To call Colin Stetson's new band "metal" isn't quite right. Ex Eye is heavy, maximalist music made compact — proggy, noisy, metallic particles sent through the Large Hadron Collider to make black holes of sound.
Stetson, a saxophonist with fire for lungs, is joined by drummer Greg Fox (Zs, Liturgy), synth player Shahzad Ismaily (Secret Chiefs 3, Ceramic Dog) and guitarist Toby Summerfield here. Given its line-up of musicians, drawn from across experimental and improvised music, the band's self-titled debut album works through multiple notions of heavy with compositions that swarm and swell. But it's the album opener, "Xenolith; The Anvil" — which we're premiering, with live visuals by Derrick Belcham — where Ex Eye sets doom to a syrup-thick funk, like Isis jamming on the main theme from Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' "Moanin.'"
Ex Eyecomes out June 23 via Relapse.
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