new sound.

Whilst Exit Tens early work was notable for its fast paced metallic elements clashing against the soft melodic vocals of Ryan Redman, Give Me Infinity lacks its predecessor's bite. Where there was once thunderous drums and nasty riffs there is now soft reverb distortion and even string sections. Whilst Give Me Infinity does not make quite the same impact as the bands debut it has to be celebrated for its boldness if nothing else. The main issue stopping this album from being great however is that by making the move towards a more post rock sound the band actually double their competition and unfortunately the many veteran kings of the genre are not easily displaced. Whilst the music is technically proficient and quite well produced the majority of songs are so subtle that they are quite easily forgotten. Without the pace set by the bands previous metal elements some of the songs drift on for longer than they need to and even drag in places. Songs also fail to stand out from one another making the whole album feel somewhat like an ambiguous mess in places and the consistent drive to make an anthemic chorus out of each track somewhat grates and feels too forced. This is especially the case for "Suggest A Path" the albums lead single which seems overly dramatic and cheesey. It's not all bad though as some tracks have enough kick to make them stand out. The fast paced "Sunset" is a perfect example of this with its intricate guitar work being both beautiful and powerful other tracks like "How Will We Tire?" succeed in their endeavour to produce anthemic results whilst avoiding to appear drawn out. The sad fact of the matter is these moments are just too few and far between.

Overall Exit Ten's bold attempt at branching out isn't a complete failure. The good bits, whilst limited in their frequency, are very well done the real detracting factor is that the majority of the material on offer is instantly forgettable. Whilst the band prove themselves technically adept Give Me Infinity fails to capture the imagination and lacks the punch of their debut. I would advise giving this one a miss.

Download: "Sunset"