Well, surprises are always welcome. And I must say that this record is a surprise for me. At first I thought that I had to do with a band that could be put in the same row as Evile, Bonded By Blood, Warbringer and so on, but Exmortus brings more.
I would call it a kind of neoclassical kind of thrash with death influences. Riffs from early Destruction, Megadeth and Slayer combined with bands like Death in a Maiden sauce with solos in a kind of Yngwie style. Combined with the aggressive death metal vocals it is a very heavy and fast record.
A song like "Triumph by Fire" has a lot of hammer on guitar parts and some melodies introduced. "Onward to Battle" is a mixture of Destruction and Slayer with very fast melodic solos. "Valor and Might" starts as a Maiden song with bass and melodic guitar-harmonies, the whole song breaths early Maiden, but gets faster and with growling vocals.
"Onslaught" is again a fast song in Destruction/Kreator style, with fast drumming and nice twin virtuoso lead guitar attacks in Maiden-style. Fans of early Destruction, who are fond of virtuoso guitar attacks with neoclassical solos and like it fast and heavy with some melody must hear this one out. You will not be disappointed!
