UMUR The Law is the 2nd full-length studio album by American groove thrash metal act Exhorder. The album was released in March 1992 through Roadrunner Records. The Law was re-issued by Roadrunner Records in 2003 in a low price double CD package with Exhorder´s debut full-length studio album Slaughter in the Vatican (1990).

While the music on Slaughter in the Vatican was brutal thrash metal that besides the aggressive thrash metal vocals, was as close to death metal as you come without being death metal, the music on The Law is much more groove based and The Law is often, and rightly so, considered one of the seminal albums in the groove thrash movement. lead vocalist Kyle Thomas has a voice that´s pretty similar to the voice of Phil Anselmo ( Pantera) and Pantera is definitely a valid reference also when it comes to the groove based music. Now I know the band hate this comparison but there are simply too many obvious similarities between those two acts that I´ll risk my neck and make it anyway. While the quality of the tracks is generally very high, and I´m blown back in my seat more than one time because of the powerful aggressive music, there are unfortunately a couple of tracks that drag the album down just a bit. Exhorder flirt a bit too much with alternative metal in Unborn Again for my taste and they even incorporate slapbass, which usually is a big turn-off for me. Their cover of Into the Void by Black Sabbath doesn´t leave more than a slight impression either. Now as there are only 9 tracks on the album and two of them are sub par ( and Into the Void is even the longest track on the album), it will have some effect on my final rating.

The production is actually not that good, but strangely after a couple of minutes I seem to be adjusting and end up finding the sound allright. It´s especially the guitar sound, that sounds strange to my ears.

While The Law rightly should be called a seminal album in the groove thrash movement, my overall feeling about the album is actually that it sounds like a transitional album. The band try new things and the album is a bit inconsistent, which is rather typical for transitional albums. The problem here is that there never came a 3rd album, so we never learned what Exhorder could have transformed into. They disbanded after the album was released. A 3.5 star rating will do.

UMUR Slaughter in the Vatican is the debut full-length studio album by American thrash metal act Exhorder. The album was released by Roadrunner Records in July 1990. Slaughter in the Vatican was re-issued by Roadrunner Records in 2003 in a low price double CD package with Exhorder´s 2nd full-length studio album The Law (1992). The album stired up some controversy upon release because of the album title and the cover artwork which depicts the pope being led to the gallows for his execusion.

The music on Slaughter in the Vatican is brutal thrash metal. The Morrisound Studios recorded Scott Burns production will have you thinking about death metal, but Exhorder is a brutal thrash metal act rather than a death metal ditto. The album is very consistent with powerful tracks throughout. One of the things that makes the album so succesful in addition to the powerful production ( I have a minor complaint about the snare drum sound, but that´s about it), the tight musicianship and the inspired songwriting is how Exhorder varies the pace in the songs. you´ll get both really heavy tracks, mid-paced ones and really heavy tracks too ( sometimes the pace varies greatly within songs too). I´ll give a special mention to my favorite track Desecrator. Desecrator is one of the most viciously brutal and heavy thrash metal tracks I´ve ever heard. When listening to a track like that it´s no wonder that Exhorder are often associated with death metal. However lead vocalist Kyle Thomas does NOT growl. His singing is raw and aggressive and sometimes reminds me of how Phil Anselmo sounding on Vulgar Display of Power (1992) by Pantera ( just to make a comparison most people can relate to) and I´ll say it again. He does NOT growl. Other songs worth mentioned are the powerful opener Death in Vain, and the short and fast-paced Anal Lust but as mentioned there are no weak tracks on the album. I promise you that you´ll get your socks knocked right off when the first notes of Death in Vain kick in after the short intro. Crushingly brutal yet memorable and varied. This is an album with a very unique sound.

Slaughter in the Vatican is an excellent debut album by Exhorder. It´s an album that´s grown on me considerably over the years and today I consider Slaughter in the Vatican one of the most important and unique thrash metal releases from the early nineties. It´s not a flawless album and had Exhorder continued down this path on the next album instead of changing their style towards a more groove oriented style, I´m sure they would have made something close to a masterpiece. Slaughter in the Vatican is still worth a 4 - 4.5 star rating though. Slaughter in the Vatican is an album I can highly recommend.