UMUR "Mourn The Southern Skies" is the third full-length studio album by US, New Orleans based thrash/groove metal act Exhorder. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in September 2019. It´s the successor to "The Law" from 1992 and therefore the first album by the band in 27 years. There are only two out of five members left from the lineup who recorded the predecessor, which are lead vocalist Kyle Thomas and guitarist Vinnie LaBella. Exhorder formed in 1985 and their original run ended in 1994 after releasing two full-length studio albums. "Slaughter in the Vatican" was released in 1990 and featured a raw and brutal thrash metal sound, while "The Law (1992)" featured a more heavy groove influenced sound.

So with only two full-length releases under their belt, which are in two pretty different sounding musical styles, it wasn´t easy to guess which direction Exhorder would pursue on "Mourn The Southern Skies", but as it turns out there are a little of both worlds featured on the album, and some new features too. Granted "Mourn The Southern Skies" sounds the least like "Slaughter in the Vatican (1990)", but there are some fast-paced thrash metal tracks on the album. Opener "My Time", "Beware the Wolf", and especially "Ripping Flesh" are examples of that (the latter is an incredible fast-paced and aggressive track and one of the highlights of the album). "Mourn The Southern Skies" is predominantly a heavy groove laden metal album though, and sometimes the band even touch southern stoner/sludge territories. Take a listen to "Yesterday’s Bones" for proof of that. I´d mention Pantera, Down, and Crowbar among some of the artists that Exhorder share some similarities with on this album.

Thomas still has a raw voice and a powerful delivery, although his voice is a bit lower and more worn and raw sounding these days. I think they´ve made an unfortunate production choice on the vocals on some tracks as the vocals are often layered, and it has the consequence that the vocals aren´t as punchy and powerful as they could have been. A track like "Asunder" features an example of that recording technique, but it´s only a minor issue overall and only occurs on some tracks. As something new Thomas also has a clean vocal part on the opening minute of the closing 9:29 minutes long Down influenced title track. Other than the vocals, it´s the many heavy and groove laden riffs and rhythms which are the main focus of the music. There are a couple of well played guitar solos on the album too. Take a listen to the solos on the above mentioned "Yesterday’s Bones"...that´s some really great solo work.

"Mourn The Southern Skies" features a powerful, heavy, and detailed sounding production job, and although a bit more grit and rawness wouldn´t have hurt, it´s arguably a sound production which suits the material well (I wasn´t surprised to learn that Jens Bogren is credited for mixing and mastering the album). Upon conclusion "Mourn The Southern Skies" is a welcome comeback for Exhorder, but it is not an album which blew me away upon initial listen. The tracks are maybe a little too formulaic vers/chorus structured and therefore a bit predictable, but once I got locked into the heavy grooves and started to appreciate that part of the music and also got accustomed to Thomas new low register voice and more raw singing style, it all started to make more sense, and repeated spins have revealed that "Mourn The Southern Skies" is a good quality groove/sludge/thrash metal album with an emphasis on the groove/sludge and more sporadically on the thrash metal elements. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Kev Rowland Some 27 years since the last album ‘The Law’, and nearly 30 years since the iconic debut ‘Slaughter In The Vatican’, Exhorder are back. The only original members are singer Kyle Thomas and guitarist Vinnie LaBella, but they knew what they wanted to achieve this time around and soon brought longtime friend and former member, bassist Jason VieBrooks (Heathen, Grip Inc.). Soon added were drummer Sasha Horn (Forbidden) and guitarist Marzi Montazeri (Heavy As Texas, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals) and they hit the ground running, playing gigs concentrating on material from the original two albums, before turning their attention to this, the “comeback” album.

