EXMORTUS — Slave to the Sword (review)

EXMORTUS — Slave to the Sword album cover Album · 2014 · Technical Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
adg211288
Slave to the Sword (2014) is the third full-length album by US technical thrash metal act Exmortus. Although Exmortus seems to generally be considered to be based around the death-thrash format, there isn't really much to do with death metal about Slave to the Sword, except perhaps the nod brief nod towards the genre. This is my first time listening to them so I can't say whether the classification is off or whether the band has started exploring new territories within their thrash metal sound, but Slave to the Sword is very clearly more of a power-thrash album.

In fact, power metal is the first genre that is heard when the album opens up with Rising, but it soon descends into thrash metal riffs and the vocals are most definitely orientated more towards a thrash metal sound. I guess the riffs themselves would be 60-40 in favour of thrash metal, but due to how often the riffs are power metal based, and how melodic the album is for a thrash album, it would be wrong to just call it thrash metal. The band also include some neoclassical influences in their guitar leads in many places, notably during the instrumental Moonlight Sonata (Act 3), but also across the album in smaller amounts, adding further variation to their technical playing. When I think power-thrash, the sound of Slave to the Sword's instrumental work is exactly what I look for, although the neoclassical elements are a bonus extra that works well for the band. It's just the right blend of thrash and melodic power metal riffs to have the best of both worlds.

Where the album loses some of its momentum however is the vocal performance, which is done in a harsh style which generally works well enough for the most thrash metal orientated passages of Slave to the Sword's music, but isn't so effective during the power and neoclassical metal parts, sometimes even coming across as irritating and overly forced. The actual problem though is more that Slave to the Sword is far too melodic an album to really benefit from the vocal approach used. Sure, there are certainly moments where Exmortus make it work really well, but most of the time the vocals are just tolerable.

Good music needs a commanding voice to bring the best out of it, but Slave to the Sword is having to make do with what it's got. This is a shame, because Exmortus otherwise have all the makings of a power-thrash masterpiece here, but its testament to the other abundant qualities of the album that it's still worth a rating within the 4.5 stars bracket.

87/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/exmortus-slave-to-the-sword-t3336.html)
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