Review Summary: I'm gonna groove you until you're six feet under
Those lucky enough to live in the late 80's, early 90's, will surely remember the relevance Scott Burns & Morrisound Recording had in the development of death metal and its worldwide spread. Bands such as Death, Deicide, Suffocation, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, among many others, took the world by storm, changing heavy metal's aesthetics indefinitely. Among the bands produced by Florida's metal guru, there were two that stood out from the so-called Tampa sound, both in style and genre: the Brazilian giants Sepultura and New Orleans' Exhorder. Two promising acts that brought hope to a genre that was already showing clear signs of stagnation. Despite having different approaches, both bands shared an overwhelming energy, immortalized in two of the most relevant thrash metal releases of this period:
Beneath the Remains and
Slaughter in the Vatican. While Sepultura would soon reach worldwide status, Exhorder wouldn't live up to expectations, splitting up two years later, after the release of their sophomore album
The Law. But despite their short lifespan, the band left a lasting imprint, being precursors of the groove-oriented thrash metal, later popularized by bands such as Machine Head or Pantera (who many accuse of having plagiarised Exhorder). So it was with great surprise that I received the news of their comeback, after such a long hiatus.
I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled about the first two singles, finding them somewhat generic, lacking the overwhelming power of classics like "Homicide" or "Death in Vain", but the problem resided right there, I heard the songs hoping to find the nostalgic sound of my teens, and not what the band represents twenty five years later. You can't ask Kyle Thomas and Vinnie LaBella to mimic the sound of two decades ago, while staying honest and genuine in their musical approach. It would sound fake. In this sense,
Mourn the Southern Skies represents what Exhorder are in 2019, a band proud of their past but not afraid to take over the present. The album gets off to a great start, with three of the album's best tracks, combining "My Time's" straightforward energy with "Asunder" and "Hallowed Sound's" infectious grooves. If we add to these three songs, the bluesy "All She Wrote" and the Sabbath-esque title track, we find the album's backbone, which summarizes the best the band has to offer in 2019. Exhorder's maturity is everywhere, either in Kyle's always charismatic performance, whose voice aged well, or in the tasty riffs and soulful solos, which are among the album's highlights. The rhythm section also deserves to be mentioned, since it guarantees the powerful foundation through which all music gravitates. Jens Bogren's bold production works as the modern piece of engineering the band needed at this point, giving a massive, sharp body to New Orleans' groove machine. Nevertheless,
Mourn the Southern Skies is not without its flaws, tracks such as "Rumination" and "The Arms of Man" don't bring added value, nor do they present the same quality as the other songs on the album, and "Ripping Flesh's" re-recording, even if it has some historical interest, seems out of place and should have been included as a bonus track, thus benefiting the artistic cohesion of the whole, and the inherent musical message, which despite mourning, mirrors the present.
Mourn the Southern Skies is a welcomed comeback, from a band that didn't have the luck on their side when they needed it most. But even without the success, or long career they were aiming for, no one will be able to erase the undeniable imprint Exhorder have left behind, nor the influence they had on bands that helped shape the genre. By doing so, they achieved their well-deserved small taste of immortality.
