Exumer Death Mask Messiah Review
Exumer
Death Mask Messiah
Metal Blade Records
2026
The last thing I had on my bingo card this year was a new album from Thrash legends, Exumer!!! Yes, you read that correctly, Exumer has returned from their slumber with a new long player entitled “Death Mask Messiah”. And while it hasn’t really been that long since the release of “Hostile Defiance”, when it comes to Exumer and Thrash Metal in general, it feels like forever. These are the kinds of bands that I want more of and more often. In other words, it’s about fucking time!
For this latest effort, the band has gone back to that raw, in-your-face approach that made their early material so damn good. And for those of us who have been here since the 1986 release of “Possessed By Fire”, which remains one of the greatest Thrash releases of the ’80s, this is a most welcome approach. There’s a ton of melody here, too, and that’s important because this isn’t just four dudes getting in a room and beating the absolute shit out of their instruments for 40 minutes. The songs are written, arranged and well thought out. There’s an actual sense of purpose here. It’s a bulldozer of chaos, sure, but there’s beauty wrapped in barbed wire, broken glass and busted knuckles. That’s Exumer!
This is bonafide Teutonic terror in every way imaginable, yet there’s enough melody and organic feel here for even the softies to find some solace in it. And before somebody gets their panties in a bunch, I’m not saying Exumer has gone soft. Far from it. This thing will still rearrange your fucking furniture if you turn it up loud enough.
Production is a huge part of the charm here, too. Everything is where it should be. You can hear every instrument and Mem’s vocals are clear as day. Nothing is buried, nothing is muddy and nothing sounds like it was recorded inside a fucking tin can. It’s razor sharp, but it still has teeth. The guitars churn, the drums pound and the whole thing just keeps pushing forward until you’re somewhere on the other side of the room wondering what the hell just happened.
On paper, I’d say this is probably their best sounding album yet, but I realize those are fighting words when you start talking about Exumer. Their first two albums, “Possessed By Fire” and “Rising From The Sea”, are considered by many of us to be some of the finest Thrash Metal ever committed to tape. I’m not going to argue with that because I’m one of those people. Those records have a place in Metal history that can’t be fucked with. What I will say is that “Death Mask Messiah” sounds like a band that knows exactly what those records meant and isn’t trying to recreate them. They’re taking what worked and dragging it into 2026 without polishing the life out of it.
While I typically don’t delve too deeply into lyrical content, I found myself paying more attention here. The lyrics and themes presented on this album feel thoughtful and, dare I say, a little more mature than the average Thrash release. Hey, we all gotta grow up sometimes. HA! Then again, not a lot of Thrash Metal has always had thought-provoking lyrics unless we’re talking about the beer-chugging Thrash kids. You know, the ones who apparently discovered that drinking beer is dangerous and decided that needed to be a lyrical theme for an entire album.
Now, I know there are going to be some oldheads who don’t appreciate this effort, and that’s fine. They’re wrong, but that’s fine. HA! I’m not going to sit here and pretend that every album has to sound like it came out of 1986 to be legitimate. “Death Mask Messiah” sounds like Exumer in 2026, and that’s exactly what I wanted from it. It’s aggressive, melodic, pissed off and still has that reckless spirit that made Thrash so fucking exciting in the first place.
I’ll go one step further and say this is absolutely one of the best Thrash releases of 2026 and, without question, one of the best releases Metal Blade Records has put out this year. I shudder to think they’ve got something up their sleeves that could rival this one, because they’ve set the bar damn high here.
And then there’s the cover of Nasty Savage’s “Unchained Angel” featuring Nasty Ronnie himself. Are you fucking kidding me?! Take my money now! This is exactly the kind of shit that makes a release like this even more special. Having this thing on vinyl isn’t a want, it’s a fucking NEED. If you don’t feel the same way, you’re wrong and obviously you should turn in your Metal card and hand it over to some young, up-and-coming Rock Warrior.
All hail Exumer.
Standouts – “Death Mask Messiah”, “Sin Bleeder”, “Allocated Savagery”, “Serpent” and “Unchained Angel”
~Black Angel