Band : Art In Exile
Album title : Art In Exile
Label : Casket/ Copro
Distributor : PHD
Release date : 28/07/2008
Release : Mini-CD

From the out-of-the-way Australian town of Adelaide comes Art In Exile with a sound not often heard in the Land Of Oz. Started in 2002 by frontwoman (and originally also second guitarist) Mel Bulian and bassist (and occasional bacling singer) Liv Sellick after the demise of Mel's former band Embryonic Soul, the girls were joined by Mel's partner-in-crime Matt Redmond (who originally came in as second guitarist) from side-project Of The Human Condition. Eventually drummer Tim Robinson also joined, and after a long and unsuccessful search for a suitable keyboardist, Redmond (who's actually aclassically trained pianist) was able to permanently switch to that instrument when second guitarist Stuart Robinson joined. Taking their influences from the likes of Arcturus, Burzum, Dark Tranuillity, Death, Diamanda Gallas, Dream Theater, Emperor, Katatonia, The Kovenant, Lacuna Coil, Nine Inch Nails, Opeth, Pink Floyd, Rush Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Strapping Young Lad/ Devin Townsend, Suffocation, The Third And The Mortal, Tiamat, Ulver, and Unexpect, the band started composing songs with their own take on Gothic and Metal, and eventually redorded 4 tracks (well, in reality there's 5, when you count the hidden track) during November 2006 as a quartet including Mel, Matt (playing both the guitar and keyboards, plus providing the programming, for the occasion), Liv, and Tim.

After that, the four started looking out for people to enhance their line-up. With the return of guitarist Stuart Robinson, the band was at least capable to reproduce the double 7-string guitar assault from the recordings thanks to the fact that Mel handled the second guitar, and it enabled Matt to concentrate fully on his keyboard and programming. So, the band soon enough started to play the odd gig [not exactly evident in a place like Adelaide, which is situated some 700 kms East from Melbourne (over 1300 kms from Sydney, over land) and 2560 from Perth. Most international bands tend to "forget" the town in their schedule when touring Australia, usually concentrating on the West Coasts between Melbourne and Sydney, and then simply flying over to Perth on the East Coast. Also, there's not a lot of gig promotion going on unless the bands themselves show some initiative], and by December the band finally got their finished EP back from the printers', making it available on their shows (launch show was February 3rd) and MySpace. A positive side of the kinda "secluded" music scene however must be that, whenever there's a bigger event goin' on, you will easily get invited to play, and in late January 2007 the band played at Adelaide's Australia Day Metal Fest (alongside other local bands Imminent Psychosis, Obdurate Seduction, Quazar, Sarsekim, Stargazer, and Victoria county based Veil Of Anguish, amongst others). Two weeks after the release show, the band got word that their music would be featured for a whole week on free US Internet radio show The Darkside...obviously somebody liked what they were doin' very much. In fact, the band got more airplay on Australian radio, some European radio show and on website Goth Metal World, received positive reviews from Germany (thé European Goth country) and local press. But in April Liv announced her departure, and it would take the band some time to get back on track.Early August then, came news that the new (female) bassist would be Leni Benton (she'd played in a variety of Metal acts in during the late '90s), earning that position after long and strenuous learning of the band's EP and new songs, her first show to be in September. In February 2008 the band revealed the addition of guitarist Rocco DeMaria (formerly a member of Adelaid based Death Grind act Omnium, he quite suddenly left after a 10-year tenure with that band) to their line-up, allowing Mel to scream out her pretty little lungs as freely as she would wish, and also to expand on the growing influence of the guitar in the band's music. By this time live appearances apparently started to come at 3-week intervals, and rumours about interest from a European label to distribute the EP on a worldwide scale started to rear its head. Rumours which were confirmed in May, with a projected release date of June 30th, which has since been postponed (along with a whole bunch of released by the label).

Now, as mentioned before, this band's sound is quite un-typical for Australia, and genarally described as "Goth/ Metal", you're best off not to expect any clean-cut Goth Metal alà Within Temptation. Nobody describes it better than the band itself: "Dark, intense and very melodic, with Industrial overtones...clean and Death female vocals...moody and Noise keys...Jazzy/ Metal drums...Dark, thumping bass rhythms...and a double whammy of riffing seven-string guitars,"...but if that still doesn't give you a good picture, have a listen to the three songs the band posted at myspace.com/artinexile. As you will notice, the keyboards occasionally give off fluttering bits of airy piano play, Mel is a true vocal chameleon with a voice going from almost girlie innocent to nasty aggressive and threatheningly deep and growling or snarling. Occasionally, the band takes on a different stance from the pure aggressive one with experimental and occasionally albeit Ambient synth noises, which enhance the Industrial undertones of the guitars. Anyway, just have a listen.  The songs made by the band vary in length from 3:38 ("Spitting Thorns In A Comatose", nót posted at Myspace) to 9:59 (themoody "Behind The Eyes", of which only 2:09 were posted). What you will nót hear though, is the two (!) electronic instrumentals the band placed at the end of the album as a hidden bonus following the short silence after the EP closing "Sober Optic" (the actual song however, is indeed available on the band's MySpace page).

In essence, Art In Exile have a sound very remeniscent to the British Industrial/ Electronic Goth scene that was so strong until just a couple a years ago...and compared to that, this is certainly the best I've ever heard in that genre (not in the least due to the great female fronting!). In other words, I like véry much...but not enough to add Art In Exile to my year-lists. Something which may well happen once I get to hear the material the band has written and developed with the new line-up!

95/100

Tony.