The Batlord

Exhorder: Slaughter In the Vatican

I generally don't like to use this thread to talk about random metal since I've listened to so much of it over the years that reviewing another thrash/death/black metal band just doesn't interest me unless I can somehow make it interesting. But fuck it. I love thrash metal and I'm gonna do at least a few thrash metal reviews at some point, and I'm now in a thrash mood.




Exhorder are mainly famous for being the band that thrash snobs say Pantera ripped off. Considering that this album was released eight days before Cowboys from Hell I find that a rather dubious charge. Seriously. Eight days. Thrash metal fans are idiots.*

I guess you could say that this band has a sort of proto-groove metal sound that is vaguely Pantera-y, but other than that this band sounds absolutely nothing like them. This is straight-up, brutal, knuckle-dragging death thrash in the vein of Demolition Hammer or Devastation. No more, no less. The only thing that sets this band apart from the masses of such bands in the late eighties/early nineties are the groovy riffs. Exhorder have some truly badass breakdown riffs that are brutal as child abuse. Such moments rely on a heaviness that is generally absent or at least underused in fast/loud rules style thrash metal. At times it actually reminds me of nineties hardcore such as Sick of It All or Madball.

Most of the song titles on this album are generic thrash song titles but "Anal Lust" is rather intriguing and I just have to look the lyrics up. This song is rather amusingly misogynistic. "Amusingly" because it is so over-the-top offensive and moronic that you can't take it seriously. Just take a gander at this poetry...

Gotta love lyrics that make Cannibal Corpse look like Bob Dylan.

This is probably one of the most intense, brutal thrash records I've ever heard. It really goes for the nuts and tears them off with serrated mandibles. It never gets too complex, it just crushes your brain into submission with the subtlety of baseball bat anesthesia. These guys just have an innate instinct for knowing just how to make the head bang that can't be taught. Sure everything is just a bit samey and the vocals are kinda shit, but the breakdowns add enough variety that I never get bored and I'm too far gone down the path of thrash metal to care about bad vocals. Besides, it's thrash. You want diversity, go listen to the Velvet Underground. Whenever I'm in the mood for the most brutal thrash metal possible it's gonna be Devastation's Idolatry, Morbid Saint's Spectrum of Death, and this album. Fuck the hell yeah!



*After this review I found out that this band and Phil Anselmo are all from New Orleans, so it's highly possible that Exhorder influenced Pantera, but calling it "ripping off" is ludicrous. You might as well say that Cryptopsy ripped off Death.

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