Exhorder

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Exhorder was a thrash metal and then groove metal band formed in New Orleans, USA during the late 1980s. They are often credited as the purveyors of the groove-oriented thrash sound later made famous by bands such as Pantera, Machine Head, and White Zombie.

It has been claimed that Exhorder more or less invented the sort of angry, 90's post-thrash metal often attributed to Pantera. It's not really clear who was first (and ultimately it may not matter much), but the resemblance between The Law and Pantera's Cowboys From Hell is clear, with stripped-down rhythm guitars, heavy double-bass drumming, and angry, almost identical vocals complimenting the basic American thrash style of the late 80's. One thing to remember is that Exhorder's "Get Rude" demo, of 1986, has some songs which was released too in their debut "Slaughter In The Vatican", making believe that they made their sound before Pantera (because at the same time, Pantera was in their Hair Metal times). After two albums the band broke up, and vocalist Kyle Thomas went on to form Floodgate, and also briefly appeared live as the vocalist for Trouble. As late as 2002 Thomas indicated a desire to put out a new Exhorder album, but that doesn't appear to be happening at this time, as he is now devoting time to his new band, Pitts vs Preps.

Exhorder released two albums in the early 1990s, Slaughter in the Vatican and The Law. Like many metal bands in the early 1990s, they succumbed to the fall of heavy metal's popularity due to the rise of alternative rock and fell into obscurity. The band states their hiatus is permanent. [1]