Exumer - Hostile Defiance (2019)

I had heard quite a number of good things about this latest album from Exumer, or at the very least the idea that the band was really holding it together during this new phase of their career, far more ambitious and productive than ever they were during the first two records in the 80s. I can say upon hearing Hostile Defiance that this is, to an extent, true. The loud, brick-like production on this record is arguably the best of their career, the style is unapologetic early thrash with no real diversions into attempting anything out of the ordinary, and yet there is a good deal of emphasis placed on the songwriting to keep the contents of the album diversified and consistently engaging, like the better thrash albums of the 80s often did. This is no banal, pizza thrashing from Exumer, but their most punchy and studied album to its day, and if the parameters for your own enjoyment of this genre are simply that it sounds good and makes your head bang, then stuff like this is your bread and butter.

Unfortunately, for myself, there's not nearly enough of an impact in terms of the riffing patterns, the vocals or the overall personality of the album. If you just described to me the average German thrash style of the 80s, this would check off all the boxes except for the one that makes me want to listen through it again. The way these guys lay out the guitar patterns is just really basic stuff you've heard from a hundred other bands, getting the job done without excelling, creating few sequences of notes that last longer in the memory than it takes to listen through them on the CD. They do a good job of affixing some competent lead guitars or smaller melodic patterns to help each of the tracks seem full and fulfilling, but I think the entire record of the 42 minutes of the album blew right past me without a single rhythm guitar part ever demanding that I play it back immediately. The mid-paced stuff is basically just Exodus 101, maybe cruising along appreciably in "Dust Eater" when the solo breaks out, but otherwise it just sounds like a paraphrased "Toxic Waltz". The faster tracks like "King's End" definitely have a nice crunchy thrust to them, sometimes swerving into power/thrash territory with Artillery-like riffs, but even when they burst out the melancholic sounding harmony for the chorus part it just doesn't hit that money shot you're expecting.

Drums are particularly peppy here, and sound great, while the bass just plods along with the rhythm guitar line, forgiven to an extent since Mem V. Stein is also handling the vocals, which still sound like a mix of stuff like Vendetta, Tankard, Slayer and Defiance, a pinched anger that sounds angry and nasally enough, and is often laden with some nice reverb and effects for emphasis, but just doesn't inspire as much as the thrash greats do. Structurally, I think this is a fairly solid album, it delivers the full package you're seeking if you want second tier 80s thrash done in 2019, with the exception of having really memorable songs or even parts of songs that you've already got sitting around your music collection in droves. It's far from rubbish, but even with the interesting choice of cover songs added in, for Scorpion's "He's a Woman, She's a Man" and Entombed's "Supposed to Rot", both rendered appreciably into Exumer's pure thrash style, this album just doesn't give me any more than the basic nutritional content I can get from the average, competent thrashing. Even the title feels very bland and obvious, like they just threw two words together that fit the bill. I mean I guess at least is isn't Peaceful Defiance. I can't even evaluate it more highly than The Raging Tides, because while it might have stronger production, I wouldn't say there was anything else that stood above its predecessor.  I don't want to sound too down on the thing. Sure, it's good enough, but I want great.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.exumer.de/

Exumer - The Raging Tides (2016)

I've never had the same level of cult appreciation for Exumer as some other thrash heads. To me they were on the level of a group like Assassin, or Necronomicon, who put out one solid 80s album before an inconsistent sophomore, then quickly faded into obscurity rather than aligning with the Teutonic masters in the field. Of course, just about every damn one of those B or C-list groups have now reformed, with varying results...hell, even S.D.I. just recently put out a new record. Exumer has gotten some praise for not only putting together some competent material for their 21st century run, but managing to improve themselves in the process. I can't say that for the band's proper reunion record, Fire & Damnation, but I can see why the group's fourth record, The Raging Tides, turned some heads before it commenced banging them, because if nothing else, it's about as consistently 80s as you could wish for.

