Exit State: Let's See It All

Is there a better feeling than sliding a new CD by a band you haven't encountered before into the player and then being knocked off your feet by the energy, verve and quality of what comes blasting out of your speakers? Well I'm sure there is, but while fully clothed not much matches it. Sometimes those initial feelings wear off, flattering to deceive as you realise you've sold your dignity (have you seen my dancing???) for a set of songs that are too easy to serve your every whim right from the off, losing their allure as you go back for second, third or fourth helpings. However it is the albums that hold up to repeated plays and which stand up to the scrutiny of a familiar relationship - going steady if you will - that have you telling your friends that this is the real thing, as they shake their heads and tell you they've seen it all before. If said album can then make those same friends turn their heads and exclaim "what the hell is that then" when they encounter it, then you know you've found the real thing. So what I'm trying to tell you here is that Let's See It All, the third album from UK rockers come metalheads ,come grungesters, come power-poppers, Exit State is actually pretty damn nifty. But then you'd worked out that was where I was headed hadn't you?

Place the needle on the record anywhere on Let's See It All (ok, I'm dreaming here, but holding down the skip button as a blurb of super-speed smurfisms burst from your headphones isn't quite so romantic...) and you'll find a treat - and cleverly one that doesn't sound exactly like all the rest. "Sugarcoat" finds a jumpy beat and shouty chorus that Baby Chaos or The Wildhearts would get a kick out of, "Sun In My Eyes" surges as though you'd stumbled into an arena marked Alter Bridge supported by Shinedown, "Let's See It All" punches and squirms like a modern day pop-punker and "This Part Of Me" straddles the gap between Grohl-ventures Nirvana and Foo Fighters. All the while the guitars duck, dive and snarl, the drums pummel and pound, the bass rumbles and the vocals veer madly from seductive whispers to ear piercing shatters. Most importantly though the whole shebang is presented with hooks aplenty and choruses to kill your throat to. However that it is all done without tumbling into an incoherent mess, or without ever sounding contrived, really is quite remarkable. That's not to say that Exit State are reinventing rock and roll for the next generation, but they sure are serving it up in a way that sounds fresh and exciting, ensuring the kids will get up on their feet and punch the air, while the wily leather jacket clad veterans propping up the bar will be grinning knowingly and nodding in approval.

Exit State deserve to be huge. It's up to good people like you to make it so - go get to it!

Track Listing
1. Pull The Thread
2. Sun In My Eyes
3. Let's See It All
4. The Pain I Demand
5. Sugarcoat
6. Lenny
7. Die Zombie
8. Elastic
9. Save Us From Ourselves
10. This Part Of Me
11. Crystalline

Added: June 27th 2013
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Exit State Online
Hits: 1928
Language: english

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