Formed in 1986, EXHORDER’s thirty-five-year long (and counting) journey has proven exciting, yet tumultuous, fraught with euphoric peaks and crippling valleys throughout its existence. The band recorded their controversial classic demo, Slaughter In The Vatican, in 1987. From there, the international attention the band drew via the world of underground tape-trading was indisputable. As fate would have it however, the band broke up for the first time in early 1988 due to internal struggles. A reformation ensued later that year and EXHORDER set out once again to pursue its vision.
The band soon signed with Mean Machine Records, but the label dissolved before the band’s debut could be completed. The contract was subsequently purchased by R/C Records, a subsidiary of Roadracer/Roadrunner Records in the United States. With a small recording budget and repair to previous sessions, Slaughter In The Vatican was completed. It was released with the assistance of legendary producer Scott Burns in 1990, nearly five years after much of the material was written.
Following a series of lineup shifts, a second full-length, and multiple hiatuses, the band finally relaunched itself in 2017. Legends grow over time, and new generations emerge to keep them alive. With the demand of EXHORDER at an all-time high, the band set out once again to finish the job they had not yet completed. EXHORDER played a series of club shows and festivals to immense interest. A deal with the Nuclear Blast label was quickly inked and in 2019 the band released Mourn The Southern Skies. Rave reviews from critics and fans saw the band’s popularity increase yet again, and the band set out on the road to packed venues and large festivals.
In March of 2020, a direct support tour slot in front of Overkill allowed the band to showcase themeselves at the level they had always strived to reach. Live reviews of the tour and audience reaction proved that the hunger for this band by the public continues to grow.
Slaughter In The Vatican, which was recently inducted into Decibel Magazine’s coveted Hall Of Fame series and re-released on vinyl, remains a crucial release in the annals of metal. Decibel hailed the band’s “precision groove and whip-smart thrash,” Invisible Oranges lauded a, “groundbreaking and incredibly heavy slab of groove-infused thrash and speed metal,” Sputnik Music commended, “an album which helped to kick-start the groove metal revolution, while staying true to its thrash roots,” while AllMusic observed the album’s, "death metal-style double kick drums, chugging guitar riffs played at both slow and blistering tempos, and…the gruff but very expressive lead vocals of frontman Kyle Thomas," After seventeen months of a halt in touring due to the pandemic, EXHORDER put on a legendary performance of Slaughter In The Vatican in its entirety at Psycho Las Vegas 2021, a first ever headlining US tour, and are fully prepared to complete the unfinished job that began decades ago!
Management:
Jeff Keller Management LLC
Phone: (916) 709-1392
North American booking:
TKO
Daniel DeFonce
European booking:
Decibel Touring:
Volkmar Udri
https://www.facebook.com/exhorderofficial
https://www.instagram.com/exhorderoffical
https://twitter.com/exhordernola
”There was a time when the only things most metal fans knew about EXHORDER were that they sounded like, you know, that other band, and that they wrote bad things about the Pope. Roughly 53 minutes after you press play on "Mourn the Southern Skies", the most important thing to know about EXHORDER is that they've just made one of the finest metal records of 2019.“
-Dom Lawson, Blabbermouth 9/10 rating
”Marinated in two and a half decades of quashed dreams and frustration, the urgency here is through the roof, and the underlying energy has fermented to whole new levels of nastiness.“
-Sam Law, Kerrang! 4/5 rating
Chart (2019)
Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[7]
61
Scottish Albums (OCC)[8]
83
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[9]
65
2022 Line Up:
Kyle Thomas: Vocals/Guitar
Jason Viebrooks; Bass Guitar
Sasha Horn: Drums