Now, don't take that as a glaring recommendation, because I still find the band's style a little generic and indistinct when there are so many other options, but unlike some bands...say Onslaught, who took on a pretty heavily 90s influenced thrash aesthetic via Pissing Razors or Pantera, Exumer has dropped an effort here that would have fit right in after Rising from the Sea and blown that disc to barnacles...err smithereens. This is unrelenting, energetic, full of choppy Bay Area style riffing and never scums out into some Lolapalooza mosh groove for dudes with bad tribalz. Granted, there's not a single damn new or interesting thing going on in the riffing department, but the tone is decent, and the riffs are at least hooky enough that you won't complain about them sucking, with a balance between more frenetic, tremolo picked passages and beloved, mid-paced Exodus meatheadedness. The leads are all well-placed, if frivolous, and the drums have a nice snap to them that kicks you along. You could probably cut and paste this stuff onto any number of other recent thrash albums that are informed by the members' 80s record collections, and then swap those albums' riffs onto this without skipping a beat, but hey, it functions.

Vocally they still remind me a lot of a mashup between other bands like Tankard and Vendetta, but the vocals are actually really well produced, as are the backing gang shouts. The lyrics read as if they could have been written for any decade, timeless and not terribly topical. I also thought the cover art was cool, they gotta stick with their mascot in total 80s thrash fashion, so you've got this Jason Voorhees looking dude representing on what looks like an old illustrated horror poster, bursting from the logo, with some extra skulls, fire and...nooses to fill up that negative space. They also include a pair of covers that are weird...the doomier "Forever My Queen" from Pentagram, which they mange to thrashen up a little with a nice lead. They also really amplify their cover of Grip Inc.'s "Hostage to Heaven" and make it sound more fiery with some gnarly vocals that often border on Exodus sneer. This was one of my fave tracks on the disc, along with some originals like "Death Factory" and "There Will Always Be Blood", and it really fits in with their own material. A decent offering here, if not outstanding, a slight improvement over Fire & Damnation, which wasn't so bad itself.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (desecrate your lives in vain)

http://www.exumer.de/

Exumer - Fire Before Possession: The Lost Tapes (2015)

There is occasionally a charm to a band's earlier recordings, before they got bigger and hit the studio for a more professional stab at stardom. Now, how much 'bigger' Germany's Exumer ever got is in debate, but the band would go on to release a couple cult 80s thrash records, and then reform way in the future for an even more steady and productive phase in their career. Fire Beyond Possession: The Lost Tapes is a humble collection of recordings that narrowly predate their debut, and of course are delivered in a much rougher fashion, though they've been remixed so that they can sound at least tolerable through your speakers in the 21st century. Here is a case where one can certainly experience that 'charm' I mentioned, but there are some notable flaws that no amount of mastering is going to fix, and slightly mar the personality that the music was going for.

Now the material is here is literally 8/9ths of the Possessed by Fire debut album, as you might have guessed from this thing's title, and most of that is raw demo quality. I actually dig the mix quite a lot, with the crazy amount of reverb on Mem von Stein's vocals, and he sounds a lot crazier on these recordings, almost like a mix of early 80s Petrozza, Angelripper and Tom Araya. The rhythm guitar sounds pretty driving and awesome, and the drums very splashy, with the bass present enough to add some beef to the tunes, if not anything more interesting. I do think the lead guitar passages are a bit loud, and like a lot of these old takes it feels very compressed and muffled due to the tape transfer. I also felt a few points where something seemed to cut out a little in one or the other speaker but I suppose that's to be expected from this sort of throwback production. I can't imagine that I would ever listen to this over Possessed by Fire, an album I dig, just not as much as other thrash worshipers, but even in these more primitive passes the material sounds energetic and thriving, it simply does not stand out stylistically or by composition as much as the band's more popular peers did.

I would have liked it if they included the entire original demo, A Mortal in Black as a bonus there, one of the tracks is missing, but you're getting two of those songs anyways. Or maybe a couple of rare, unreleased tunes that never saw the light (maybe they all did, I have no idea). But for a limited press, to the few folks that will actually want their hands on this (it was originally tapes that the group just handed out to people), there's nothing really wrong with this release. It would do little but gather some dust for me, but if you're really in love with that debut album and want to hear it in a more rough around the edges or live context, this might be something you want to buy on CD or 12" vinyl and toss into your collection.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://www.exumer.de/

Exumer - Fire & Damnation (2012)

The reunion albums of the lower tier Teutonic thrash acts have been a mixed bag at best, with Necronomicon, Vendetta and Accuser churning out more or less average works that placed the respective bands into a modern context without really capturing the excitement and edginess of their earlier efforts; and a handful of others like the obscure Wicca making a pretty decent account of themselves. Cult heroes Exumer took their sweet time in joining these ranks, having decided to continue the band in 2001 after over a decade of absence, but at long last their third outing Fire & Damnation has arrived, and through Metal Blade Records, making this one of the higher profile releases of its type. Obviously the band's much loved underground status played its hand in this signing, but I was actually hoping it was because they heard the record and thought it was a serious ass kicking.

