Exhorder: Mourn the Southern Skies (2019)

Reunion albums can be hit or miss.  Sometimes, the band gets back together and it is like nothing ever changed and some great music results.  Personally, Testament is one such band for me.  Other times, it can be a massive flop, the band has changed so much that the result is basically pissing on the band's legacy.  I'm looking at you, Sadus.  I was certainly intrigued when I had heard Exhorder was going to release a new album.

Exhorder is a noteworthy band in that they may have been one of the founders of the oft-maligned genre groove metal, which sound Pantera took and ran with in the early 1990's.  Exhorder released two terrific albums in the early 1990's: the thrashier Slaughter in the Vatican and the much more straightforward groove of The Law.  Despite their status as groove metal pioneers, they have largely been exempted from criticism for the genre's failings in subsequent years.  Perhaps that is because they did it so well.  It was going to be interesting to see what the band could do, 17 years after their last album.

Of course, before I begin, I must caveat any talk of a reunion by stating that only one member of the defunct band has returned.  That member is vocalist Kyle Thomas.  The rest of the band is filled out with entirely new members, so this is not really a true reunion album so much as a comeback album with a bunch of new members and the original singer.

Well, so how is it?  Quite simply, the band picks up right where the former Exhorder left off.  The album is an incredibly dynamic one, with the kind of Southern-style groove that made the band's earlier material so damn good.  The album features several blazing fast thrashers, such as the appropriately-titled face-melting track "Ripping Flesh".  It closes on a high note with the bluesy title track.  And there are of course those tracks that call back to The Law, such as the stomping groove of "Asunder".  And every single track on this album is fantastic. 

While this is not exactly a reunion album, it is all killer and no filler.  This album came really damn close to my top ten of the year.  It really is that damn good.  There are very few truly great groove metal albums out there, but this is definitely one of them.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 35

ARTIST:  Various
ORIGIN:  Various
TITLE:  Tribute to Black Sabbath: Eternal Masters
LABEL:  Priority Records
YEAR:  1994
GENRE:  Various
FAVORITE SONG:  Exhorder: "Into the Void"
NOTES:  Yes another Black Sabbath tribute album.  I own three actually.  This one features some, shall we say unusual performances.  We have death metal versions of "Zero the Hero" (Cannibal Corpse) and "Sweet Leaf" (Cadaver).  We have an industrial rock version of "Paranoid" by The Clay People.  Some strange choices definitely.  I don't listen to this a lot, but it did help me discover Sacred Reich, Exhorder, and Cadaver.

Underrated Thrash Metal Albums Pt. 2 of 2

Picking up from yesterday, here's some more of my favorite lesser-known thrash metal albums:

EXHORDER: SLAUGHTER IN THE VATICAN
Exhorder has recently gotten some attention and praise from people who came to the realization that Pantera pretty much ripped off this band's sound in the early 1990's. Yes, Exhorder played a part in the creation of groove metal. Not to say that this is a groove metal album. This is a thrash metal album played at a slower speed than many of the band's contemporaries and it is one hell of an album. Later they would slow things even more and become a groove metal band, but this is just straight thrash.

KING'S-EVIL: DELETION OF HUMANOISE
This Japanese thrash metal band only released this one album, but it is a fucking good one. Featuring a sound that can best be described as Kreator meets Sodom, this album features some monster riffs and blazes by at a hundred miles an hour. The album is short but it still leaves the listener absolutely exhausted. Plus, it has one hell of a scary looking album cover. Bonus points.

NOCTURNAL BREED: FIELDS OF ROT
I have discussed in the past that Norway, despite being best known for black metal, also has a propensity to produce some amazing bands in other genres. This is their best thrash metal band, in my mind. Some of the best thrash metal riffs of the last twenty years or so are on this album. The band is clearly more influenced by the more brutal German scene than the U.S. scene. This is truly a brutal thrash metal album.

SABBAT: DREAMWEAVER-REFLECTIONS OF OUR YESTERDAYS
This album has to be one of my absolute favorite thrash metal albums. Sabbat clearly has a sound and style all their own. Martin Walkyier has one of the most unusual voices in thrash and a very unique style. His staccato rhythms match up well with the music cadences and present a catchy total listening experience. Sabbat is unfairly overlooked, mostly because they did not rise out of one of the major scenes.

HYADES: AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME
The younger Italian thrash metal band does not quite fit in with the recent thrash revival, however, they play a style heavily influenced by Anthrax and Exodus. It's fun and infectious thrash, yet it's still heavy. Hyades plays fast and hard, but it truly sounds like they are having a blast while doing it. This probably should be held up for the neo-thrash acts to look at to see a band carving their own sound out of their influences.