Waking the Fire

Exumer never were an original band. Back in the eighties they resorted more than once to cloning Slayer, Kreator, some lesser gods and achieving a small but faithful following. Now that the retrothrash movement has been going on for years, old bands reunite and other old bands decide to play thrash again after wasting all our time in the nineties, it would be only a matter of time before Exumer wanted a piece of the pie as well.

And here they are with a new song. I expected nothing of it and that’s possibly the reason I like it a lot. There’s nothing original about it. The production and performance are too good to be true (one suspects computers having a serious role in all this) and the song itself is very strong. Also it’s great to hear Von Stein sing again. So much better than the Paul Arakari and John Cadden days.

Does Exumer still sound like Slayer meets Kreator? Well, not as obvious as the days of old but the chorus of Waking the Fire could’ve come straight from Evile’s enter The Grave album. Yes, seriously, Exumer now sound influenced by a band they themselves preceded. And what a great chorus it is by the way. Fast, catchy, gangshouts. It’s all there.

I know that all that I said above could be used as arguments to totally bash this song (or even the entire Exumer reunion) but for me those are just the reasons to like this song. Original? No. Better than or on par with old Exumer? Yes, with ease! Now let’s hope a full length album with have this constant quality and we might actually finally have a real worthy follow up to Possessed By Fire instead of that lame 1987 album Rising from the Sea or the awful 1989 demo Whips & Chains.