Existential revelations under dram and delirium of psychoactive muse revel in the nausea of nihil, a level of spiritual self-poisoning that’d best convey insatiable wanderlust felt in emergence beyond several years of cavernous containment. A cough of dead air from below sedates and blinds the senses as the realm of Santiago, Chile-based experimental black metal trio KEXELÜR opens to behold shapes pulled from shadowy battles and spiking curiosities unveiled by the light on this debut full-length album. Yarning an affected aural maze that feeds the wanderer blissful fusion and post-tormented possession ‘Epigrama de un Pasado Perdido‘ explores progressivity from a dark and initially dissonant place. For this debut the band’s increasingly free-built configuration begins incorporating elements of progressive rock, post-black metal and psychedelic rock movement within their broad-handed and exploratory vision. Sensorially gripping in its expanse yet motivated to move from portal-to-portal within their greater journey there is some magnetism to the way these folks intuit their way through the dark and endless corridors herein.

Kexelür formed circa 2021 between three musicians who’re named with one initial each (V., Λ., J.) one of whom, guitarist/bassist and sometimes co-vocalist Λ., also has a solo project Fatalys, worth checking out if you appreciate the guitar work on this album. The guitar work is the main feature of their work and has been from the start yet the eclectic strike of drummer V. is the glue which keeps it all from being a droning guitar rehearsal. The chemical burn of their triad congregation’s work was evident from the band’s first demo (‘Llave a las profundidades…’, 2022) where each song contained a portion that’d felt partially improvised within their tandem rhythm guitar channeled scribbling, reaching contrapunal highs (or, happy accidents?) as often as swirling, incomprehensible flexion of their jazz-handed black metal flitting. “Olostog” stood out on that first demo via a tone that’d reminded me of Aeternus but followed its rhythmic obsession to a surreal state a la Yellow Eyes, drafting odd shapes to skirt and embellish at irregular intervals. ‘Epigrama de un pasado perdido‘ brings back this immersive touch within similarly longform pieces (~10 minutes each) constructed by applying a Portal-level horror ebb which features in interval with psych-jammed and free floating improvised movement, a true psychedelic rock separation occurring within their most deeply crossed wires (see: “Ningún resplandor evitará el final”.)

I’d overlooked Kexelür‘s second demo (‘La vida como condena pesadillesca‘, 2024) for the sake of its cover art being AI generated. Their performances on the 2022 recorded release might conceivably cue the listener into the shape of the trio’s composed work, but otherwise manifesting as a random free-jammed rehearsal tape. That second demo is an interesting feat and should cue the listener into the ouevre of the band and what is scripted in their work and what might come naturally otherwise but it isn’t an essential moment from my point of view. Especially if you’re not familiar with (or keen on) improvised performance. Because the liner notes suggest “Dionysian obfuscation” and “psychedelic induced trance” as states of mind/influence we could formally consider the band’s work relevant to psychedelia and improvisation. It helps to frame the slithering anxious dread that flows through all of their work.

At the mouth of a monochromatic portal where progressive black metal, grinding dissonant guitar techniques, and post-hardcore structured songs are ensorcelled into a worthy enough sluice to improvise within, here Kexelür insert chiming post-black rhythmic lustre in long-ranting streaks of jazz fusion inspired soloing/leads. It isn’t a “loose” or free-wheeling approach so much as an electrocuted nerve being forced to flail long after death. Shocks of death metal toned mathcore riffs feature here as clots, bunged aggression which eases the guitarist’s otherwise propellant action toward each song’s next mechanism. Entranced within its wandering thoughts and possessed drift “Vestigios del enajenado por la antracita” introduces a chunking Altarage-esque (or, Tumba de Carne?) movement via its spastic math-metallic rhythms, eventually deflating to strangled leads and rhythmic flexing around ~5:46 minutes in. From the first to the fifteenth pass through this first song I’d found something new, some odd twitched-out detail, eerie harmonization, or thread to follow that’d kept ‘Epigrama de un pasado perdido‘ calling from its maze-mouth for another try at its warped, puzzling phrases.

The real howling beast of this record is “Ningún resplandor evitará el final”, a post-black metal piece to the tune of ~13 minutes which leads and concludes with psychedelic rock wonderment. As the central focal heap of the full listen I’d been surprised how tonally different it’d been from the opener as atmospheric and melodic black metal riffcraft hadn’t been as clear a feature as dissonance on their demo recordings. It does however compliment the ease into closer/title track “Epigrama de un pasado perdido” where use of a piano highlights the otherwise deeply repetitive motion sickness of the song. Kexelür finish their thought descending, draining of its echoing layers of obsessive leads, ringing feedback, and spoken word as they play the song out in menacing curl. The destination isn’t as important as the trip on the way through.

What’d stood out most within my time with ‘Epigrama de un pasado perdido‘ was the band’s consistent channel of a singular unnerving feeling conjured from a variety of sub-genre informed techniques and movement, a morbid mood set as a main feature even within “cleaner” modern black metal rhythms, dissonance and loose psychedelic trot. There has unquestionably been a leap made in the band’s authorship here, greater intentionality feeds their compositions without becoming overly focused on one phrase or technique, keeping it weird enough without vomiting pure nonsense into their labyrinthine halls. The album is fairly short, could’ve used one more song, and the bass guitar could be put to better use in a most cases but the insane level of emergent handiwork balances out those rough edges, retaining their grit. This is only just what these folks are capable of after just a few years in this configuration, potential displayed by Kexelür‘s developing artistic voice is a wild thing to consider beyond this point as there is yet wide open space available for greater exaggeration within this skill set. As a debut album ‘Epigrama de un pasado perdido‘ delivers a concise and brilliantly estranged experience beyond its years. A very high recommendation.

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