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Exhorder > Slaughter in the Vatican > Reviews
Exhorder - Slaughter in the Vatican

A big step forward towards their thrasterpieces!! - 81%

HangThePope, August 10th, 2004

This is what made Roadrunner records resoundingly clear their bowels and bladders, stand up and take notice and throw some benjamins at the violent thrash quartet from New Orleans to produce the Vatican album.

The tracks on here are a big step from the scratchy beginnings of the"Get Rude" demo and the jaw dropping riffwork is beginning to make it mark, although the guitar tone wouldnt be prevalent until Scott Burns godly intervention.

This sounds more like ground breaking thrash rather than their run of the mill, 2nd rate Dark Angel beginnings.
Homicide kicks it off with their trademark frenetic aggression alongside neck snapable riffs and Thomas' vocals which are pretty ordinary on this demo and the first. Theres no real glimpses of his legendary style (as Phillip Anselmo can testify!!) he later used on their 2 albums which was a brilliant and unique compliment to the thrashing. On here he sounds like your Average Joe thrash vocalist.

Desecrator and Death In Vain follow up Homicide with their renowned charms and competent riffs throughout although not as penetrating and devastating as they are on their albums due to...yes youve guessed it..THAT guitar tone. Their biggest asset and what makes the difference between them being a 2nd rate Dark Angel clones a' la Viking and Sadus and them producing some of the best offerings to the table of heavy metal.

The rest of the demo is competent and decent but lacks that extra kick that takes it over the hill of true genius and when Exhorders material was touched by the hand of god a.k.a Scott Burns they were able to achieve that.

Still a decent demo and well worth checking out for fans interested in the roots of one of the best and to this day, most underrated bands in the history of metal.