The Demo Review:

Artist: Exuviate
Band Members: April Taylor (screams), Sam Lara (guitars), Doug Randazzo (guitars), Eric Sandilic (bass)
Location: Holtsville, NY

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There are currently 2 Reviews of this Demo.
Average Rating: 5

Submitted by Musashi on 3/29/00:
The only thing in Holtsville, NY, is the IRS. So a band from Holtsville has got to be pretty fucking evil.
Wow! This is some heavy shit! Let me quickly talk about what I don't like. The production is really dry and the mix is heavy on the vocals and drums.
Now let's talk about what I do like. This shit is so fucking heavy I can't stand it. Think Stravinsky meets death metal. This is the way music should progress. This pushes the envelope. Exuviate incorporate modern tonal thinking with the dexterous chops, painful vocals and emotional lyrics to create a sound all their own.
Exuviate is not something that, for me, is easy to listen to. However, I immediately realized that the difficulty lies in the challenge of understanding the complexity of the music rather than sufffering through the typical noise associated with a demo/self released CD.
I highly recommend buying a copy of this CD and listening to it. I find myself wishing they would do more and push the envelope further and improvise. I have to see them live.

Hel's Review:
Never let it be said that a woman can’t regurgitate metal screams as well as a man. April certainly can hold her own as lead vox of this brutal New York band, formerly known as Butchery. But before I get into that, let me talk about the packaging of this demo.
This disc was handed to a Metal Judgment staffer at the March Metal Meltdown this past weekend. So I don’t have a press kit to comment on, but if I were to hazard a guess based on the cd package, I suspect it would be pretty good. The cd is one of the most well put together I’ve seen. Color artwork on the front cover with a very nice photo collage of the band on the back of that which you see when you open the case. Even better, it opens up to reveal the lyrics to all nine songs. The cd itself is all black with their stylized band name (which looks nice but is completely indescipherable since the letters are totally rearranged), the band name written legibly, and the words "New York Death Metal." Gotta love that. In the case, under the cd tray, you find the line up, contact info, acknowledgments, and even a little merch info. The back of the case sports a listing of the song titles.
Back to the music. As I was saying, April’s vocals are by far one of the best female cookie monsters I’ve heard. You’d never know this wasn’t a guy if there were no pictures or credits. The guitar and bass work is interesting, fast, and heavy. Just as they should be. There’s even the odd guitar solo that you can vaguely hear in the background. The mix is extremely muddy, as always seems to be the case with demos. As a result, it’s difficult to pick out the various instruments, with the exception of the drums. The drums overpower everything and point out something that I’m not sure Exuviate wanted to highlight. If the bio on their website is current, they do not have a permanent drummer. I’m relieved to hear that, because I think the person playing on this demo is competent, but certainly not great. There are frequently little stutters that don’t belong and he even seems sort of lost occasionally. They definitely need someone killer to round out this band. If you live in the New York City area and are a killer drummer looking for a death metal band, you may want to audition for Exuviate.
All in all, I’d have to say this is as good as I’d ever expect a demo to be. They may not be breaking new ground musically, but I don’t think they’re trying to be much more than a traditional great death metal band. Where they do break ground is by having a female singer who kicks ass in a full-on death metal attack right along with the guys in a no-nonsense fashion. Exuviate is definitely a band worth checking out.

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