EXHORDER
“MOURN THE SOUTHERN SKIES”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Exhorder are a thrash metal band from the USA formed in 1985, releasing demos in 1986 and 1987, with their debut album ‘Slaughter In The Vatican’, a 1990 release. The bands sophomore album ‘The Law’ was released in 1992, the band splitting up two years later. The band reunited in 2008, playing a number of shows over the next couple of years, going on hiatus in 2011. Reforming six years later in 2017, Exhorder released their third album ‘Mourn The Southern Skies’ in 2019.

Thrash metal with groove, pace and power, is the signature sound of Exhorder, and with their third album, you get all three in total abundance. Ten songs across a fifty two minutes play time is plenty for the head bangers of the world to stretch their neck muscles to ripping point and viciously punch the air in delight, for this is a glorious gallop of fast paced and aggression fuelled thrash. And from the start, ‘Mourn The Southern Skies’ (the album) is up and running at full tilt with the blistering speed of ‘My Time’. The high velocity mixed with urgency pushes ‘My Time’ forward at break neck speed, and the aggressive chorus line “i don’t give a fuck, you’re out of luck, so go fucking whine” is spat venomously. Such aggression, so much attitude, and we’re only one song in… The fire and brimstone is well and truly alight as ‘Asunder’ thunders in all weighty and punchy, marching on at a mid tempo very heavy pace. The swaggering groove that ‘Asunder’ has is phenomenal, the aggression levels are very high, and with its huge melodic edge, what a skull crushing song ‘Asunder’ is.

Exhorder are pulling no punches with their comeback album, packing in so much furious aggression, it makes me wonder what, or who has pissed the band off…? Oh the groove, oh the heaviness, oh my fucking God – ‘Hallowed Sound’ forging a devastating path, relentlessly rolling on like a steam roller, both (coincidentally) flattening anything unfortunate to be in their path. Just three songs in and the bruising barrage of ferocious thrash is gonna snap bones and send some listeners to the local A&E… The pace quickens with the high speed ‘Beware The Wolf’, banging shoulders and butting heads with the likes of Testament, Kreator and Act Of Defiance. The fierce pace, the high aggression, this is exactly how thrash metal should sound. A contender for Album Of The Year maybe, but definitely a contender for Comeback Album Of The Year. And here comes that heavy jaw dropping groove once again, ‘Yesterday’s Bones’ a mid tempo swagger of intensity. I dunno what Exhorder have been eating and drinking during their inactive years, but whatever the fuck it was has given them a gargantuan amount of groove. A groove that doesn’t let up either, the intensity and heaviness increasing with ‘All She Wrote’. Heavy hitting and harder kicking, ‘All She Wrote’ also displays traits from the legendary and iconic sound of the NWOBHM.

The sounds of the music and vocals are a perfect match, the heaviness and aggression levels very high. And oh my fucking God here we go again. With more groove than a million vinyl records, ‘Rumination’ explodes into life and races on at pace, head bangingly addictive, and is one of the best songs on the album. Hell, every song can be labelled as one the best songs on the album, they’re all that fucking good – there are no fillers here, just thrillers. More doom laden than anything else on the album so far, ‘Arms Of Man’ is a slow to mid tempo march of heaviness. And now for the fastest, most aggressive, and also shortest song on offer, the blistering ‘Ripping Flesh’. Move aside Kreator, Slayer and all you other brutal thrash metallers, for Exhorder have come forth with a savage brutality more brutal than any of you lot. ‘Ripping Flesh’ is fast, furious and ferocious. Now it’s an old saying I know, but all good things come to an end, and sadly so does this album, but remember, there’s always the replay button to press… The title song ‘Mourn The Southern Skies’ is a nine minutes plus epic of dark atmosphere, groove and mood. It plays out at an almost doom metal pace, the heaviness pushing down hard, squeezing, squashing, and crushing. What an album to announce your return to the worldwide metal scene, an immediate sit up and take notice offering from one of the pioneering bands of groove laden thrash metal.

Overall, a glorious gallop of groove laden thrash metal, very heavy yet melodic, Exhorder have served up a feast of ferocious thrash.

TRACKLIST

My Time
Asunder
Hallowed Sound
Beware The Wolf
Yesterday’s Bones
All She Wrote
Rumination
Arms Of Man
Ripping Flesh
Mourn The Southern Skies

https://www.exhorder.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ExhorderNOLA/

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