Interview by Kris Peters
Australian extreme progressive outfit Ne Obliviscaris have endured a nightmare run of misfortunes in the lead up to their new opus Exul, which is out now.
Drum tracking for the album was laid down in March 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee, but, unlike many who made it home before the world shut down, Ne Obliviscaris' guitarist Benjamin Baret and bass player Martino Garattoni weren't so lucky.
Originally due to fly home straight after tracking, the pair were instead forced to remain in America indefinitely until things cleared enough for their safe passage home.
What should have been a swift follow up to the critically acclaimed 2017 album Urn instead dragged on for more than two more years and saw members of the band all deal with personal loss, relationship problems and other life events that, when coupled with the frustrations of constant delays with the album, almost cast an untenable wedge within the band that threatened to possibly force a premature end to proceedings.
Thankfully, as they say, time heals all wounds and with Exul finally ready for mass consumption vocalist XEN sat down for a chat with HEAVY to go through a tumultuous last couple of years.
"It will be a great relief (when the album comes out)," he sighed. "The last few years have been quite difficult - as everyone else has been through. There was a couple of times throughout the last few years where we didn't know whether or not the album would make it. There was a lot of pauses, a lot of frustrations and I think it's been a great relief to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's been a long time coming and I think people will be able to tell the amount of effort and patience and frustrations that were channelled into this album and hopefully people will be able to appreciate it. It will be a cathartic moment for everyone to be able to listen to this for us."
In the full interview, XEN talks about Exul musically, the contrasting emotions throughout and how the band measured the scale of that, the darker core to Exul and where it comes from, writing the opposing vocal lines between himself and Tim Charles, how close the band came to breaking up, the almost theatrical nature to the music and how difficult that is to create, how this album differs to Urn, the band's 20 year anniversary and more.