EXUMER "Hostile Defiance"

EXUMER

"Hostile Defiance"

Germany’s EXUMER is another one of the legion of 80’s era thrash bands trying to keep alive and stay relevant in the 21st century. Their last album "The Raging Tides" was shockingly entertaining and showed they still had what it takes. But with "Hostile Defiance", they take a step backward, although the album is not without interest.

Some of the album breaks through and reaches the heights of what EXUMER accomplished in their heyday...other tunes just don’t pop and sound more like a modern inferior take on the classic sound. The opening title track and “Raptor” just don’t move the dial. They are fast and furious but come across like a modern knock off of the days of yore. But then “Carnage Rider” kicks things up a notch and shows there is life yet in the beast. The album does pick up pace as it rolls along...”The Order of Shadows” has a cool “happy riff” to start before heading into a Bay Area influenced tune. “Vertical Violence” is another one that brings the ghost of the ancient EXUMER classic "Possessed By Fire" to mind.

If you pick this one up, make sure it has the two bonus cover tunes on them, because they both rip. The band does a phenomenal job of thrashing up the SCORPIONS classic “He’s A Woman (She’s A Man)” and also ENTOMBED’s “Supposed To Rot”. These covers are both so energetic and well done, you wonder how they can also do something as generic as “Trapper”.

This is no "Possessed By Fire" or "The Raging Tides" but it’s not that bad, either.

METAL BLADE

EXUMER