Jesus Christ this new thrash movement is boring. I have absolutely no qualms with saying that what started out as a revival praising the best and baddest of thrash legends has turned into a boring assembly line of Metallica and Slayer clones. Some do it well. Some do it even better than well, but for the most part it was an idea with the best intentions, but should be laid to rest so the next batch of ideas can come in. Thrash must evolve. Paying tribute and being old school is all well and good but for an interesting record you cannot just rely on old tricks. There must be evolution.

There luckily is a batch of new bands that aim to claim this throne. One would be Phoenix’s Vektor whose album Black Future could be the best debut of the last decade. The other would be friends Exmortus who offer the same level of ingenuity and technicality as their Phoenician brethren, but with a much harder hitting and heavier sound. Exmortus are local legends in South California where they have been playing and persevering through constant line up changes since the bands inception. This particular lineup contains two of the best young guitarists today, Conan and Balmore. Their music breathes heavy metal and in certain songs you could swear that they have been playing together since the eighties.

That doesn’t mean that this is an eighties sound however. Far from it. Exmortus brilliantly mix the old school thrash attitude of classic thrash bands with an atmosphere and mood given by only the most epic of Viking metal bands. Songs like War Gods and Triumph by Fire sound like the anthem to Ragnarok. The killer riffage mixed with the neoclassical shredding that would make Yngwie blush makes for an interesting combination that I have yet to hear anywhere else. Sure, neoclassical metal is nothing new. Randy Rhoad’s practically invented it in the early eighties and it has been prevalent in many modern bands’ sound ever since. We even have bands like Wintersun which are able to mix black metal and folk together with some of the best guitar work in metal history. And you know what? These guys are just as good. Realistically, there is not a single note that sounds like it was done by an amateur. They professionalism in the writing is immediately noticeable and they very rarely resort to showing off and even then, they only do it when it is intentional such as on the instrumental wank fest Axes of War.

The only problems that I have with the album are minor. The first thing will make no difference if you had never heard them before. Their last demo album shared the same name, In Hatred’s Flame as well as half of this album. It is not uncommon for a band to delve into their back catalogue, especially on a debut album, but if you were a fan before the new songs don’t quite satisfy. There is not a bad one among them, but nothing compares to the sheer awesomeness of the records first half. It sounds like two different writing sessions and it is. In my opinion the record suffers for it, but it is a necessary evil that will be forgotten about by the second time their second full length is released.

Unfortunately, Balmore has left the band for reasons unknown to me and Conan has shifted over to vocals. This is a shame because I loved the lineup, but I have known the band long enough to know that Conan and the rest of the guys are more than capable of pulling it off just fine.