Album Review: Exmortus - Necrophony
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Let there be shred as California thrashers Exmortus return to bludgeon our skulls whilst making their own fingers bleed with their sixth album “Necrophony”. The four-piece is comprised of guitarists extraordinaires Jadran “Conan” Gonzalez (also on vocals) and Chase Becker (also in fellow thrashers Warbringer) as well as the punishing rhythm section of Phillip Nuñez on bass and Adrian Aguilar on the drums.
If you have never heard Exmortus before they are a thrash band at their heart but draw in a lot of influences from outside the thrash genre with a prevalent technicality to their sound as well as huge influence from neoclassical metal which you can clearly hear in the sublime guitar solos. Also mix in elements of death metal especially in the vocal department which remain a harsh death metal bark throughout the album as well as nods to melodic death metal and power metal in the band’s sound and you have summed up what the band is about.
This is high octane music with plenty of speed and aggression but melody, technicality and supreme levels of musicianship. It also helps that the band can write some damn good and memorable metal tunes such as ‘Oathbreaker’, ‘Beyond The Grave’ and the title track but the band also showcase their musical prowess with some neoclassical led instrumentals such as ‘Storm Of Strings’ but this is a band who are not style over substance unlike a lot of technical and neoclassical acts but demonstrate the fine art of balancing virtuosity with songwriting ability.
“Necrophony” is another great album from the Exmortus guys and shows that they still have their fire burning within post-pandemic. This album is a dizzying array of supreme virtuosity and gnarly aggressive metal. Guitarists out there will love the fretboard fireworks on this album whilst the casual metalhead will enjoy the aggressive riffs and pummelling rhythms. It is a wonderful concoction and another fine album in the Exmortus discography.
