Some EPs try to lure you in with atmosphere. Some take their time establishing mood, tension, or narrative. Living a Nightmare by Exanguis does none of that. Instead, it kicks the door off the hinges in the first seconds and spends the next fifteen minutes treating your existence like an inconvenience it intends to violently correct. This is Black Metal as an attack dog — relentless, feral, and spat directly in your face.
Across its four-track runtime, Exanguis manages to cram in more hostility than many bands do across full-lengths, but what makes this EP genuinely impressive is the clarity beneath the violence. The riffs don’t blur into shapeless speed; they cut with intent. Every blast section has definition. Every sudden shift into slower territory feels designed not as a breather, but as another method of punishment. When Exanguis dials back from full assault mode, it doesn’t feel like relief — it feels like the moment the predator circles you, waiting for the exact right angle to strike again.
The opening track A Chalice of Hate wastes no time establishing the ethos: sound the alarm, burn the bridge, leave nothing standing. The guitars roar with that serrated, tone that feels like it’s actively stripping the paint from your walls. There’s a sharpness to the picking and a discipline to the tremolo phrases that prevents the chaos from becoming sludge. Exanguis understands that speed means nothing without shape, and shape means nothing without venom — and every riff here drips with it.
The vocal approach is pure abrasion. Rather than going for cavernous howls or theatrical shrieks, the delivery feels like a throat in open revolt. It’s raw, strained, and scorched — the sort of voice that comes from someone who hasn’t seen daylight in several months and is furious about that fact. There’s an authenticity to it that makes the entire EP feel uncomfortably close, like you’re getting screamed at from a distance of about six inches.
But what really elevates Living a Nightmare is how Exanguis handles pacing. Many ultra-violent EPs suffer from sameness, but here the dynamics are weaponised. When the tempo drops — and it does, at strategic intervals — instead of giving you space to unclench your jaw, the band uses the slower sections as an extension of the beating. The drums stomp with cruel patience. The guitar tone thickens. The atmosphere turns claustrophobic. It’s the musical equivalent of someone leaning in slowly, smiling, and then driving the knife home with precision.
The production is dirty, but not disorganised. Harsh, but not hollow. There’s enough grit to keep it firmly entrenched in the underground, while still allowing the songwriting to breathe. The drums, in particular, sound like they’re being beaten within an inch of their life, yet they sit where they need to in the mix. Nothing is polished, but nothing is buried either — a difficult balance, and one Exanguis pulls off with confidence.
Lyrically and thematically, the EP feels like a fever dream of frustration, self-hate, and teeth-bared hostility. It’s not concerned with grand mythology or philosophical detours — it’s concerned with the immediate and the visceral. These nightmares aren’t abstract; they’re happening right now, in front of your face, in the dark corner of whatever room you’re listening in.
Living a Nightmare is, in many ways, exactly the kind of EP that reminds you why Black Metal thrives in the short format. It compresses fury into a tight container and lets it detonate. No filler, no hesitation, no pretence. Just violence sculpted into sound.
Living a Nightmare is available now via the Exanguis Bandcamp page.
CHOICE CUT: Nel Buio della Notte
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: A vicious, tightly-wound assault that proves Exanguis don’t need a full album to leave you in ruins. Short, savage, and absolutely unignorable.
