They can be credited as one of the founding forces of groove metal. Louisiana's Exhorder popularized the heavy and richly layered sound that is so deeply rooted in The Big Easy. Though to say that fans have waited, patiently, for new material would be an understatement.
You think Tool fans had a tedious wait? Try 27 years?!
Exhorder's first two albums, Slaughter in the Vatican and The Law, are considered genre staples. Yet a 14 year hiatus prevented the group from achieving the same level of mainstream notoriety as their contemporaries.
Newly signed to Nuclear Blast Records, and ready to uncork their blistering new album Mourn the Southern Skies, frontman Kyle Thomas caught up with Metal Injection to dissect all things Exhorder.
On Anticipation for the New Album:
We're confident that it will be well received. And you know we're apprehensive that some people might be a little caught off guard by some of the changes that we've made over the years. But I mean we're old men now, we're not kids (laughs). I think we balanced well with keeping true to form while still evolving.
On the Evolution of the Exhorder Sound:
(The title track) is just a doom song. That's just what it is. That's actually the oldest of the newer songs on here. The oldest song is "Ripping Flesh" obviously coming from the 1986 Get Rude demo. Vinnie (LaBella) had actually started writing the music to that in the late 90s and right around that time, early 2000s, he sent it my way and said what do you think about this? I said I like it a lot. I'd like to work on it. There are still musical parts and lyrics from that original format that has made it to the album but the song has evolved as well. It's a bit different than it was when we first started it but it did stay pretty traditional, that slow long epic kind of masterpiece.
On the Cult Status of the Band and Second Chance at Success:
The weird thing for me is that I jokingly said this is the only job I'll ever have where I can leave for 7-10 years and come back and get a raise (laughs). I'm not really sure what the reasoning is behind that, that the music connected with people in some kind of way. It's gone from this cult legendary status to now all of a sudden, whoa shit, we're kind of up in the foreground and in a way kind of leapfrogging levels. I'm not unhappy about it because certainly I paid my dues over the years, but I mean the table is set for us to make this thing happen.
On Angst and Anger on the Record:
That was one of the big hurdles that I had to clear when I started getting the musical pieces handed to me. What the hell am I going to sing about now? I'm not an angry young man anymore. So after much deliberation I decided that instead of angry young man music I will just write angry old man music. So that's pretty much where we're going with it. I mean there's still plenty enough for me to have rage and angst about believe me. I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a homeowner. I struggle to pay my bills just like everybody else. It's frustrating and really "My Time" is kind of a cumulative nod to my path along the way that wasn't playing music. I happened to get up and go hustle money at a day gig, carry ladders and tools. Not to say that I'm above it but it was frustrating because it was never my dream to do that.
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On the New Exhorder Lineup:
We absolutely couldn't be happier with the guys that agreed to play with us (guitarist Marzi Montazeri, bassist Jason Viebrooks and drummer Sasha Horn). Personally we all get along and love each other very much. And you know it's been nothing short of pleasant at this point.
On Louisiana's Influence on the Exhorder Sound:
Just like most teenagers that were doing what we did back then we were listening to punk, we were listening to hardcore and to metal and all of those that we're obviously influenced by. But then there's that New Orleans sound, the influences from the funk bands and the blues bands that gave me the jazz. The old old school jazz. Mardi Gras has its own genre of music, it really does. So when you're a kid and you go out to the Mardi Gras parades there's bands on floats actually playing Mardi Gras songs and music and they were big radio hits down here. You had The Meters, Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, so many artists that wrote great soulful music that just locked in that groove and rhythm. I guess it's in the water here. You just kind of absorb it along the way and it just becomes a part of you. I think that's probably why we have that New Orleans metal sound.
On Exhorder's 'Unfinished Business':
We haven't completed the job yet. It's that simple. We still have a lot to say. This is Vinnie's first album that he's released in 27 years, so if anybody had something to say musically it was him and he produced this album and it sounds amazing. For a guy to step away from it that long and come back and be better, it's amazing to me. I can't throw enough accolades his way over this. But yeah we felt like this was the album that was where The Law left off. We were heading in this direction at the time. We've obviously had a little time to sit back and think about it and fine tune it a little bit. There's no doubt about that but more than anything we feel like we didn't get to finish the job. We didn't reach the level that we had aspired and hoped to and that so many people said that we could get to. So there's only one way to find out.
Exhorder's Mourn the Southern Skies drops September 20th through Nuclear Blast Records. For tour dates visit the bands official website.
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