EXALTATION
New Zealand-based bestial death metal cataclysm Exaltation are by all means one of their nation’s rising extreme metal forces, surely destined to share their country’s highest underground ranks with other notorious local death dealers like Heresiarch, Vesicant and the such. Exaltation started in early 2013 with Mort on guitar, Aaron Baylis on drums and his brother Nathan Baylis on bass. The band started off playing black metal primarily influenced by bands like Clandestine Blaze and Dødheimsgard's Kronet Til Konge album. Around 2015 Exaltation’s members had ammassed further influences and refined the band’s vision further, becoming a more focused and violent project and changing direction into a more black/death metal style. Nathan Baylis switched from bass to guitar in 2015 and started writing more for the band, a change which contributed to the change in musical direction. Al Cunningham joined Exaltation early 2016 to fill Nathan’s place on bass, also becoming the vocalist later on that year. A year later Exaltaion's first demo was recorded in March/April 2017 with a consolidated lineup of Aaron Baylis on drums, Al Cunningham on bass and vocals, Mort on guitar, and Nathan on guitar. The demo was DIY recorded within the band’s confines with Nathan Baylis tracking and mixing jointly handled by Mort and Nathan. It was this demo which captured the attention of Sentient Ruin and which subsequently brought the two parties in contact via the mediation of Heresiarch’s vocalist N.H.. Label and band thus agreed to remain in touch as events took their natural course. Exaltation subsequently went dormant as they quietly envisioned and executed their first debut full-length offering over the next several years. The debut full length album Under Blind Reasoning was finally recorded between November 2020 and march 2021 by Raj Singarajah, mixed by Cam Sinclair of Dymanic Rage, and mastered by Luke Finlay of Primal Mastering. During the album’s recording sessions with Singarajah, Mort and Nathan experienced a shift in inspiration and vision for the band and were able to develop their sound further and experiment with different ideas, adding a much deeper and darker atmosphere to the music, a lengthily, patient and meticolous but natural process which in the end yielded one of the most caclysmic and majestic dark death metal releases to ever see the light on New Zealand soil. Exaltation’s bleak, unforgiving and merciless aura is further shaped by Cunningham’s lyrics which deal with themes of struggle and suffering amongst modern society and its constant flaws, downfalls, and sudden shifts. Under Blind Reasoning was released on CD/LP/MC/Digital In July 2022 via Sentient Ruin as a crowning achiemevemnt in New Zealand extreme metal.