Formed less than a year ago, five-piece Exposures from Geelong, Australia, are set to release their debut EP. Chronicles is 18 minutes of hard-hitting progressive metalcore compiled of bone-crushing breakdowns, groovy riffs, and immaculate vocals that is sure to leave you begging for more.
Chronicles opens with an instrumental track fittingly titled “Rain”. It is very ambient for the first half, but the grooves and breakdowns make themselves more than noticeable in the second half.
The second and fifth tracks, “Isolation” and “Hollow Hearts”, are similar in that they are loaded with grooves and melody and follow an extremely similar blueprint. One notable difference is that “Isolation” has cleans. Much like their compatriots in Northlane, Exposures incorporates cleans that do not seem out of place whatsoever all the while sounding quite impressive. I’m curious to hear more cleans on a future release because we only get a small sample on Chronicles and they sound great.
Exposures set the bar extremely high by releasing “Isolation” as their first single, but surprisingly, it is not the strongest track on the EP. In my opinion, that title belongs to “Defiance”. From start to finish, “Defiance” is perfect. The melodies are great, the vocals are very strong, and there is an incredible ‘djent’ segment near the middle of the song. After the aforementioned ‘djent’ segment, “Defiance” reaches a climax by throwing some melody into the equation.
Vocally, the final track, “They Live”, is definitely the most diverse on Chronicles. This track is bound to bring pure chaos when/if Exposures decides to play it live. To give you a bit of an idea of what you’ll be dealing with, the lows are reminiscent of Molotov Solution on “They Live”, and if I dare say so, even heavier.
My only complaint with Chronicles concerns the title track. “Chronicles” is just a filler track that could have been left out, or at the very least, it would benefit from having a bit more melody added. With that being said, it doesn’t ruin the flow of the EP because it is less than a minute and a half long.
Exposures is a band that I strongly recommend keeping at least one eye and ear on. By having managed to find a nearly perfect balance of melody and grooves and heaviness and ambience, they show incredible promise on their debut EP, Chronicles. I’m expecting even bigger things from them in the future.
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For Fans Of: Volumes, Northlane, Periphery
