UMUR "Slave to the Sword" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US power/thrash metal act Exmortus. The album was released through Prosthetic Records in February 2014. Exmortus was formed in 2003 and released several demos and a couple of EPs before releasing their debut full-length studio album "In Hatred's Flame (2008)".

The music on "Slave to the Sword" is a mix of thrash, power and traditional heavy metal. Add to that a very strong neo-classical element and you´re halfway there. The riffs are often hard edged thrash metal riffing and the raw distorted vocals also point in that direction, but the power metal element is equally strong. The traditional heavy metal element is mostly due to the lyrics and image of the band. Songtitles like "Warrior of the Night", "Battle-Born" and especially "Metal Is King" should also give an indication of the "true metal" lyrical themes.

The music is guitar focused, with loads of neo-classical influenced solos and themes (most prominently featured on the instrumental "Moonlight Sonata (Act 3)"), usually played at the speed of light. This is generally very fast-paced music featuring a great energy level. The band are incredibly tight and some of the guitar trickeries are jaw drop inducing. It´s not often I´m completely blown away by the technical skills of metal musicians these days, but these guys are fantastic in that respect.

"Slave to the Sword" is well produced too, featuring a clear and powerful sound production, which suits the music well, and all in all this is a high quality release by Exmortus. Besides the very high level musicianship, which is a great asset, it´s how the band combine the stylistic elements that´s the real attraction here. As such you´ll find little here you haven´t heard before, but the combination of the elements is a bit surprising and ultimately proves to be a pretty fresh approach. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

adg211288 Slave to the Sword (2014) is the third full-length album by US technical thrash metal act Exmortus. Although Exmortus seems to generally be considered to be based around the death-thrash format, there isn't really much to do with death metal about Slave to the Sword, except perhaps the nod brief nod towards the genre. This is my first time listening to them so I can't say whether the classification is off or whether the band has started exploring new territories within their thrash metal sound, but Slave to the Sword is very clearly more of a power-thrash album.

In fact, power metal is the first genre that is heard when the album opens up with Rising, but it soon descends into thrash metal riffs and the vocals are most definitely orientated more towards a thrash metal sound. I guess the riffs themselves would be 60-40 in favour of thrash metal, but due to how often the riffs are power metal based, and how melodic the album is for a thrash album, it would be wrong to just call it thrash metal. The band also include some neoclassical influences in their guitar leads in many places, notably during the instrumental Moonlight Sonata (Act 3), but also across the album in smaller amounts, adding further variation to their technical playing. When I think power-thrash, the sound of Slave to the Sword's instrumental work is exactly what I look for, although the neoclassical elements are a bonus extra that works well for the band. It's just the right blend of thrash and melodic power metal riffs to have the best of both worlds.

Where the album loses some of its momentum however is the vocal performance, which is done in a harsh style which generally works well enough for the most thrash metal orientated passages of Slave to the Sword's music, but isn't so effective during the power and neoclassical metal parts, sometimes even coming across as irritating and overly forced. The actual problem though is more that Slave to the Sword is far too melodic an album to really benefit from the vocal approach used. Sure, there are certainly moments where Exmortus make it work really well, but most of the time the vocals are just tolerable.

Good music needs a commanding voice to bring the best out of it, but Slave to the Sword is having to make do with what it's got. This is a shame, because Exmortus otherwise have all the makings of a power-thrash masterpiece here, but its testament to the other abundant qualities of the album that it's still worth a rating within the 4.5 stars bracket.

87/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/exmortus-slave-to-the-sword-t3336.html)