NOLA thrash legends, Exhorder, have announced a US Summer tour with fellow Crescent City natives and sludgelords Eyehategod. The live run kicks off on August 13th in Memphis, TN, running to September 1st in Chicago, IL. It comes in support of their 4th album, Defectum Omnium, which was released in March via Nuclear Blast Records. Keep reading below for tour dates and more.
Purchase/Stream Defectumm Omnium here: https://exhorder.bfan.link/defectum-omnium
Vocalis/guitarist Kyle Thomas says of the tour:
“It’s been 35 years since Exhorder and Eyehategod first shared the stage in the local New Orleans scene, but we finally are getting the opportunity to tour with each other! We couldn’t be happier and more grateful that Eyehategod are taking us out with them. I played in my first two bands with Jimmy, went to high school with Gary, and have known Mike since I was 15 years old. These guys are family to me, and the entire Exhorder team is stoked to burn down the highways with them as well. We’ll see everyone soon. Get your asses to the shows- this tour will be one for the books!!!”
Exhorder tour dates (w/Eyehategod):
Aug 13 – Memphis, TN – Growlers
Aug 14 – St. Louis, MO – Red Flag
Aug 15 – Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle
Aug 16 – Dayton, OH – Cosmo Joes
Aug 17 – Mansfield, OH – Show Trails
Aug 18 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary
Aug 19 – New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground
Aug 21 – Clifton, NJ – Dingbatz
Aug 22 – Waterbury , CT – Elite 23
Aug 23 – Brooklyn, NY – Monarch
Aug 24 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
Aug 25 – Albany, NY – Empire
Aug 26 – Portland, ME – Geno’s Rock Club
Aug 27 – Boston, MA – Middle East
Aug 28 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
Aug 29 – Rochester, NY – Bug Jar
Aug 30 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Pyramid Scheme
Aug 31 – Madison, WI – The Crucible (Blades of Steel Festival)
Sep 1 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s
Sonically unrelenting, Exhorder’s newly released record, Defectum Omnium, revisits the band’s early influences of punk, hardcore and thrash, with 12 merciless tracks that sound as vital as when they first carved their groove in metal in 1985. Featuring crushing songs like “Year of the Goat” and “Forever and Beyond Despair” and ominous cover artwork by Travis Smith (Katatonia, Opeth), Defectum Ominum finds Exhorder at the top of their game with one of the year’s most vicious records.
Thomas has said of the new record:
“It’s been quite a journey for Exhorder since the 2019 release of Mourn the Southern Skies. Lineup changes as well as the 2020-2021 pandemic and lockdown presented hurdles that weren’t easy to overcome. But we persevered, kept our heads down and went to work with intense focus and real goals. One of those goals was to bring our fourth full length album to our fan base. Defectum Omnium is a collaborative effort in songwriting, much as it was in the early days of Exhorder. We produced it ourselves, as we felt no need or desire to bring in anyone from the outside based upon our shared vision. It was also important to us not only to continue the natural progression this band has been in since the early 90’s, but to put a foot back into our roots. The influence punk and hardcore had on this band from getting our start in the New Orleans punk rock scene has a strong presence. We’ve also made sure to keep plenty of our thrash roots as well in our songwriting process. But we have also managed to keep our doom roots alive, which first surfaced on the song (Cadence of) the Dirge back in 1992. In fact, on one new song we have guest appearances by Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin from Trouble, and they absolutely killed it! From the time that we began pre-production until the actual release date, we can promise you that every bit of Defectum Omnium was crafted with great care, and we are really excited about it! Our goal was to make an album that WE loved and gives the experience of a journey.”
Defectum Omnium Tracklisting:
01 Wrath of Prophecies
02 Under the Gaslight
03 Forever and Beyond Despair
04 The Tale of Unsound Minds
05 Divide and Conquer
06 Year of the Goat
07 Taken by Flames
08 Defectum Omnium / Stolen Hope
09 Three Stages of Truth / Lacing the Well
10 Sedition
11 Desensitized
12 Your Six
More from Exhorder:
Formed in 1986, Exhorder’s journey has proven exciting, yet tumultuous. After a twenty-seven-year absence following their final Roadrunner Records release in 1992, Exhorder re-entered the game with an album considered by many to be a contender for the “Best Comeback Album” category. The band released Mourn the Southern Skies in October of 2019 through Nuclear Blast Records. Fraught with euphoric peaks and crippling valleys throughout its existence, lineup changes, and the 2020-2021 pandemic, Exhorder has since clawed back through the muck to prepare yet another album to add to the discography. In the spring of 2024, Exhorder presents yet again via Nuclear Blast their fourth full-length recording, Defectum Omnium, the Latin phrase for “The Failure of All”. Singer Kyle Thomas wryly explains that the album title is representative of the current state of affairs that the world is in. “The world is a dumpster fire, and we are all complicit,” he explains. “People have been talking about, ‘…viruses killing us off, blah-blah, blah…’, when in actuality WE are the virus to the Earth. Mother Nature is simply trying to shake off the fleas, and her ‘viruses’ are the antibodies combating US. Earth will survive, and we will join the dinosaurs, wooly mammoths, and saber-toothed tigers soon enough in her history.”
Produced by Exhorder and mixed by Jens Bogren, Defectum Omnium puts a foot back into the roots of the band’s inception. The scales have tipped favorably towards the presence of punk and thrash more so than on Mourn the Southern Skies. Tracks like “Wrath of Prophecies,” “Forever and Beyond Despair,” and “Sedition” are what Exhorder comes by most honestly when referring to their beginnings. There is also a strong presence of doom influence, as always. “The Tale of Unsound Minds” and the haunting “Defectum Omnium/Stolen Hope” will raise utter despair from the depths of your soul. The thick New Orleans grooves Exhorder has been known for beating out since day one are still undeniable, and they stand out in tracks like “Year of the Goat,” “Under the Gaslight,” and “Three Stages of Truth/Lacing the Well.”
One trait about Defectum Omnium that deserves to be pointed out is that it is more of a journey and experience than just a regurgitated selection of songs on autopilot. With peaks and valleys much like a roller coaster ride, one listener described the album as having “…a little something for everyone.” As Exhorder has always been hard to classify by one genre, the album is loaded with heaviness, aggression, speed, and venom. It also has an equal presence of mystery, melody, and harmony, and vacillates between darkness and light. Themes that dart back and forth between surviving oppression, despair, revolution, and brittle hope take you through the band’s madness by way of the musical path that they have forged. With touring plans underway in support of Defectum Omnium, Exhorder finds itself poised to finally achieve the brass ring potential that has always seemed to be just out of their reach.
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