What we have here is a thrash album, hugely influenced in particular by Testament, combined with groove in a manner which is incredibly accessible. Some may know Thomas from his time with Trouble (with whom he is still playing), and there is no doubt that he is quite some singer in the style of Chuck Billy. While he has plenty of power and range, he is a singer as opposed to a screamer and is fond of going into a lower register, especially when the music slows down. His annunciation is really clear for this style of music, and behind him he has a rhythm section which keeps it locked down and two guitarists who are obviously having a blast playing off each other.

Old fans of the band will be pleased to have them back, especially as they tear through the high-octane thrash of “Ripping Flesh” which originally appeared on the first demo, 1986’s ‘Get Rude’. If that isn’t enough, they also invited back original drummer Chris Nail to hold it all together. This is a fun romp, and let’s hope there is enough success for the band to keep it together and produce more albums like this one.

UMUR "Live Death" is a split live album release recorded live at the Milwaukee Metalfest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1992. The album was released through Restless Brand Records in 1994. "Live Death" features performances by Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, Exhorder, and Cancer.

Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, and Cancer all play death metal while Exhorder is thrash metal in the brutal end of the scale. All four bands were in their infancy at this point, and none of them had released more than maximum two studio albums at taht point, and the material featured on this album refects that, as all tracks on the album are culled from the earliest releases of the bands. "Jesus Wept" and "Infecting the Crypts" by Suffocation, "Premature Burial", "Slaughter of Innocence", and "Decadence Within" by Malevolent Creation, "The Law", "(Cadence of) the Dirge", and "Desecrator by Exhorder, and "Hung, Drawn and Quartered" and "Blood Bath" by Cancer. Most of the tracks are today considered "classic" material by the various bands. Naturally these are only selections from the various bands full shows.

The recording quality is very raw and I dare say not much above lo-fi recorded audience bootlegs (I´m being a bit harsh here). So you won´t get the most detailed performances, but instead an authentic sounding recording, which presents the material like it was played on the day. No overdubs, no polish (the sound quality is slightly better on the Malevolent Creation and Exhorder tracks than on the Suffocation and Cancer tracks). It´s a great pleasure to hear how well playing the various bands are even this early on in their careers, and the selection of tracks and how the tracklist is constructed also work really well. The sound quality is bound to be a challenge for some and personally I could have wished for a slightly more clear sounding production, but as an authentic document of the bands performances that day, "Live Death" works pretty well. A 3 star (60%) rating is deserved.

Vim Fuego Slayer's 'Reign In Blood' is generally regarded the greatest thrash album of all time, the perfect blend of aggression, speed and metallic rage, closely followed by Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’, Exodus’ ‘Bonded By Blood’ and Dark Angel's 'Darkness Descends'. However, the occasional album managed to shake the foundations of the thrash genre, if not threaten the leading lights. Exhorder's 'Slaughter in The Vatican' caused one of those rare musical earthquakes.

'Slaughter In The Vatican' is everything good Thrash should be– heavy, fast, uncompromising and vicious. Exhorder came out of New Orleans, the home of much highly original, but often twisted music, and for sheer headbutt you in the face, kick you in the head nastiness, Exhorder is hard to beat. If you think this is just hype, consider the fact that one of the band members was once jailed for attacking another. We're not talking handbags at dawn, but kicking down his door, shotgun in hand, intending to kill.

Thankfully, guitarist Vinnie LaBella's attempt to kill drummer Chris Nail was unsuccessful. If it had been, some of the most inspired extreme thrash ever recorded would not have ever emerged from the Louisiana bayou. By now, Exhorder virgins are probably wondering "but what the hell makes it so good?" To be honest, it's hard to tell exactly, but a combination of factors adds up to a final product far greater than the sum of its parts.

The first thing you notice about Exhorder is the rhythm guitar sound. The word chainsaw comes to mind. A chainsaw with guitar pick-ups attached, trying to cut through half inch steel plating, that is. Next are the drums. As hard hitting as anything Dave Lombardo or Gene Hoglan ever produced, Chris Nail's performance stomps all over both of them. Coming from New Orleans with its fine Cajun and jazz traditions, it was inevitable Nail's surroundings would influence his style. The off-beat syncopation and deft drum fills here almost have you hitting the rewind button to hear them again, so you can check you really heard what you think you heard. Unlike other drummers who mix up styles, Nail loses none of his brutality, nor do any of the time changes distract from the overall effect.

