I guess it’s not a huge surprise to me that a lot of people, some of whom are on staff, don’t really get amped up about thrash metal the way I do.  Sure, it was a novelty when the genre blossomed in the 80’s, but since its heyday, it’s all been kinda the same variations on a theme for nearly half a century.  Still, you could also make the argument that if it ain’t broke, you shouldn’t be trying to fix it, which is exactly where Melbourne’s Harlott sits on their newest offering, Exsequiis.

Harlott began life in the bedroom of four Australian teenagers with a dream and a t-shirt idea and has since grown and developed into a thrash powerhouse that fully, completely and shamelessly embraces the tropes of the genre with a big old grin and a sly wink.  Their output hasn’t been what one could call prolific in that time (Exsequiis is only their fifth album in all that time), but consistency seems to be the name of the game.  It’s been a six year gap that led to Exsequiis but in that time, the Australian quartet has sharpened their attack and honed their skills, promising to deliver their hardest, heaviest and most confident release yet.  “[2020’s Detritus of the Final Age] was a great experience in digging out sounds and ideas that we would have been too trepidant to explore,” explains Harlott.  “For Exsequiis, we went further into that, but with the confidence that it would work as it had done before.”  That confidence comes through in spades on Exsequiis, from the old-school bark and howl of vocalists Andrew Hudson and Tom Richards, to the breakneck pyrotechnics of Hudson and Leigh Bartley, to the thundering and blistering rhythm section of Richards and drummer Glen Trayhern.  Exsequiis is a masterclass in thrash by-the-book, which might make a few people looking for something a little more off the beaten path, but me?  I’m sold; hook, line, and sinker.

Perhaps there is a little more going on with Exsequiis than meets the eye though?  Do I detect a faint whiff of “blackened” in this thrash?  The blast beat and tremolo sections on “Void” and “Messiah Simplex” certainly give that impression; it’s not a ton of blackening, but it is a nice little bit of spice thrown into the “triplet gallops on the E-string” formula to break things up and keep the album interesting.  But hey, as long as we’re talking about those triplet gallops, you aren’t going to find a wrist workout better than playing along with this album.  The riffs are as fiery and savage as anything from the Bay Area’s glory days, and there’s hardly a break as Harlott rampage their way through the eleven tracks on the album.  “Rampage” and “The Joyful Stain” are about as close as it gets to breathing room, but their hardcore-tinged stomping and shout-along choruses do just as much to get the blood pumping and the feet moving as anything else on the album.  And that’s to say nothing of the lead work, which predictably is the kind of ballsy shredding that would make Kirk Hammet and Gary Holt blush.  

It’s a wonder why Harlott is not talked about more when not only do they continue to release albums as good as Exsequiis, but that they keep getting better and better with each release.  They’ve certainly been around long enough to earn their stripes, and if this album doesn’t do numbers for them, then maybe there is no hope for humanity left.  Is it a wholly original take on the genre, with nuance and outsider influence that pushes metal as we know it forward?  No, but I don’t need it to be.  I need Exsequiis to sound like a Doc Marten is encountering my solar plexus with extreme prejudice, and it absolutely delivers on that very satisfying premise.

— Ian

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Exsequiis is available now on Metal Blade Records.  For more information on Harlott, visit their Facebook page.