Ex Deo
Caligvla
Rating
Style: Roman Metal
Release date: 31 August, 2012
Playing time: 51:12
 

You may like or dislike heavy metal music, that's fair enough, but anyone who claims that our style of music makes you stupid is a plain fool. Take Ex Deo. It's a bloody learning experience, it is!

R
oman history always fascinated me deeply. The Roman empire's ability to be exactly that; an empire despite all the different peoples, all the different cultures and religions. The reach and the magnitude of this machine of bureaucracy and military was immense and something it took centuries a hordes of barbarians to break down.

The emperors have often become the centre of our attention because they were great warlords and statesmen. Some of them were of course also completely nuts. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, called Calicula (little boot) was one of them. This time, Ex Deo, Kataklysm main man Maurizio Iacono's side project, has decided to tell the story of this at first respected and popular emperor who then turned into a perverted tyrant. His 2000th birthday is in two days, by the way, and the album very appropriately is released on that day. Neat detail!

The word appropriate can be used in another connection in this review. The music delivered by the Canadians is appropriately majestic as I'd expect when the story told is about a Roman emperor.

It all sounds great. Plain and simple. Bombast, heaviness, well-wrought songs. Synths are of course used to add extra layers of atmosphere and they go hand in hand with the melodic death metal foundation the entire effort is built upon.

Death metal for history students - I'm loving it! Hail Ex Deo!


Tracklist

01. I, Caligvla
02.
The Tiberius Cliff (Exile to Capri)
03.
Per Oculus Aquila
04.
Divide Et Impera
05.
Pollice Verso (Damnatio Ad Bestia
06.
Burned To Serve As Nocturnal Light
07.
Teutoburg (Ambush of Varus)
08.
Along the Appian Way
09.
Once Were Romans
10.
Evocatio - The Temple of Castor & Pollux

Label: Napalm Records
Distribution: Target (Denmark)
Artwork rating: 70/100
Reviewed by: Thomas Nielsen
Date: 29 August, 2012
Website: Ex Deo@MySpace