Defectum Omnium

Exhorder, as all good thrash heads know, dropped the highly-regarded Slaughter in the Vatican way back in 1990, followed it up with The Law in '92 and then seemingly dropped off the face of the planet altogether. These two albums, however, lead to Exhorder, for better or for worse, being credited with inventing groove metal. As the band were big mates with Pantera, then this isn't too much of a stretch, although Exhorder's Kyle Thomas is quoted as saying that Pantera deserve all the praise for popularising the form as they worked much harder than his band. Now, in all honesty, I am not the biggest fan of groove metal and only a handful of albums have garnered any decent scores from me with Pantera in particular failing to resonate. So when Exhorder released the groove metal-oriented Mourn the Southern Skies upon their return in 2019 I wasn't particularly impressed, although there were plenty of commentators who took against it even more than myself, cursing it for not being Slaughter in the Vatican.

So here we are five years further down the road and Kyle Thomas and the guys are back with their post-return sophomore, Defectum Omnium, and this time they have long-time Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O'Brien on board. Now I don't know if I am just in a particularly good mood at the minute, or if this is a genuine improvement, possibly because of Pat's involvement, but actually this isn't half bad. A genuine energy and enthusiasm seems to ooze from every pore of this release, lighting a fire under the band and allowing them to turn in one of those late career successes that a select few bands are fortunate enough to produce. The album still sits nearer the groove end of the equation, but the riffs are so cool that their inherent grooviness in no way detracts from how absolutely badass they are, aided by a thick guitar tone that highlights their power.

There is also some decent variation in pacing with the surfeit of fast-paced aggressiveness countered by some slower, ominously hulking sections that preface even more fist-to-the-jaw sonic violence. The band are also unafraid to drop in a really catchy groove now and then, "Divide and Conquer" and "Taken by Flames" could both easily be released as singles, such is the catchiness of either track. Look, groove metal is never going to be a genre I salivate over and Defectum Omnium is probably not going to be in my top twenty albums of 2024, but respect where it is due, this has given me far more than I ever expected going into it and it's bloody-red-meat grooves have had me happily nodding along throughout the several listens I have given this so far. Definitely an album I can see me slamming on when I feel like a bit of no-nonsense metal riffing and memorable hooks might lighten up my day.

In line with mine very prophetic predictions, "Mourn The Southern Skies" was largely met with unfavorable reception and - in general - did not fit the Exhorder name. However, the criticism was fully deserved, because the third lp from Kyle Thomas' group had few points of contact with their albums from the 1990s, and in addition, it sounded too sterile, smelled of calculation and lacked its own identity. Further changes in the line-up quickly took place. Guitarists Marzi Montazeri and, even more importantly, one of the co-founders of Exhorder, Vinnie LaBella, left the band. This, as you can easily guess, did not prevent Thomas from continuing the history of this group. Together with the earlier rhythm section, i.e. Jason Viebrooks on bass (but not only - more on that later) and Sasha Horn on drums, Kyle, in addition to his vocal duties, added some guitar parts, and as a second guitarist and sweeper...he returned from well-known excesses Pat O'Brien himself! Then, as a result of these line-up changes, the fourth Exhorder longplay was released in 2024, entitled "Defectum Omnium".

Quite attractive line-up changes could, to some extent, suggest an improvement in form, but it must be remembered that naivety also has its limits. After the second/third awakening (?), I am still inclined to say that the fourth Exhorder lp contains fewer inaccuracies than its awkward predecessor, but hey, it's not enough to change my general opinion towards this comeback - even though I really hoped that the previous disadvantages would be erased. Well, "Defectum Omnium" also takes us to areas outside of Exhorder and definitely doesn't fit the band's style. Once again, we land in an organized, highly digital and conservative look at thrash metal with small additions of groove metal, which is clearly harmed by a nice sound and the desire to please less experienced listeners. Due to this, this album does not come across as anything special, it lacks character and sounds too polite.

Advantages...hmm...yes, you can find some on "Defectum Omnium". I like the density of the solo parts (where Pat O'Brien in particular fits in nicely), the polishing of Kyle's higher, heavy metal vocals (you can feel more professionalism and less pathos in them), some ideas for more aggressive riffs (when you can get through the production) and the fact that all three string gentlemen were sitting on the guitars part together - which added to the conventional diversity. The result is obviously better than when discussing "Mourn The Southern Skies", although these advantages do not come into fully listenable and thought-provoking material. Songs such as "Desensitized", "Divide And Conquer", "Forever And Beyond Despair" and "Sedition" are really similar and one-dimensional, they are tainted with the obvious magic of Nuclear Blast and they simply lack power. Yes, you can listen to this album, but you can't return to these moments in the long listening to it.

"Defectum Omnium" is therefore moderately engaging and very predictable material - you can listen to it several times, realize that Exhorder is supplementing their retirement and forget that such a release even took place. Although it's not as bad as before, because the expectations after the content of "Mourn..." were not too high, but it's pointless to look for music on "Defectum..." that is memorable and carries sincere intentions.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

This release has quite a bit of peaks and valleys, to me though, there's some peaks just not enough to earn it an "A" rating. A lot of Pantera-esque riffs...they seem to use the same tuning as Dimebag (I think drop D). But Pat O'Brien does a good job in his solos and his rhythms. Just not enough "great" licks but enough to earn it a "B" rating. I don't really have much history with this band, though their 2019 release collectively earned a score of "91%." It's made me want to purchase more of their releases even though I don't multitudinously highly believe in this release, mainly because the music itself wasn't enough to gain it's favor in my estimation. If the rhythms were as strong as the leads, I would diametrically oppose this belief that they should earn a higher rating.

The vocals are decent and they vary between yelling to some clean. It compliments the music well. Pat plays the guitar on pretty much all tracks with (I believe) some guest musicians as well. I think I'm right in saying so. There are some songs that incorporate the vocals with reverb or an echo sound.

Aside from placating the Pantera-esque style on some tracks or licks, this whole album altogether is a great effort collectively. Pat sure hopefully recovered from being axed from Cannibal Corpse due-to run ins in the law and his drug addiction. I believe he was caught last year playing live for Exhorder to replace their existing guitar player. He's made a tremendous effort to be welcomed back into the metal community even though this band is quite different in their metal genre than they are from Cannibal Corpse. Let's just hope he sticks with the band and continues on his journey with them in the metal world. These guys have a somewhat great mass of riffs that stand out altogether.

What keeps this CD going is the energy to each track and the electric moments of the guitars going alongside the vocals. I enjoyed this album, I thought it was a great effort by the band. They have a history, but not a long history of LP's in their discography. Let's hope they last a lot longer!