Inexacta
Previous Trick Us
5.4
It wasn’t too surprising to find out that Inexacta hail from Chile, as their take on nineties-style, groove-oriented metal does have a South American flavor that can be traced back to Sepultura. That easy comparison out of the way, the band also touch on old school thrash at times, but for the most part keep things at medium pace and the arrangements fairly simple. Previous Trick Us is Inexacta’s first, self-financed release, and while from a production point of view it’s quite impressive, it falls short on the musicianship and songwriting fronts.
Musically, Inexacta are competent but don’t yet have the repertoire to sustain their songs for more than a couple of minutes, and unfortunately most of them break the four-minute mark on Previous Trick Us. There is little deviation from the plodding mid-paced rhythms which become tiring pretty quickly. Likewise for the riffs, which too often fall back on power chord-driven chugging. On the plus side Carlos Martinez’s Cavalera-like roar is reasonably strong, though the rare clean/spoken vocals (“Everything Is Not Dead”, “Lie To My Face”), aren’t so impressive. Simply put, the limited musicality of Inexacta has resulted in quite ordinary songwriting, but this will surely improve with time. Potential is evident on the stronger tracks such as “In Sane Side”, “Devastated” and the instrumental “Assuming The End”. As mentioned before the production on Previous Trick Us, save for a lack in bottom end, has impressive clarity and the mix is solid.
I don’t wish to be overly critical of Inexacta, as most of the issues with Previous Trick Us simply relate back to the band's youth and inexperience at the time of recording (this release is a year old now). For a debut, this is decent but in context of what’s out there it's decidedly average and underwhelming. Inexacta will no doubt improve as musicians, and with that should come better songwriting and hopefully, a stronger sense of originality. As the band continue to gel, they would do well to turn up the intensity and aggression, and move away from the simplistic, repetitive groove metal offered up on this album. Here’s to a stronger and more distinctive release next time around.
