Exmortus – The Sound Of Steel


If you break Exmortus down into its finer components they should really stand as one of the biggest bags of fun you can have on record. Take some Kreator style Thrash (paying particular attention to latter-day) with pure old school Heavy Metal love and even a dash of Power Metal and you should get the biggest grin and craving for cold beer. Should being the operative word, because latest album The Sound Of Steel (Prosthetic), despite having some decent moments, never quite seems to reach the levels of battle cry that is hoped for.

The Sound Of Steel sees the band turning their Thrash credentials up a notch from previous, with this being a markedly faster and rawer sounding beast than predecessor Ride Forth (Prosthetic) but still possesses enough melodicism and striking guitar leads to distance itself from being purely Thrash. This guitar work showcases a song technical proficiency throughout as they are able to veer from over the top fretwork to sharper, anthemic passages; but sadly The Sound Of Steel produces surprisingly mixed results. Things are off to a bad start when album opener ‘Make Haste’ quite ironically doesn’t seem to take off at all, proving to be a dull affair. The following brace of ‘Feast Of Flesh’ and ‘Into The Maw Of Hell’ prove mighty highlights, being increasingly more frantic and then an impactful, fist pumping anthem respectively.

After this, proceedings continue to be patchy with the presence of two (nearly three if you consider that ‘To The Ends Of Earth’ features vocals sparingly) instrumental pieces which, whilst showing their virtuosity, feel pointless in a style which normally benefits more from towering vocals (even Iron Maiden made this mistake when they were once ‘Losfer Words’). Otherwise, it quite simply never reaches the heights of the album’s all too early peak, and is, ultimately, forgettable.

 

When some bands make it look and sound so easy to thrash out some Heavy Metal, it is easy to forget how hard it must be to pen catchy and infectious material that makes you want to smile as much as swig and throw horns, and that the formula isn’t quite that simple. Exmortus are a band capable of such feats and proved that here with a couple of proper anthems, but even these aren’t enough to brighten the murk that sits around them. Far from a bad album, but inconsistent enough to hit a middle ground where this will only really appeal to the most ardent of fans.

5.0/10

CHRIS TIPPELL