Now, I've never been the hugest fan of Exumer to begin with. The debut Possessed by Fire was good for its day, though vastly overshadowed by the Metallica and Slayer masterworks that came out in '86, not to mention the other German efforts like Obsessed by Cruelty, Eternal Devastation or the amazing Pleasure to Kill. As for its follow-up, Rising from the Sea, I don't have much to say other than it felt like a sinking ship, derivative and uninteresting with riffs that into which almost as much effort was placed as in smoking a cigarette. The tracks I heard from the band's 2009 demo Waking the Fire seemed like at least an improvement from that album, if nothing standout or particularly exciting, and that about sum up Fire & Damnation. Don't get me wrong, this is hands down superior to anything the band has come up with in 26 years. A tight and admittedly energetic spectacle of pure thrash metal, with no bullshit 90s groove influences that have plagued some of their peers. They've even got the original bassist/vocalist Mem von Stein back, along with guitarist Ray Mensh. But I still felt a little underwhelmed...

Like a lot of comeback or reunion efforts, this album just seems more intent on resting on the laurels of its genre rather than continuing to hike forward. As if Exumer were just excited to write the same old riffs again under the relish of modern production standards and not attempt to draft up some magnum opus of memorable songwriting. Most of the guitar progressions here sound like a pretty average mesh of those Sodom, Kreator and Slayer have been scribing in the past decade, clearly hook oriented but lacking much staying power. I do like von Stein's vocal bite, especially where he manifests a more vicious and incendiary presence, but I've never found him to possess that same level of ruthless expression that characterized his better known countrymen Schmier, Angelripper or Petrozza. The leads here are blistering but unmemorable, the rhythm guitars solid as they rifle through various breakdown grooves, faster paced Slayer meets Artillery propulsion with tremolo ("Vermin of the Sky") or mid-gait Exodus moshing ("Fallen Saint"), but few of the riffs feel essential.

That said, the production on Fire & Damnation is pretty well handled. The guitars potent but never overbearing, the rhythm section tighter than a chastity belt. Exumer never try to sell themselves as a 'thrash' band with the needless, stupid lyrics and song titles that a lot of the annoying nostalgia punks use these days, and there is no question that they've got a mature outlook on the music of their own youths. Nowhere is this album insulting, trite or trendy, and the newer members fit in seamlessly with the veterans. The one thing that really held back my enthusiasm and enjoyment here was just the sense that I've just heard it all before and better, even from this very same band (on their debut). So, while it edges out some of the more recent fare from the groups I listed in my opening statement, and it's competent on most levels, Fire & Damnation just doesn't jab out with those barbed hooks and chorus sequences that defined the best of the thrash songs in the 80s (or any period). It's alright, just not exceptional.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.facebook.com/exumerofficial

Exumer - Rising from the Sea (1987)

For all the similarities it might have held to the band's fellow German thrashers, Exumer's debut Possessed by Fire was still a pretty good record. It is then ironic that the follow-up, which moves away from that same sound towards a more American feel, is just not as good. The vocals here, provided by bassist Paul Arakari, are different than Mem von Stein's style, in that they have a more blunt, condensed tone, bludgeoning along like most middle of the pack, blue blood US fare like Sacred Reich, S.O.D., or Hallows Eve, with a dash of Tom Araya or James Hetfield. Speaking of Metallica, I felt like there was a lot of riffing here reminiscent of Master of Puppets, only not even a fraction as inspiring or well composed.

