Thrash and groove trailblazers EXHORDER will release their fourth full-length album, “Defectum Omnium”on March 8 via Nuclear Blast Records. Featuring 12 crushing tracks and ominous cover artwork by Travis Smith (KATATONIA, OPETH),the album follows the band’s critically revered 2019 release “Mourn The Southern Skies”.
EXHORDER vocalist/guitarist Kyle Thomas states: “It’s been quite a journey for EXHORDER since the 2019 release of ‘Mourn The Southern Skies’. Lineup changes as well as the 2020-2021 pandemic and lockdown presented hurdles that weren’t easy to overcome. But we persevered, kept our heads down and went to work with intense focus and real goals. One of those goals was to bring our fourth full-length album to our fanbase.
“‘Defectum Omnium’ is a collaborative effort in songwriting, much as it was in the early days of EXHORDER. We produced it ourselves, as we felt no need or desire to bring in anyone from the outside based upon our shared vision. It was also important to us not only to continue the natural progression this band has been in since the early ’90s, but to put a foot back into our roots. The influence punk and hardcore had on this band from getting our start in the New Orleans punk rock scene has a strong presence. We’ve also made sure to keep plenty of our thrash roots as well in our songwriting process. But we have also managed to keep our doom roots alive, which first surfaced on the song ‘(Cadence Of) The Dirge’ back in 1992. In fact, on one new song we have guest appearances by Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin desde TROUBLEand they absolutely killed it!
“From the time that we began pre-production until the current release date, we can promise you that every bit of ‘Defectum Omnium’ It was crafted with great care, and we are really excited about it! Our goal was to make an album that WE loved and gives the experience of a journey, or maybe even a rollercoaster ride effect. We can’t wait to share it with the world!”
Without further ado, EXHORDER kicks in the door of 2024 with a savage new track, “Year Of The Goat”, that sets the neck-snapping pace for the record to come. The song’s official music video, which was directed by Brian “Bone” Thorburn and produced by Threshold Studioscan be seen below.
Thomas added: “Our debut single ‘Year Of The Goat’ is a fast-paced, chugging piece in the spirit of the influence that MOTÖRHEAD had on punk rock bands like DISCHARGE, GBH and THE EXPLOITED. The lyrical approach is a throwback to early EXHORDER attitude, and we had a tone of fun filming the video at a free show that we performed in the greater Cincinnati area. “2024 is the year of the goat!!!”
“Defectum Omnium” track listing:
01. Wrath Of Prophecies
02. Under The Gaslight
03. Forever And Beyond Despair
04. The Tale Of Unsound Minds
05. Divide And Conquer
06. Year Of The Goat
07. Taken By Flames
08. Defectum Omnium / Stolen Hope
09. Three Stages Of Truth / Lacing The Well
10. Sedition
eleven. Desensitized
12. Your Six
Following the release of “Defectum Omnium” in April, EXHORDER will kick off a US tour with Bay Area thrash legends VIO-LENCEVirginian extreme metalheads DECEASED and LA death metal band MORTAL WOUND. The brutality starts April 5 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and will wrap up on April 13 in Chicago, Illinois.
EXHORDER‘s new LP was recorded in part at Fat Track Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio with engineer Rob Nadler. The follow-up to “Mourn The Southern Skies” will be the group’s first with former CANNIBAL CORPSE guitarist Pat O’Brienwho made his live debut with EXHORDER in 2022 Maryland Deathfest.
The Maryland Deathfest gig took place three months after guitarist Marzi Montazeri left EXHORDERexplaining at the time in a statement that he “decided to no longer be a part of it.”
In a June 2022 interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Thomas spoke about O’Brien‘s first appearance with EXHORDER and how the crowd reacted upon seeing the guitarist re-emerge on stage more than three years after his arrest for burglary and assaulting a police officer while his Florida home was in flames.
“He was as apprehensive about it as anybody,” Kyle he said. “Having not been onstage for a while, he wondered, ‘Are these people going to want me around?’ We were, like, ‘Come on, Pat. You’re Pat O’Brien. These people want to see you.’ I can appreciate how he felt about it after all he had been through. I could imagine there was an intimidation factor about it. We got up there and he said, ‘I think I’m going to lay low in the back, get up and play and be done.’ As soon as we got onstage and people saw him, the place went nuts. I said to the crowd, ‘Hey, look, you all know Pat, right? Show Pat some love.’ And they went nuts. They adore this man. Who wouldn’t? If you ever met him, he’s one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. He’s one of the greatest at what he does, too. Then he started taking pictures with people and talking [after the gig]. He had a big smile on his face. That was so worth it. Here was a guy who needed a good break in his life and we needed help from him to get the show done. It couldn’t have been any more perfect.”
O’Brien made headlines in December 2018 when he was arrested for burglary and assaulting a police officer while his Florida home was in flames. At the time of the arrest, deputies said he burglarized a house and charged a deputy with a knife.
In March 2021, O’Brien He was sentenced to time served and five years of probation and ordered to pay $23,793.45 in restitution. He was also ordered to obtain drug and alcohol evaluations and render 150 hours of community service. In addition, O’Brien was ordered to abstain from using alcohol and controlled substances and to be subject to random testing.
In early 2021, it was announced that O’Brien had been replaced in CANNIBAL CORPSE by Erik Rutanone of the death metal’s most acclaimed guitarists who is known for his time as part of MORBID ANGEL throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, as well as handling vocals/guitars for HATE ETERNAL.
Shortly after the Houston-based Montazeri announced his departure from EXHORDERthe remaining members of the band — Thomasbassist Jason VieBrooks and drummer Sasha Horn —said that they and Marzi had been “moving in different directions” and assured fans that they would “continue to thrive”
Thomas is now the sole remaining founding member of EXHORDERwhich released its debut album, “Slaughter In The Vatican”way back in 1990. In February 2020, EXHORDER parted ways with its original guitarist Vinnie LaBellawho wrote much of the material on “Mourn The Southern Skies”. The remaining members of the group later issued a statement saying that they would fulfill their “touring and recording obligations for 2020 and beyond.”
In December 2021, Thomas confirmed to the “Brutally Delicious” podcast that he and his bandmates had spent a lot of the coronavirus downtime working on material for the follow-up to “Mourn The Southern Skies”.
EXHORDER released two albums in the early 1990s through the roadrunner label — the aforementioned “Slaughter In The Vatican” and 1992’s “The Law” — before breaking up, with Kyle going on to form FLOODGATE and also briefly appearing live as the vocalist for TROUBLEwhich he later joined on a full-time basis (and is still a member of).
EXHORDERwhich is cited by many as the originator of the riff-heavy power-groove approach popularized by PANTHERcompleted a US headlining tour in late 2021 during which it performed “Slaughter In The Vatican” in its entirety.
