Unholy Fu....

Now we're goddamn talking 2023. I love this album, and I am absolutely hooked. Wonderful guitar shredding, ripping relentless riffs that make you wanna headbang without end. Mosh-inducing thrash metal that inserts brilliant melodies, solos and hooks. It's interesting, it's fast and aggressive. The vocals are great and well delivered, the bass is goddamn delicious and the production is top notch. Youngsters, take notes, granted it might not be groundbreaking, but this is how you make modern fucking thrash metal. Literally no bad tracks on this release and there's some clocking 7-8 minutes. Yeah, I know, don't worry it's good thrash, they won't bore you.

What a win for Exmortus. Good work, now I'll go spin it again, and again, and... you get the idea.

My Highlights: "Oathbreaker" - "Mind Of Metal" - "Test Of Time" - "Darkest Of Knights" - "Beyond The Grave" - "Children Of The Night"

Edit: At this point, I would consider adding the Technical Thrash label to this album.

Yep. Found a good one here. Well done to these guys

Wow, what a surprise. Great way to start a Friday.

Damn, between Epicenter, Remission and now this, I'm not hating thrash in 2023; tbf, between the neoclassicalisms (Storm Of Strings) and tech/extreme metal bits, it's not straight thrash, which probably helps

Written by Ball Fondlers on 25.08.2023 at 12:17

Yep. Found a good one here. Well done to these guys

Dude, your username is epic ... 😂😂😂

Definitely a lot more than thrash going on here and I have to agree, it helps a lot. I don't usually listen to thrash anymore and haven't for a long while, but this is very well done. The solo in Mask of Red Death gives me epic Rust in Peace vibes.
Kudos to these guys 🔥

Damn... This took me completely by surprise. This album got some of the best riffs this year, holy fucking shit. Favorite by first listen



Top 50 Albums of 2023

As someone who doesn't enjoy a lot of thrash outside Vektor, this album is great. Neo-classical maybe? Something I definitely haven't heard in the sub-genre a lot. Lead guitar work is outstanding, and the drumming was pretty sick most of the time too. I didn't really enjoy the vocals, but on an album like this it doesn't bother me too much. Easily the best thrash I've heard this year (unless The Arcane Order can be considered thrash).

First listen was a surprisingly great experience, since I didn't have this on my radar at all. How much staying power it will have on me remains to be seen, but I'm probably going to be playing it a lot. Love me both Malmsteen and thrash, and this is definitely a powerful and effective blend.

Between all the releases around this time of year I completely forgot that I preordered this a few months ago. What a pleasant surprise! This is my favorite kind of TM album: Impressive musicianship, but doesn't take itself too seriously. The kind that leaves you with a big smile when it's over.

Easily an AOTY contender for me.

Sofar i dont share the enthusiasm around this album, maybe after a few spins it will change.

I've listened to this a few times now and performance wise this is a phenomenal effort. The technical shredding leads remind me of Rust in Peace, and the standard from the drumming and bass is equally impressive, but I'm not blown away by the songwriting. I can't fault the level of musicianship that's gone into this, the talent is out of this world, but It doesn't really excite me or want me to keep on repeating it. Don't get me wrong it's great in some respects, but just falls short of being something truly wonderful, for me anyway.

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 28.08.2023 at 16:21

I've listened to this a few times now and performance wise this is a phenomenal effort. The technical shredding leads remind me of Rust in Peace, and the standard from the drumming and bass is equally impressive, but I'm not blown away by the songwriting. I can't fault the level of musicianship that's gone into this, the talent is out of this world, but It doesn't really excite me or want me to keep on repeating it. Don't get me wrong it's great in some respects, but just falls short of being something truly wonderful, for me anyway.

Exactly how I felt. It is a unique album in terms of riff melodies being very catchy and it having amazing solos. But the biggest flaw of thrash metal remains where the songstructure just isn't appealing. I have never liked thrash metal because it has in my opinion hands down the shallowest most boring repetitive copy paste songwriting in pretty much all of metal. The only thrash metal albums that stand out are those that have outstanding instrumental talent like this album does. But they can never be masterpieces because the macro-songwriting is just too unexciting.

Frankly, I think this album is way closer to melodeath than thrash, unlike most of their earlier records.
The opener (the one after the intro, that is) could easily be a Necrophobic track.

The guitarwork is stunning throughout the whole record, not only during the solos, and all the breathtaking embellishments of the verses really stole the show for me. And the Vivaldi-inspired instrumental track is simply mind-blowing.

Every genre is built around tropes, and at the end of the day it's a question of whether one enjoys those tropes or not. Almost every type of metal exploits the 'riff, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, repeat, solo, chorus' formula, and I don't see how thrash, or whatever this record is, is the main culprit here. This particular implementation of the template sounds very inspired and heartfelt to my ears...

Storm Of Strings is great, Yngwie would be proud.

Good, but not mind-blowing, as some comments might lead you to think. The instrumentals are above average but what kills it for me is the songwritting, maybe they need a producer to push them towards that side.

And the vocals are too monotone with little variation, they really need to address that.

Children of the Night is clearly an highlight of this album. Great one but niot enough to keep it in my playlist for the year.

This is fucking sick. Will gallop votes in this edition.

Worth checking out.

Loved the classical touch to it. A great listen indeed