EXIST are set to return with their third studio album, Egoiista. Blending extraordinary technical proficiency with eccentric arrangements, and imbued with moments of fusion and atmospherics, Egoiista puts EXIST firmly on the map of modern progressive metal. The first track from the album, Spotlight's Glow, is streaming everywhere now and the official video can be viewed below. Egoiista will be released on August 28 - pre-orders are available now.
EXIST'S Max Phelps comments:
"Spotlight's Glow was the very last song written for Egoiista. It seemed to be the missing piece needed to fill out the story, a final "storm before the calm" techy, bombastic fight prior to the album's more delicate and accepting conclusion. Like everything else on the album it serves a specific purpose in context while also working as its own standalone piece. Lyrically it addresses the ideas that we (as a society) tend to pay more attention to people that are concerned with elevating themselves as opposed to the ones with more noble intentions."
Much of the material on Egoiista first came into being prior to their last album, 2017’s So True, So Bound. Six of the eight songs that make up Egoiista were reviewed, reshaped and additionally given an extra lease of life thanks to new drummer Brody Taylor-Smith. The passage of time since the original tracks were sketched out has also allowed time for the skill and proficiency of its architects to develop further. Two additional tracks were written prior to recording that rounded out the opus into a fully formed collection.
The lyrical exploration of the finite nature of life and the fragility of human existence takes on a very personal slant given the health problems that vocalist/guitarist Max Phelps has encountered in the past two years. A life-threatening abdominal aneurysm gave him plenty of cause to reflect on his own life and humanity as a broader concept - themes that give Egoiista its foundation.