Released By : Prosthetic Records, Out Now!!!
Genre : Thrash Metal
Link : https://www.facebook.com/exmortusofficial
Line Up:
CONAN- VOCALS/GUITAR
DAVID RIVERA- GUITAR
JOVANNI PEREZ- BASS
MARIO MORENO- DRUMS
Tracklist:
Rising
Slave to the Sword
Immortality Made Flesh
Foe Hammer
Warrior of the Night
Ancient Violence
From the Abyss
Moonlight Sonata (Act 3)
Battle-Born
Metal is King
Over the course of three albums now, California metal lads EXMORTUS have shown that they will not be the type of band to repeat themselves over and over again and refuse to be pigeon-holed into any sort of style or genre. Their third album SLAVE TO THE SWORD strips a little more of the Death Metal-ish elements from the bands previous work and sees them moving toward a slightly more straightforward Thrash Metal sound with an obvious nod to a more Traditional Metal vibe. There’s also plenty of melody here too and a monstrous amount of pure shrederry here too.
The harsh vocal style used on this album helps to give it plenty of balls, and it’s a great accompaniment to some of the more melodic passages. The double-kick drum assault rarely lets up for mopre than a few seconds at a time and something that is unfortunately rare in the Thrash Metal game, the bass thunders along, always audible but never too muddy as to drown out the high end. What it’s all about here though folks is the insane guitar work on offer. While these guys may not play quite as fast as a band like DRAGONFORCE, there’s certainly a strong emphasis on that classically inspired Yngwie Malmsteen type of shred work, but unlike the aforementioned band whre it’s all about go, go,go…EXMORTUS really know how to keep a melodic and accessible backbone underneath all of the madness.
With song titles like SLAVE TO THE SWORD, WARRIOR OF THE NIGHT and METAL IS KING, no doubt there will be a large conglomerate out there that deem this album too cheesy , but for those in metal-land that understand that songs about this sort of subject matter are essential to the longevity of this kind of music you will love this album. The band even do a rendidtion of the classical Beethoven piece MOONLIGHT SONATA (PART 3), which is quite brilliant and a great demonstration of just how skilled and technically proficient the members of this band actually are.
The early part of 2014 has already seen some amazing metal albums released and it can be hard to keep up with them at times for sure, but SLAVE TO SWORD is worth devoting some time to, and should be a definite listen for anybody that is serious about new Thrash Metal releases.
Written by Zeezee