Juno Award-nominated symphonic death metal band EX DEO will unleash their epic new full-length album, “The Thirteen Years Of Nero,” this Friday, August 27, 2021 via Napalm Records. On “The Thirteen Years Of Nero” – read our review here – the collective transports the listener back to Ancient Rome with 10 cinematic masterpieces that tell the conceptual story of the reign of Emperor Nero.
Today, following the release of their merciless new singles “Imperator” and “Boudicca (Queen Of The Iceni)” – featuring the powerful pipes of Unleash The Archers frontwoman Brittney Slayes – the band offers a third new single, the sinister “The Head Of The Snake”. The track showcases an ominous, unrelenting battery of symphonic swirls amid orchestrally accented riffage and choral passages.
Front-man Maurizio Iacono says: “The centerpiece of all things NERO was his mother, Agrippina. She manipulated the strings of the senate and conspiracies to make sure her beloved son NERO would rule the world, she was the head of the snake with her deadly fangs of deceit. The song travels through her calculated sadistic mind.”
Watch the new lyric video for “The Head Of The Snake” below.
“The Thirteen Years Of Nero” Album Artwork
The Canadian unit is led by founding front-man Maurizio Iacono (Kataklysm) and producer/guitarist Jean-François Dagenais (Kataklysm, Misery Index, Despised Icon), with the stylings of Stephane Barbe (Kataklysm) on lead guitar, Jeramie Kling (Venom Inc.) on drums, Dano Apekian (Ashes of Eden) on bass and Clemens Wijers (Carach Angren, Lindemann) manning the intense orchestral score.
“The Thirteen Years Of Nero” pierces through the silence with its first auditory spear, “The Fall Of Claudius”, immediately drawing the listener in with a savagely heavy, grooving riff, ground-shaking swells and warning strings and horns. Discordant harmonies collide as a mosh-worthy battle riff chugs and pinches through the center of the song, showcasing the ruthlessness to come. “The Head Of The Snake” and unforgivingly immense “Britannia: The 9th At Camulodonum” balance sinister, spectral-like channels with up-tempo elements, racing like a chariot of symphonic death metal influences that careen the listener back to a sonic dimension of time forgotten. Standout opus “Boudicca (Queen Of The Iceni)” features the album’s weightiest thunderous percussion work and a glistening guitar solo, while the embers of pulsing “The Fiddle & The Fire” spark as the track traverses methodically yet steadfastly, like an iron striking a blade. “Son Of The Deified” and “What Artist Dies In Me…” bestow some of the album’s most strikingly dynamic guitar work, as well as ominous instrumentals, orchestral and choral pathways, before closing with the superb epic “The Revolt of Galba”. The track ebbs and flows between grooving, eerie piano-laden riffs and crystal-clear flourishes bestrewn with soaring strings.
With “The Thirteen Years Of Nero”, EX DEO have released their finest work yet while telling a timeless story of political intrigue, suspicion, evil and tyranny.
