Review of Existential Animals - "Surrealith" E.P.

INDEPENDENT INSANITY

By: Geoff Teach

Here in Chicago, we metal heads are accustomed to being immersed in instrumental metal. We are spoiled by being able to say that such great acts as Bongripper, Pelican, and Russian Circles (as well as other lesser known acts such as Scientist, Cmn ineed yr hlp, and Lost in Blue) are our own homegrown talent. Recently, though, our monopoly on instrumental metal has been weakened by the rise of such stellar outfits as Washington, D.C.’s Animals as Leaders and Houston’s Scale the Summit, and fans of the niche genre could not be happier for the fact. Well, my cats and kittens, it is time to add Cleveland, Ohio’s Existential Animals to the list of fantastic national instrumental metal. Hailing more specifically from Oberlin, Ohio, Existential Animals is essentially a two-man, college-aged wrecking crew of technical death metal destruction, and their debut E.P., “Surrealith” (Independent), is flat-out spectacular. Rich in production, brilliant in composition, and abundant in both hypnotic shreddage and abstract riffage, “Surrealith” is one hell of an introductory release that will garner Existential Animals attention and acclaim from critics far and wide, including my own.

Featuring five tracks, “Surrealith” gets going after an introductory feedback starter (“Accretion”) with “Vitreous Vale”, a riff-laden monster that bends and winds its way into the epic “Oneironaut”, my favorite track on the roughly twenty minute album. “Oneironaut” (or ‘explorer of lucid dreams’) ebbs and flows through nearly eight minutes of progressive solos, crunching breakdowns, and killer rhythms, and it is definitely the finest work on the E.P. But not to finish meekly, Existential Animals close out the effort with the hard-charging “The Zanclean Deluge” and “Stalked Vestige”, which includes guest vocals that eerily resemble Wormed’s Phlegeton. Overall, Existential Animals’ “Surrealith” is a stunningly wicked E.P., and I fully believe that its release will help cement the band’s reputation as one of the finest instrument metal acts in the country.

Keep it metal, class dismissed!

To listen to “The Zanclean Deluge” off of “Surrealith”, just press play below!