Review by Felix on May 10, 2022.

It is not easy to define the point of time from when Exciter started to deliver exclusively simply structured songs. I think it was a creeping process. Whichever way you look at it, the special chemistry within the band is gone forever. This would not be too serious if the group would limit itself on live shows to celebrate their classics in the best possible way. But Exciter released this album. They cannot expect to have a bonus due to the band´s name or its history. Every new output should be measured by the usual standards. In turn this means that I listen to their tenth studio album ("New Testament" not included) with mixed feelings.

Very generally, I feel comfortable with a simple songwriting, but Exciter overdo it. The first four songs follow the same pattern without the tiniest distinction. Is this still simple or is it already stupid? You decide. Here are the facts. The songs are based on unclear riffs. Without being thrashy, they just make noise. I would not go as far as to call these riffs bad, but they are really nothing extraordinary. The up-tempo rhythms always sound the same, tempo changes are not included. It would have been too much effort, I guess. I have no desire to blame them for the usual verse-chorus-verse-chorus scheme, but every chorus is formed by just one line (the song title) and it seems to be a pleasure to repeat excessively this line. Thankfully, the fact that they always accord to the same approach also has its good points. Each and every chorus energizes you because of its power and dynamic, although the vocals sound somewhat limited and thin. However, the result is that the band delivers four fairly strong songs which are unimaginatively arranged. It is fun to sing along to the choruses, but it also does tend to get a little bit tedious. "Power and Damnation", track number five, marks the temporary peak of creativity. It follows the same pattern, but it offers mid-tempo. Unbelievable.

The remaining songs do not surprise the listener with something unexpected. With the exception of "Skull Breaker", they are just weaker than the tunes at the beginning. When I speak of "Skull Breaker", I do not mean the untitled useless guitar solo which is hidden at the end. Quite the reverse, it leaves me confused due to its senselessness. But far worse than this detail is the production of this album. If one did not know better, one might think this is the first demo of semi-professional lads. Congratulations, if you are able to identify the complete drum parts. More details could be addressed, for example the suboptimal guitar sound, but this does not make sense. The truth is that you are not having fun with this output, if you are not a die-hard Exciter fan. But if you have a soft spot for these Canadians, you get an album with some pretty decent pieces - just listen to the first three songs, and once you have gotten used to the fact that Exciter offer a ridiculous sound in a certain regularity, you might even think that this full-length constitutes a wonderful highlight. But that would be foolish.

Rating: 6.8 out of 10

Review by Brexaul on May 29, 2024.

Back in late 2022, a new project caught my ear, and was very pleasantly surprised by the creative output of a Greek guy that delivered an ambitious metal opera. I reviewed Battle Symphony’s debut back in early 2023 and I wrapped up my presentation proclaiming “Battle Symphony makes a promise for a brighter future, and I really hope they can follow-up with a second album, because this one rocks and it can only get better”. Joke’s on me.

The mastermind behind the project did a creative u-turn and went from presenting a great sounding album with lots of heart and some huge moments, to serving us an absolute pile of steaming AI shit. He went from working with singers like Tasos Lazaris, Nicholas Leptos or Roberto Tiranti and having a crystal-clear production courtesy of Grigoris Giarelis, to clicking “generate” on his browser.

My bullshit radar started tingling a couple of months ago, when the “band” released a special single about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Being the levelheaded carebear that I am, I thought maybe this was some sort of social experiment to test the public’s reception of AI generated music or hell, a belated April Fools joke. This was the most silly, obvious AI I had heard but I just brushed it off and went on with my life. But then I saw an announcement for a brand-new lineup of non-existent people, backed by newly made-up legendary producers and imaginary Swedish studios and it pissed me off. It pissed me off to such a degree that I went and listened to this abomination on Bandcamp, just so I could informatively bash it. I can understand that AI is slowly taking over everything and I’m positively convinced that some people will be able to create amazing things in a few years using it as an assistive tool, but this thing is not it.

