Stardate 03/14/2025 09:30 

This release has quite a bit of peaks and valleys, to me though, there's some peaks just not enough to earn it an "A" rating. A lot of Pantera-esque riffs... they seem to use the same tuning as Dimebag (I think drop D). But Pat O'Brien does a good job in his solos and his rhythms. Just not enough "great" licks but enough to earn it a "B" rating. I don't really have much history with this band, though their 2019 release collectively earned good reviews. It's made me want to purchase more of their releases even though I don't multitudinously highly believe in this release, mainly because the music itself wasn't enough to gain it's favor in my estimation. If the rhythms were as strong as the leads, I would diametrically oppose this belief that they should earn a higher rating.

The vocals are decent and they vary between yelling to some clean. It compliments the music well. Pat plays the guitar on pretty much all tracks with some guest musicians as well (on a couple of songs). There are some songs that incorporate the vocals with reverb or an echo sound.

Aside from placating the Pantera-esque style on some tracks or licks, this whole album altogether is a great effort collectively. Pat sure hopefully recovered from being axed from Cannibal Corpse due-to run ins in the law and his drug addiction. I believe he was caught last year playing live for Exhorder to replace their existing guitar player. He's made a tremendous effort to be welcomed back into the metal community even though this band is quite different in their metal genre than they are from Cannibal Corpse. Let's just hope he sticks with the band and continues on his journey with them in the metal world. These guys have a somewhat great mass of riffs that stand out altogether.

What keeps this CD going is the energy to each track and the electric moments of the guitars going alongside the vocals. I enjoyed this album; I thought it was a great effort by the band. They have a history, but not a long history of LP's in their discography. Let's hope they last a lot longer!

Rating: 8 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
03/15/2024 21:15

Related websites:
The official Exhorder website :: www.exhorder.com
Nuclear Blast Records website :: www.nuclearblast.de

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Exhorder
(USA)

album cover
Defectum Omnium
1. Wrath of Prophecies (04:13)
2. Under the Gaslight (04:20)
3. Forever and beyond Despair (03:02)
4. The Tale of Unsound Minds (05:00)
5. Divide and Conquer (02:38)
6. Year of the Goat (03:26)
7. Taken by Flames (05:18)
8. Defectum Omnium / Stolen Hope (07:13)
9. Three Stages of Truth / Lacing the Well (06:45)
10. Sedition (02:56)
11. Desensitized (04:58)
12. Your Six (04:27)
= 00:54:16
Nuclear Blast Records 2024

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