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EXHORDER
Defectum Omnium

Nuclear Blast (2024)
Rating: 7/10

With their second album since returning to the fray in 2017, cult band Exhorder have added former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O’Brien to their ranks who joins vocalist / guitarist Kyle Thomas, bassist Jason Viebrooks (ex-Grip Inc.) and drummer Sasha Horn. The formula remains the same from the New Orleans, Louisiana-based combo and so you get battered by a heady mix of thrash, groove, doom and Southern metal. However, just like their 2019 outing Mourn The Southern Skies, I’m rarely moved by its presence.

Defectum Omnium, the band’s fourth full-length in total, is somewhat of a mixed bag that feels too long at just under an hour. Naturally, the riffs are the star especially on thrashier numbers such as ‘Divide And Conquer’ and ‘Wrath Of Prophecies’, but then we have the rather odd, or should I say, uncomfortable transition into Korn and Pantera with ‘Three Stages Of Truth / Lacing The Well’, and the awful ‘Sedition’ with its cringe worthy punk attitude. Thankfully, ‘Desensitized’ is a riff monster, but so many songs need trimming down or sit outside of the Exhorder comfort zone, and to their detriment.

With the last two releases I just feel that Exhorder falls way short, which is sad considering the potential the band showed on debut Slaughter In The Vatican way back in 1990. Yes, that was a long time ago, and no I don’t expect the band to replicate that cult gem, but there just seems to be something missing here.

O’Brien’s axe work does, however, add a raw layer to the construction of the songs and the sludge hardcore aspects also bring a dark density. The beginning of ‘The Tale Of Unsound Minds’ is a good example of the combo channelling a sinister vibe circa Slayer, as does ‘Taken By Flames’, but through all of its combinations Exhorder’s return is underwhelming.

Neil Arnold

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