The Empire Of God is fun, if your idea of fun is being punched in the balls for 44 minutes and 24 seconds every morning. From the obvious half assed AI cover (which ironically is the best part of this “album”), to the soulless and bland music, there is honestly no redeeming quality in this. Much like in visual arts, there are people that “create” an image basis a single prompt in Dall-e or Midjourney and then post it as their work, and there are people actually putting some sort of effort in using the AI as a tool instead of a replacement. Now, this is a reality that’s up to a lot of debate, the ethical part of using AI as a source of inspiration, or a gentle push out of a writer’s block, but this is not the point here.

The point is that this album has zero creative input. It’s just a mashup of Suno v3 generated clips paired with ChatGPT generated lyrics. Songs with no flow, structures with no coherency, overdone choruses that play a million times in every song, robotic acapella segments, this album has everything wrong with anything related to art when it’s stripped by human emotion.

There were maybe a couple of moments that everything lined up and sounded remotely cohesive, and I suspect there might have been a couple of keyboard layers added to claim human input, but the “music” worth mentioning in this 45 min ordeal is next to 0.

I was tempted to ask ChatGPT to write me a review about “a band that went from a new promising act that was gaining momentum to a joke in less than 2 years” and submit that review instead, but no machine can shout “Fuck off” louder than me.

Shame.

Rating: 0 out of 10

Review by Brexaul on May 29, 2024.

Back in late 2022, a new project caught my ear, and was very pleasantly surprised by the creative output of a Greek guy that delivered an ambitious metal opera. I reviewed Battle Symphony’s debut back in early 2023 and I wrapped up my presentation proclaiming “Battle Symphony makes a promise for a brighter future, and I really hope they can follow-up with a second album, because this one rocks and it can only get better”. Joke’s on me.

The mastermind behind the project did a creative u-turn and went from presenting a great sounding album with lots of heart and some huge moments, to serving us an absolute pile of steaming AI shit. He went from working with singers like Tasos Lazaris, Nicholas Leptos or Roberto Tiranti and having a crystal-clear production courtesy of Grigoris Giarelis, to clicking “generate” on his browser.

My bullshit radar started tingling a couple of months ago, when the “band” released a special single about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Being the levelheaded carebear that I am, I thought maybe this was some sort of social experiment to test the public’s reception of AI generated music or hell, a belated April Fools joke. This was the most silly, obvious AI I had heard but I just brushed it off and went on with my life. But then I saw an announcement for a brand-new lineup of non-existent people, backed by newly made-up legendary producers and imaginary Swedish studios and it pissed me off. It pissed me off to such a degree that I went and listened to this abomination on Bandcamp, just so I could informatively bash it. I can understand that AI is slowly taking over everything and I’m positively convinced that some people will be able to create amazing things in a few years using it as an assistive tool, but this thing is not it.

The Empire Of God is fun, if your idea of fun is being punched in the balls for 44 minutes and 24 seconds every morning. From the obvious half assed AI cover (which ironically is the best part of this “album”), to the soulless and bland music, there is honestly no redeeming quality in this. Much like in visual arts, there are people that “create” an image basis a single prompt in Dall-e or Midjourney and then post it as their work, and there are people actually putting some sort of effort in using the AI as a tool instead of a replacement. Now, this is a reality that’s up to a lot of debate, the ethical part of using AI as a source of inspiration, or a gentle push out of a writer’s block, but this is not the point here.

The point is that this album has zero creative input. It’s just a mashup of Suno v3 generated clips paired with ChatGPT generated lyrics. Songs with no flow, structures with no coherency, overdone choruses that play a million times in every song, robotic acapella segments, this album has everything wrong with anything related to art when it’s stripped by human emotion.

There were maybe a couple of moments that everything lined up and sounded remotely cohesive, and I suspect there might have been a couple of keyboard layers added to claim human input, but the “music” worth mentioning in this 45 min ordeal is next to 0.

I was tempted to ask ChatGPT to write me a review about “a band that went from a new promising act that was gaining momentum to a joke in less than 2 years” and submit that review instead, but no machine can shout “Fuck off” louder than me.

Shame.

Rating: 0 out of 10