Kyle Thomas's throat shredding vocals are reminiscent of a more tuneful Roger Miret, of Agnostic Front fame. Rather than barking tunes about hardcore unity though, Exhorder deal in a hatred of organised religion, violence and um… literature. The album title conveys a bit of the band's disdain for the church, but rather than descending into comic book Satanism like Deicide, the lyrics are pure venomous hatred.

"Desecrator" is the pick of the whole album. It is the perfect mix of brutality, both musically and lyrically, and builds from a threatening, moody intro to an out and out hardcore thrash–out by the end of the song. "Anal Lust" and "Homicide" are pure violence ("Bestial lust/Slit her throat because she's a lousy fuck"). The rest of the album seems to be inspired lyrically and thematically by Edgar Allen Poe and HP Lovecraft.

While Exhorder were overlooked during their career, their importance has since been recognised. If you have not heard the band, you may think it is all hype. There is no way to explain Exhorder without actually hearing the band. If you are familiar with the band, then you'll understand fully.

Vim Fuego Following up an amazing debut album is no easy task for any band. Debuts generally contain songs that the band has been perfecting for years up until their first album is recorded. After that, in many cases like Annihilator, Forbidden, Xentrix, Body Count and numerous others, the cupboard is bare. A weaker second album follows a strong debut, and everyone is disappointed. Not Exhorder.

Many fans of the band prefer 'The Law' to 'Slaughter In The Vatican', and with good reason. Where the first album was unbridled aggression vented in all directions, 'The Law' keeps organised religion squarely in the crosshairs.

Some of the sharp edges evident in the first album have been filed down. The unbridled aggression present on ‘Slaughter In The Vatican’ seemed more focused on ‘The Law’, still taking aim at organised religion, but with a little more subtlety. The guitar sound lost a little of the raw chainsaw quality, but is heavier, and fuller in the bottom end. Kyle Thomas' vocals have far more melody to them. That's not to say he sounds any less pissed off, but Thomas actually creates some singable melodies.

Exhorder were Spinal Tap–like when it came to bass players. To that end, guitarists LaBella and Ceravolo played all the bass on the first album, and all but one track on the second. Their new bass player, Franky Sparcello played an amazing slap bass backing track to "Un–Born Again", which was all he had time for, joining the band in the middle of recording. At the time, there was a big trend toward so–called "funk metal", but this didn't follow the trend. Far from being a plain bass track, slapped instead of picked, Sparcello runs up and down the fretboard with incredible dexterity, augmenting Chris Nail's jazz-trained thrash drumming. Unfortunately, that's all Sparcello ever recorded with Exhorder.

There are a number of highlights on this album. There is a hint at Kyle Thomas' post–Exhorder stoner/doom band Floodgate, in the form of an excellent cover of Black Sabbath's "Into The Void". "Unforgiven" is an exercise in dynamics, using pace and rhythm to excellent effect. Never a band afraid of doing something different, the final two tracks are an instrumental in "Incontinence", and "(Cadence Of) The Dirge" which is well, a dirge. It is a bleak, oppressive song, displaying the dark depths of hopelessness, sorrow and self–pity.

Lost in the flood of Floridan death metal and the emerging Seattle grunge explosion, Exhorder missed the recognition they deserved at the time, and self–destructed after the recording of 'The Law'. However, Exhorder are now fondly remembered, perhaps because the band quit with a solid body of only two albums behind them, and had not tarnished their reputation. There was no hint Exhorder were going to abandon metal, but there was the potential to further mix in jazz, funk, stoner, doom and any number of other elements. Who knows what would have happened.