In fact, the riffs throughout most of the album are tremendously dull, if not incompetent. Each track feels like it took mere moments to whittle out, with no catchy structure ever stabbing up from the road to snag the pedestrian's boot. Tunes like "Rising from the Sea", "Winds of Death" and "Unearthed" move in an out of the ears, and even where the band adopts a more clinical sense for melody, i.e. "Decimation". There are a few slightly superior tracks buried deeper in the track list, like "Shadows of the Past" which provides a passable stampede of the formula lacking on the earlier half of the effort. "Ascension Day" is also pretty good. However, there are also a few embarassments like "I Dare You" and the retarded "Are You Deaf?" lurking near the close of its contents. The guitarists rattle out useless, forgettable leads through most of the tracks, but the real lack of depth here is in the actual riffs, which feel like they were slurped up off the cutting room floor of better bands.

It's far from the worst album of its school and scene, but Rising from the Sea is nonetheless a sinkhole of any potential that was displayed with the debut. It feels and sounds like a mediocre attempt at the workmanlike thrash of a Wargasm or Anvil Bitch, two other bands inspired by the same sources, only better at writing songs. It doesn't compare favorably to much of the band's German peers, who all more or less managed to retain the vicious, tangible characteristics of their region. Even the mix is less than inspiring, but it might have been overlooked if there were a few songs here I could remember. Probably only "Shadows of the Past" is worthy to the debut material, but the band have since reunited, so I wonder if they perform Rising from the Sea songs with their original vocalist and have somehow improved this material. Their 2009 demo Waking the Fire is certainly better than this, so I'll keep my hopes up.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10] (knowing that the time grows short)

http://www.myspace.com/exumerwakingthefire

Exumer - Possessed by Fire (1986)

Growing up as a thrasher in the 80s, it was always interesting to me to observe which bands would break out of the printed press and tape trading scenes into the more mainstream American audience, at least to the metal circles of my junior high and high schools, or those fans I was able to speak with at gigs and record shops. German thrash was never necessarily a huge prospect in my region; some folks had heard of Kreator and Destruction, a few had purchased their albums, but take it down to the next tier of infamy, and the devotee was few and far between (at least here). Exumer was one band which did receive the occasional nod, which is uncanny since they've wound up so obscured through the ensuing decades...

However, when it comes to the specialized audience of today, they are also one of the most sought out and enamored of the 'thrash legends that might have been' from the 80s. While I do enjoy Possessed by Fire, and find this debut to be the better of their two albums, it is one case in which I might feel the cult status is slightly overblown. Clearly Exumer was possessed by more than just this one element, but also the ability to pace themselves in songwriting and conceive a well balanced album, with a pretty polished sound when compared to peers of their day. On the other hand, there is simply nothing in the band's retinue which really begs any distinction. They are essentially a composite collage of Destruction, Sodom and Kreator with a large helping of Slayer and Metallica on the side, and not quite so effective as any of those bands.

Vocalist Mem von Stein had a similar pinched vocal rasp to Schmier of Destruction, with a little of the body Daxx and Micky used in the later Vendetta, and while it's enjoyable throughout, it just doesn't have enough character to thrive against the better known bands. The riffs here are a mixed lot of average, nasty speed/thrash metal. Particular tracks like the Destruction gone sci-fi of "Xiron Darkstar" or mid-paced Metallica rampage "Reign of Sadness" do have their moments, while "Possessed by Fire" and "Destruction Solution" do a bangup job of knocking you over immediately to built excitement, but there are others which do not fare so well. I mean, I like the vocals in "Fallen Saint", but the song is basically just a paraphrasing of Slayer's "Black Magic". "Journey to Oblivion" is frenetic, savage fun, but "Silent Death" is forgettable.

If I had to choose a particular track here, I'd probably cite "Sorrows of the Judgment" as a favorite, since I enjoy the rapid rollicking of the guitars and their stilted bridge/groove, but even this feels like someone mashing up Slayer and Destruction. Now, I of all people am certainly not opposed to such a union, but when I hear claims that this is one of the greatest thrash albums ever written by the pen of man? Fuck no, it isn't. Possessed by Fire is a facsimile of other thrash bands which wears its heart on its sleeve. If you're craving that old German sound, then this will absolutely provide temporary satisfaction. The sound is good even today, the leads are well written, and you get a tangible level of pissed off speed, but is there a "Sodomy and Lust"? A "Mad Butcher"? A "Riot of Violence", or "Pleasure to Kill"? Unfortunately not.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (captured souls call in poisoned lust)

http://www.myspace.com/exumerwakingthefire