Exilia – Münster 2007

Milan-based band EXILIA is one of the few Italian Metal & Heavy Rock acts, and probably the only one who made a significant international impact. Part of EXILIA’s success is their intensive touring, and during the ‘Nobody Excluded’ tour we checked the live qualities of the Italian quartet.

Music
EXILIA combines the heavy crossover of bands like RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, PANTERA or RAMMSTEIN with melodic elements from the Grunge era, and they are often compared with German 1990s Alternative stars GUANO APES, although EXILIA is a lot heavier than them. Both bands are perhaps mainly compared with each other because of their strong female front figure. It is especially the powerful and explosive performance of vocalist Masha that boosts EXILIA sky high. The rest of the band: drummer Ge, bass player Random, and guitarist ElioAlien, provide a heavy undertone with lots of Nu-Metal inspiration. There are lots of aggressive guitar riffs blended with Masha’s voice going from soft, but hoarse, to raw and roaring! In fact some people, who are new to EXILIA’s music, wonder if this rough voice is really the one of a woman. Masha is in fact a live wire, and both her look and her sound are the most specifiable characteristics of EXILIA: She has also written a lot of the band's lyrics; going from sad and personal, to angry and crazy. ‘Starseed’ and ‘Without You’ are beautiful, sad songs. ‘Starseed’ was written in memory of a friend that passed away too early. ‘Stop Playing God’ and ‘Where I’m Wrong’ is when their anger clearly comes out!



Performance
After the performance of the local support act DA IMPACT, who delivered a solid set but whose crossover between melodic Metal and Hip Hop sounded a little dated and fuddy-duddy as this kind of sound already peaked in the mid-90s and DA IMPACT had little to add of their own to this long-gone trend, it was finally time for EXILIA.


Pictures DA IMPACT

Days before the show one could observe in a local internet forum for the scene in Münster that there were many misconceptions about EXILIA. Probably because of the excessive promotion of EXILIA’s record label and their efforts to build a high profile for the band, EXILIA does suffer from a wrong image among certain people, who think that EXILIA is another one of those polished, commercial post-Grunge acts who try to ride a wave which is long gone. In fact, EXILIA’s music has a lot harder edge to it than those people may think, and you notice this harder edge especially when the band around the charismatic shouter Masha is on stage. She is running, banging and giving her very best, while guitars, bass and drums lay down a solid groove which is extremely heavy. And they succeed; within minutes the energy spreads throughout the club. With her long blonde dreadlocks and her impressive and powerful voice, Masha is any Heavy Metal girl's idol! Seeing her jump around on stage her energy comes out, and as a front figure she actually upstages most of her male colleagues.



The club wasn’t exactly packed and it wasn’t probably that kind of club a band like EXILIA plays anyway. Guess there haven’t been many bands with MTV rotation performing here. ;-) Less than 100 people turned up to see EXILIA performing in Münster but this had no effect on the band’s playful and spirited performance. But it seems that the very small stage of the Triptychon didn’t allow EXILIA’s stage setting to be fully put up. But still there were amplifiers trapped in cages, a cage around the drum kit, a back drop, Masha armed with a chain saw or just armed with her rage will destroy the icons of stupidity during the show and also a paper-mâché George W. Bush on stage which was kicked off-stage by Masha after a few seconds of the song ‘Kill Me’, a song about Guantanamo.



Well-rehearsed by their constant touring and highly motivated, EXILIA performed a rocking set which really impressed me. EXILIA ended their show with a cover version of METALLICA’s mega hit ‘Enter Sandman’, which just showed that Masha’s rough voice can compete even with the one of James Hetfield – astonishing especially since most male vocalists fail when they try to mess with METALLICA’s shouter. All people who have those above mentioned misconceptions about the Italian four-piece to adjust their view of the band. The only point is that slightly overprized tickets of 18€ won’t prompt people to check them just out of curiosity. But we get many more chances to see EXILIA on stage at the forthcoming summer festivals for sure.