Following the uniquely progressive death(ish) trend of increasing Hippietude1, Exist has slowly morphed over the years from a spacey, Meshuggah-ish prog act in the vein of Intrinsic-era The Contortionist2 to a Pink Floyd-ian tricky-rhythm rock, primarily, outfit. 2020’s Egoiista, as such, saw coverage in these halls as prizing long-form style over impactful substance—still good though (if a tad underrated). In its dreamy, waltzing soundscape, it also functioned for me as an alluring escape in a year that was, well, quite the weird one. And, as things go in life and major happenings, longtime guitarist Matt Rossa (ex-Svengahli) stepped down and paved the way for WAIT band-leader Charlie Eron to hop on in slick-stringed support. As far as changes go, seeing as WAIT hosts an almost identical lineup to Exist, the personnel couldn’t have been more familiar. But could anyone have seen this Hippietude reversal coming?
Exist’s members’ breadth of live performance prowess often made it seem like Exist acted as an outlet for their softer ideas. Guitarist and vocalist Max Phelps tours frequently with the fully hippified Cynic, but also functions as the revived voice of Chuck Schuldiner on many Death to All bills. Bassist Alex Weber swings his fretless stick about with the likes of elevated slammers Defeated Sanity and melotech legends Obscura. Drummer Brody Smith has hit live with techy flippers Equipoise and groove-monsters Alluvial. Long story short, these guys know heavy, but up until this newest Hijacking the Zeitgeist, that heavy often fell to the side of an alt-rock inflected, jazz-kissed rock. But under the guidance and endjineering of Anup Sastry (ex-Skyharbor and much session work), this refreshed version of Exist reaches forth with both the shortest and punchiest album of their career.
Hijacking the Zeitgeist wastes zero time letting you know that it intends to churn pits with a smart and successful grooves. Between the true Meshuggah syncopation of lead jam “Blue Light Infinite,” and ode-to-microaggressions “One Degree Removed from Human,” and the frenetic fret-tumbling of “A Path to Nowhere,” Exist’s metallic pedigree has never felt more immediate and alive. But neither the wide, resonant chord stabs, Cynic-like riff crawls, nor nasal croon vanishes for long—even against the near-true breakdown of “Thief of Joy”— still weaving a modern and uniquely Exist path throughout this more aggressive landscape. Phelps can’t stray away from belting a forlorn chorus call or high vibration bridge, but his vocal qualities there, and too in his diverse harsh palette, continue to grow more pleasant and ferocious with each outing.
The cost of the burgeoning intensity throughout Hijacking the Zeitgeist, unfortunately, rests in a djentrification of tone. A scooped and compressed guitar attack isn’t necessarily offensive on its own, of course. Many bands in the 00s likes Textures or SikTh found a happy medium in their chunky but bright-chord and bass-infested expressions. The path that Sastry takes mirrors that more of the rhythm-focused bounce boost that he pushed with the WAIT record, which consequently is very modern djent. Despite the low dynamics, no moments of the album ever come across as painfully loud, with Weber’s bass in particular retaining it’s nasally clang. And to work around some of the dynamic issues, songs with longer stretches of clean strumming (“Hijacking the Zeitgest,” “Window to the All”) never allow those passages to bleed over distorted tones using focus as a substitute for layering.
This new fit takes some getting used to, and on my initial spins, I had to fight my resistance to change. But once I let the massive grooves that Hijacking the Zeitgeist has to offer take control of my head, it’s hill-climbing energy revealed itself in spades. The truth is that Exist knows exactly what they’re doing and that they can make this new, groove-focused sound work just as well as their previous work is testament to their abilities. Free of any fat, Hijacking the Zeitgeist’s presents few issues beyond its lower dynamic master to having a good time. It’s rare to see a progressive band re-galvanize a waning march—Fates Warning’s Darkness in a Different Light comes to mind—but Exist wears it as naturally as a band who’s slammed from the start. And if they can find a way to marry their more spacious past with their low-frills present, who knows what the future holds.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records | Bandcamp
Websites: exist.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/exist
Releases Worldwide: April 12th, 2024
