Exumer – Death Mask Messiah
Exumer – Death Mask Messiah
Metal Blade Records
Release Date: 28/08/26
Review by Victor Augusto
9/10
There are bands that are impossible not to feel a kind of excitement or even anxiety when they announce new material is coming. Depending on the band, it’s 100% sure that something good will come, and there are the “anxiety igniters”. This last one is when a once-legendary band now can’t do new good things, and their loyal fans suffer waiting for something decent. Exumer is case number one, and anxiety happens just due to the long-time waiting for new material.
Although we know all the reasons for the long period of seven years without new material were due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the subject for this album reflects all the way the politics has been acting over the issues in our world, especially during these years of lockdown. As a result, we have an even more aggressive Thrash Metal here, going straight to the point in terms of music and using this anger to give extra energy to the music.
Ray Mensh and Marc B really worked hard to offer fast and sharp riffs, without giving time to breathe. I’m really impressed by the amount of guitar picks used in each riff. Even when they slow down, as happens around the fourth track, ‘Eradication’, the riffs are still demanding physical skills with the right-hand guitar picks (or left hand if you are left-handed). They also put good, but short solos among the songs, maybe as a way to not let just the rhythms become massive.
The work of Alex Voss on Bass and Jerome Reil on Drums is equally not easy, considering the album keeps a linear speed, but does not repeat the exact structures. There are minor changes that I believe makes everything hard to memorize and to play live, but for us, Thrash Lovers, it is what makes the album addicting. It is never boring. Maybe the track ‘Ravishing Waste’ is a good example to summarise all the ideas I’m talking about.
Mem V. Stein’s vocal lines don’t stray from the band’s path, and he not only sounds angry when singing, but he can also deliver catchy lines, with a few moments of melody, like in the opening song that carries the album title. In the song ‘Serpent’, he shows more of the typical structure of a chorus we hear from other bands, and this time, the melodies come together with a few guitar leads.
“Death Mask Messiah” is exactly what we can expect from a German Thrash legendary band like Exumer. They evolved over the decades, and they did it well, because they left the remnants of rawness while offering a crystal-clear and powerful production. Everything is heavy and brutal in the perfect measure. For sure, one of the best albums of the year.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Death Mask Messiah
02. Blinding Skies
03. Sin Bleeder
04. Eradication
05. Ravishing Waste
06. Allocated Savagery
07. Serpent
08. Fratricide
09. Scorcher
10. Frozen Ground
11. Unchained Angel
LINE-UP:
Mem V. Stein – Vocals
Ray Mensh – Guitars
Marc B. – Guitars
Alex Voss – Bass
Jerome Reil – Drums
LINKS:
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