Ex Deo – The Immortal Wars (2017)

Everybody’s favorite Roman-inspired band is finally back with another killer onslaught of dramatic symphonic elements and a catchy guitar riffs. “The Immortal Wars” marks Ex Deo’s return with nearly 40 minutes of superbly entertaining music, their first foray since the brilliant “Caligvla” back in 2012. If you like music that has a certain epic feeling to it, similar to bands like Sabaton and Fleshgod Apocalypse, you will love this one.

Opening with the pummeling “The Rise of Hannibal”, the band wastes no time in showing off the big guns with dramatic orchestrations and a solid (and heavy) musical core filled with catchy riffs. Playful tracks like “Hispania” perfectly showcase the band’s skills in balancing heavy sections with hyper fast drumming with more melodic and atmospheric rhythmical sections for headbanging. The opening of “Crossing of the Alps” will greatly send chills down your spine, but it is the punishing Death Metal elements of this track that will make you love it.

After the intermezzo, the flow of this release continues with the superbly engaging melodic guitars of “Cato Majo: Carthago delenda est!, the excellent drumming of “Ad Victoriam” and the very dramatic arrangements of “The Spoils of War”. As the album continues to roll, we clearly hear the band’s musical evolution over the years and the energy behind their return.

Closing this release with “The Roman”, we are left very impressed on how this release blends all its elements together to create a very cohesive and engaging sound. All members of Ex Deo (which 80% of them are actually Kataklysm) are in perfect synch when it comes to crafting catchy and heavy songs that are nicely accentuated by the orchestral arrangements. If you like heavy music that perfectly introduces melodic and orchestral elements, you will certainly enjoy this solid release.

Label: Napalm Records

Release: February 24th, 2017

Genre: Symphonic Death Metal

Country: Canada