Your Chance to Die is back with a retooled lineup and a new label, and have taken their “face melting” melodic, technical death metal sound to a new level with Ex Nihilo.

Your Chance to Die was formed nearly 10 years ago now, back in 2007 by current band members Missi and Coca Avila.  As often happens over time, lineups change, people come and go and the current lineup has likely the biggest change any band could have in the addition of a second vocalist.  Joining Missi on vocals now is Som Pluijmers (ex-Cerebral Bore) who, until now, had not recorded with the band but had toured with them, even becoming the lone vocalist for some shows when Missi couldn’t tour.  Ron Dalton on guitars and Thomas White on drums are the other newcomers for Ex Nihilo.  Looking back, one can find evidence of more than two previous full-length albums, but we’ll defer to the band’s official bio that lists Suscitacio Somnus (2011) and The American Dream (2013) as their previous albums, both of which were met with critical acclaim for the intensity behind the music as well as the complex arrangements and outstanding musicianship.  From the start on vocals, Missi, has initially attracted attention for being a female in the genre, but after hearing their releases and seeing them live, the skeptical are quickly won over as she is simply great in the role.  For me seeing them in their early days at Cornerstone Festival, the fact that she was sporting an Antestor shirt put my mind a bit at ease before they even took the stage.  For Ex Nihilo, the band began talking with Dave Ellefson (Megadeth) and Thom Hazaert and signed to EMP Underground the extreme metal imprint for the EMP Label Group and again employed Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me) for recording and used Zack Ohren (Machine Head) for mixing. Continue reading »