Exhorder singer and guitarist Kyle Thomas has said a large, high-profile record label is actively trying to sign the band, as they consider how to release the follow-up to 2024’s Defectum Omnium.
Speaking with Scott Davidson of Chicago’s “Rebel Radio“, Thomas responded to earlier reports that Exhorder were without a label. He said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “It’s kind of funny because I did an interview and I mentioned in the interview that we’re not currently under contract with a label. And then Blabbermouth picks up the story, and that’s the headline they chose, was we don’t have a label. And I felt like it made us look like no one cares, and it’s not true. We actually have a very big label right now that’s been very, very active in pursuing us. We’re just not in a hurry because we’ve got the resources to do this on our own without a label, so we’re considering doing that. But it is nice to know that at least one high-profile label out there wants us. There’s also another one that’s a little smaller than that one. So, we have multiple labels that are interested in signing this band. But that’s not the way it was presented on Blabbermouth. Go figure.”
He added: “You know how it is. Most people don’t read the story. They read the headline and then proceed to have a contest to see who can make the dumbest comments in the world.”
Thomas did not name either of the labels. Defectum Omnium, the band’s fourth album, was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 2024.
Asked how writing for Exhorder has changed since the band’s early days, Thomas explained that the band’s shift towards groove and melody had been planned long before their 2017 reunion: “Well, it’s definitely a different process because I’m the only one left of the lineups from back then, so it’s obviously going to be different. But the evolution started before the lineup that we have now.”
“Back in ’93-ish, after we did [our second album, 1992’s] The Law’ — ‘The Law was such a techy, almost proggy album that we decided we didn’t want to be that anymore,” he continued. “So the plan moving forward for the album that followed The Law, and we were going to do an album in ’93, it was going to be a lot more structured songs, a little more away from the thrashy thing and more into where we were going with grooves and melody and stuff. So, we’ve had some people, when [2019’s] Mourn The Southern Skies came out, complain that it was a drastic change in style. It’s, like, I hate to tell y’all this, but that was going to happen in 1993. Because that was the plan.”
“We were never a true 100% metal band. We were never a true 100% punk band. We were never a true anything,” he explained. “We did what we wanted to, and we always did what we wanted to, and that’s really the tradition that we have. Now, obviously it would be ridiculous if we came out and did like a reggae beat. It would be dumb. So there’s some things you just don’t wanna do, ’cause they don’t make sense. But that’s why we have such drastic stylistic differences in some of the material of the last two albums. ‘Cause we’re expanding.”
He added: “I’m 50-something years old. I’m not an angry young man anymore. I don’t know what an angry young man thinks like anymore. So I just have to find a new way to get motivated to write things. And the goal is always for us to — when we finish the songs and we listen them back, we have to be honest with ourselves and say, ‘Does it belong on an Exhorder album?’ And even if it’s stylistically different, does it still sound like Exhorder? So that’s the trick right there. And there have been a few songs along the way in the last five, seven years that we’ve been working on new material where we were, like, ‘Nah, let’s save this one for something else, ’cause it just doesn’t fit.'”
Exhorder‘s current core line-up features Thomas, bassist Jason VieBrooks and guitarist Pat O’Brien, formerly of Cannibal Corpse. Drummer Sasha Horn left the band in March to focus on his personal life, and Corey Pierce, known for his work with God Forbid, filled in on tour this spring. A permanent replacement has not been announced.
Thomas is the last remaining founding member of the New Orleans band, whose 1990 debut Slaughter In The Vatican and 1992 follow-up The Law were released through Roadrunner Records before the group split. He went on to form Floodgate and is also the singer of doom metal band Trouble.
