SO THIS EX DEO ALBUM COULD ACTUALLY END UP BEING REALLY GOOD

When news of Ex Deo, the new band featuring Kataklysm’s Maurizio Iacono, first began to bubble this winter, I yawned. I’ve always thought of Kataklysm as a solid, serviceable but not especially interesting group, so the prospect of a side-project of a band I’m not especially into in the first place wasn’t all that appealing. But now that new tracks from the Ex Deo debut Romulus are starting to surface I’m being forced to reconsider.

This shit is epic!

For starters, it’s all Ancient Roman-themed. But Pagan/Folk bands are becoming a dime a dozen these days, and Ex Deo actually execute with thick, rich textures and crushing death metal grooves thanks in no small part to the keyboard orchestrations of Blackguard’s Jonathan Leduc. The rest of the Romulus recording lineup is rounded out by other members of Kataklysm and Martyr, with guest appearances coming from Nergal of Behemoth, Karl Sanders of Nile and Obsidian C. of rising Norwegian psychedelic black metal stars Keep of Kalessin. It’s an all-star cast for an album that, at least from the two tracks currently streaming on Ex Deo’s MySpace page, seems like it’s going to be an all-star itself.

Romulus drops June 19th in Europe and June 30th in North America via Nuclear Blast.

-VN