Amplified is a weekly column focusing on new and emerging artists. Got a band that fits the bill? Email amplified@metalinsider.net.

Progressive metal, particularly the djent offshoots, have mainly boiled themselves down to a lot of rote technical exercises. Drum machine-like 4/4 pulses and everything locked down to a grid and every bit of character sampled and edited out. When the subgenre-obsessed metal community removes the sort of radical splintering that lends to so much more creativity to the point where I can immediately recognize which Toontrack sample pack was used for a band’s record, we’ve got a problem. London’s Exist Immortal seem to know this, and we’re beginning to see a band that aims to inject a bit more humanity and intensity to such a highly focused, scientific sort of style. Check out the track “Liberator” below to see for yourself. The track offers a lot more grit in its production than the typical operating-room sterility of this sort of band; everything slots in exactly where it’s supposed to in the sonic landscape, but the kind of rawness that’s usually ironed out with silky smooth post-production lends it some extra aggression. Even the vocal performance has a bit more strain and grit behind it than the usual layers of saccharine cleans we’ve become used to in our progressive vocalists. It’s a recognizable sound, but one with some exciting, and needed variety.

Grab Exist Immortal’s record Darkness of an Age on Bandcamp. They’re currently writing new material as well!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juw5rd4LY04&w=560&h=315]