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Review: Ex Deo - Caligvla
Ex Deo
www.facebook.com/exdeo
Caligvla

Label: Napalm Records
Year released: 2012
Duration: 49:29
Tracks: 10
Genre: Death Metal

Rating:
4/5


Review online: December 10, 2012
Reviewed by: MetalMike
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.4/5 (68%) (10 Votes)
Review

Caligvla is album #2 for Kataklysm singer Maurizio Iacono's side project, Ex Deo. As the name suggests, the lyrical themes are straight out of Imperial Rome, an epic topic to be sure. Musically, Iacono's decipherable Death Metal shouts grace some melodic, thrashy Heavy Metal that is augmented by lush keyboards and a few well-placed choruses. Everything about Caligvla is on a grand scale and nothing is done halfway. There are no ballads, no folky interludes, nothing to slow the epic steamroller of aggressive riffing and pounding drums. Seriously, if you aren't chanting the chorus to opener "I, Caligvla" like a blood-drunk citizen at the Colisseum on a hot summer day, you can color me surprised. If there's one thing that let me down, it is that the songs start to sound like each other as the album progresses. There's no drop in quality, just the occasional déjà vu moment.

Check out Caligvla if the idea of Heavy Metal that feels like an entire Roman legion marching across your chest sounds fun (a torture that fits in with the depraved and sadistic emperor's infamous reputation). Just don't say I didn't warn you if it feels like the same boots over and over again.

More about Ex Deo...
Review: Caligvla (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Romulus (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: The Immortal Wars (reviewed by MetalMike)
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