Exhorder - Slaughter in the Vatican (1990)^{Release ID: 4050}

Exhorder will always be remembered for having a vocalist that sounded exactly like Phil Anselmo and a similar sound to boot. Whether or not Pantera copied Exhorder or vice versa has been an endless argument without any real resolution. The fact of the matter is that both bands released their debut thrash metal albums in 1990 and both albums are well worth picking up. Only one of the two bands went on to massive things, but that’s due to Pantera’s commercial attractiveness and variety rather than any lack of quality on Exhorder’s part.

Slaughter in the Vatican is brutal thrash metal that pulls no punches. With a fantastic production that really lets their aggressive sound smash the listener to a pulp, it’s not surprising that these guys didn’t make their way into the mainstream the way Pantera did, despite the similarities. Chris Nail’s drumming is relentless and awesome. Vinnie and Jay’s riffs were groove-laden yet crushing. Kyle Thomas’s vocals may not have had the range of Anselmo’s, but his aggressive growl is just as awesome.

Homicide (check out how much this sounds like Deicide!), The Tragic Period and Legions of Death are the highlights on a solid, heavy thrash metal album that deserves a place in any thrash metal collection. Try to get your hands on the limited (to 2000) remastered digipak from Metal Mind.

The obvious vocal similarity aside, I see little in the way of comparable elements between Slaughter in the Vatican and Cowboys from Hell, the latter of the two releases for me far outreaches the debut effort from Exhorder and I think they are two very different sounds in fact.  Notwithstanding the fact that I grew up with Cowboys... and it was instrumental in defining my journey into metal so it is unlikely to be ousted from the top spot anytime soon.

Again, as with my thoughts on Rust In Peace, I find Slaughter in the Vatican to be overrated.  I feel little in the way of any compulsion to revisit it much after the odd play it gets now and again, but this isn't because it is a bad album more the case that I just don't feel captured by it.  There's riffs and chops and hacks all over it, equally the energy levels are consistent and the musicianship is tight enough to carry it all off.  I still don't get anywhere near the levels of excitement from it that the various reviews on the internet seem to indicate are present.

I think part of this is the "cult" status the album seems to enjoy as being another band that did groove metal around the same time as Pantera did and this I think has led to the unnecessary and inaccurate tag of "underrated classic" being applied to the album.  To these ears at least it is not that and the record just needs to be acknowledged for its solid base and equally robust structures that occasionally break out into well paced and aggressive thrash metal to grab my interest.  Unfortunately though the majority of this record just passes me by.