6Exhance – Et in Cacophonia ego

6Exhance is Belgium power trio, formed in 2021. It consists of Peter Verdonck (saxophone and screams), David Jean’s Nokerman (guitar and bass effects) and Kjell de Raes (drums). The band have self released their debut long player entitled Et In Cacophonia ego (Latin for And I sit in Cacophony), distributed via Hard Life Promotion. Actually, the album was released more than a year ago, but it’s first recently it landed on my doorstep.

After four spins I still feel confused & disoriented, and not sure how to present it to our readers. Before the first spin I could read from the press material that some of the band members were active in some ‘Balkan orhestras’ and originating from the Balkan Peninsula, I expected to hear some sounds from that area of Europe. From the very first opening tones of “Nourrir” (listen below), I knew it’s nothing like this. So I will stick to official description of their style as ‘a cacophony embrio – very math metal free jazz’! Confused? Unfortunately you’ll become increasingly confused if you take a time of and give it a listen.

Meanwhile, let’s start with some pros of the record; the overall sound on Et In Cacophonia ego is varied, including an overdrive guitar with a two headed sound, a screaming sax, a jackhammer drums with an offbeat groove. Throughout album’s seven (lengthy!) tracks, 6Exhance meticulously deployed asymmetrical architecture, with clearly orchestrated savagery. It’s carried by clean and professional production, where all the instruments are competently handled.

Now to the biggest cons of this opus; unfortunately this wild yelling, often similar to black metal shrieks, is just tiring and uninspiring. The good thing is that all seven compositions are largely instrumental, thus the screams of Peter Verdonck are seldom. The only exception is the song named Sourdre” where his screams are prominent and dominant. Another thing I’m not big fan of is the often confusing and ‘overwhelming’ guitar shredding. Everything is possible between black metal and free jazz, and I approve and applaud their ambitions of creating something that breaks all the boundaries of traditional metal, as they don’t fit into any traditonal genre category.

Perhaps there is a higher artistic standard behind this debut offering from 6Exhance, but I got to be honest and say this isn’t my cup of tea. After the 34 minutes I really didn’t know what I’ve just heard and I felt as the album just had one long song, so that’s the main reason why I can’t choose any track as my favorite.

Since Et In Cacophonia ego is something you rarely come across, and if my review makes any sense, then I think you should give it a try. In the same manner, fans of Flesh Eating Foundation, Shining, Fleshpress, Meshuggah, Cynic, Sunn O))) and similar, I would say experimental and obscure mathcore/jazz/progressive/black/avant-garde metal acts, might find it interesting and worth investing in.

For further info on the band and their debut album, visit https://6exhance.bandcamp.com/album/et-in-cacophonia-ego