Man, oh, man, I've pulled this one out a few times recently upon learning that former Exhorder vocalist Kyle Thomas has joined Alabama Thunderpussy—which should be quite fucking promising. But god fucking damnit, is "The Law" fucking amazing or what? I mean, everything these Louisiana thrashers did was totally badass, but this album in particular is just track after track of some of the meatiest riffs ever recorded. If anyone cares, the band formed in the mid-80's and released a couple of demos before their debut full-length, "Slaughter in the Vatican", which was followed in 1992 by "The Law", their second and final offering on Roadrunner Records.
While I don't really want to, I can't not mention that there was a time when Exhorder seemed best known by many as the band whose sound was allegedly assimilated by Pantera, but while certain similarities are undeniable, I don't care to speculate on any of that mess because it simply doesn't matter at this point. The bottom line is that Exhorder cranked out raging thrash with some wickedly fast vocal patterns, sludgy midpaced grooves of the highest caliber, and even some incredible clean/acoustic riffs to spice things up here and there. "The Law" also boasts one of the most fucked up guitar tones ever (in a good way, at least in my opinion), which is immediately identifiable and certainly accentuates the sheer force of a lot of the rhythms. I mean, you just can't fuck with a track like "(Cadence Of) The Dirge", which is easily my favorite Exhorder track of all time. This shit just crushes everything in its path.
A lot of people have never heard Exhorder to this day, but this is just classic, classic stuff. I've always really loved that fuckin' band name too, for some reason. I can remember a time when both Exhorder albums were rare as fuck and easily fetched upwards of $30 apiece on eBay, but thankfully Roadrunner decided to treat the band to one of those "Two From the Vault" reissues to get these jams back out there. Personally I don't own any of those "Two From the Vault" collections and don't really care for how they handle the packaging on those things, but beggars can't be choosers, so it's cool to see these gems available at all at this point in time. Pick this shit up and enjoy:
Now, if only Roadrunner would go ahead and get the rest of their insanely awesome back catalog back in print—even if only in very limited form!
Comments
Good shit Andrew, I need to listen to this again!!
BTW - did you purchase an album by a band called Triphammer??? I seem to remember it being on you recent purchases, how was it?? And was it the same Triphammer on Lifesentence??
Thanxxx bro :)
8.4.2006 | By xbenx
holy shit, it does sound a little like pantera (or vice versa). love that cutting snare. the guitar tone too. never thought about checking these guys out, need to remedy that. thanks.
8.4.2006 | By chris
Ben, it was NOT the Life Sentence Triphammer. It was the Boston metal band Triphammer from the early-90’s, who self-released a CD-R of their two demos at some point. Great stuff, though!
8.4.2006 | By Andrew Aversionline
Great band.
The “evolution” was:
Exhorder > Pantera > Gunship666
hahaah…
http://www.myspace.com/gunship666
8.4.2006 | By Anonymous
its not on this record, but desecrator deserves a mention here. what a crushing tune.
8.4.2006 | By dan sullivan
good record, but slaughter in the vatican buries it. for the time that it was produced, i don’t think there was a heavier more pissed off record in existence…
8.5.2006 | By j-ex
I used to see these guys all the time at the Axiom in Houston when i was in highschool, before “Slaughter in the Vatican” was released. They were always one of my favorites. I never got into this record as I thought it was inferior to “Slaughter…”, although i’m definitly going to grab these tracks. Thanks!
8.5.2006 | By Everything Went Black