Exuvial Discusses Album Debut, Newer Music in the Pipline and Coming Together!

 


Progressive metal act EXUVIAL got together, decided upon a name, and would go on to write, record, and later release their debut album "The Hive Mind Chronicles Part I: Parasitica" in 2024! It being the next year, they have already begun writing all new material towards their next release! No shows played just yet, but hopes for the future, with them focusing on writing and releasing new music for all to hear!



1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

When we brainstormed band name ideas back when we started this project, we were also thinking of how it thematically tied to the story in our album, The Hive Mind Chronicles Part I: Parasitica, as there was a heavy theme of entomology.  Ultimately Exuvial (which is defined as “The cast-off skins or coverings of various organisms “) was the name we landed on and grabbed us, as it was easy to say and not difficult to spell!

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

Collectively in the band, we have a love of various genres in metal and the ones that grab us the most tend to lean in the progressive metal genre.  Mixing progressive elements along with other aspects of metal such as black metal, technical death metal, death metal, etc left us with a style that doesn’t feel like just one genre and keeps our ears interested in what will come next. We love intense music!

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

For the most part, yes! Fernando, Ibrahim, and Ethan were in a band called Apotheon prior to creating Exuvial.  Andrew was added later in the process as a referral from our friend Michael Ball (Tegmentum) who recommended we connect with Andrew when we were on the search for a drummer.

4. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

The band is mostly based out of Colorado.  The music scene is pretty alive and well here, and metal is a genre that tends to do well in this area. Some local bands I would recommend are:

We Are William

Highfells

Blood Incantation

Dreadnought

SpaceCorpse

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Life experiences and curiosities are what inspire us to write music.  We have all lived pretty unique lives and found inspiration from a plethora of artists, and want to find ways to draw upon those moments and inspirations to create something that evokes a response, a mood, an emotion.

6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)

The album follows this ancient hive mind that evolves in a distant world, developing from sea life into a parasitic intelligence. When their world starts dying, they encode their consciousness into a signal and send it across space. Once it reaches Earth, the hive mind materializes and starts deploying drones that parasitically take control of humans.

Earth's protector AI manages to free one person who helps reprogram some drones to fight back. These rebels journey deep into cave systems to confront the hive mind but get lost in the darkness. In a last-ditch effort, the AI triggers a global nuclear strike to stop the infection - leaving only two signals drifting in space.

We drew inspiration from sci-fi classics like 'Contact' and 'Alien,' but also hard science about insect evolution and parasitology. It's part one of a trilogy, exploring what happens when humanity faces something entirely beyond our understanding.

Thinking of films where some AI takes a turn against humans has been a concept that entered into our music.  The “creation ” (AI) destroys the “creator” (humans). While it feels so surreal and distant from where we are currently, it is also a bit of a social dialogue in how we interact with each other, and how we as humans treat living and non-living things.  We as a species are fixated on how we can continue to improve, get stronger, look younger, be more efficient, and yet we will do this at extreme costs to ourselves, our environment, and even to those around us.

The inspiration came from a plethora of sources, but the delivery was intended to tell a story that while seeming distant and fantastical, isn’t far from where we stand today.  And given how much AI has taken shape and embedded deep into our world today since the creation of this album, it seems more pertinent to dig deeper into this epic.

7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)

Yes, we do write our own songs.  The writing process has been a mix of independent composition as well as having a number of composition sessions together in the same room. We tend to use a software called Guitar Pro to help with documenting and composing our music, and can easily share ideas back and forth with each other. We’ve also recorded ideas either on a phone or directly into a DAW and shared those back and forth to cultivate ideas into something greater.

For this album, we wrote out a framework of the story, and broke it up into sections, each song representing a “chapter” of the story, and then assigning some parameters to each song. This allowed there to be focus on what we were creating and to ensure the music could complement the story.  For example, Autonomic Awakening is the turning point in the story, where there is a sense of “hope.”  With that, the song has a bit more uplifting and open sections to give this sense of optimism and reflect back musically what was happening at this point in the story. We will continue this approach and will explore others in future releases!

8. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?

We released our debut album The Hive Mind Chronicles Part I: Parasitica in late November 2024, and this album is meant to be listened to from start to finish, as it is part one of a three-part trilogy of albums.  We have an evolving story that will be expanded on in the next two albums, and would encourage listeners to dig into the lyrics as well as the themes that occur musically throughout to get the full experience!  We will be releasing our remaining music videos for this album over the next few months and these videos have a tie in visually to the story as well.

9. Do you have any new music in the works?

We have begun writing for our next release already! Not sure when that will be completed but for now, we’re digging in and having fun with exploring new ideas.

10. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?

Nothing is planned as of yet.  Our primary focus is writing for this year, but will look to take on any show offers either later in the year or in 2026 where we will plan on doing some tours then.

11. What plans do you have for the future as a band?

Currently, our plans are focused on writing for the next two releases and touring down the road.  We plan on continuing to create videos that capture some of the storytelling throughout, but for now, our focus is to make music we’re proud of and excited to share with everyone!

12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?

Our music is available on all streaming platforms, and if you go to our Linktree (https://linktr.ee/exuvialmusic), we have links to all our music videos, links to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc. and links to our merch (https://exuvial.bandcamp.com/merch) and physical copies of the album (https://silentpendulumrecords.com/collections/exuvial).

Post a Comment

[facebook] [blogger]

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Powered by Blogger.
Javascript DisablePlease Enable Javascript To See All Widget