Having become a bit burned out on death metal that takes influence from the Swedish HM-2 sound, I’ve been finding a lot more bands recently that instead pull from some of the earliest American takes on the genre. In particular, death metal that recalls that time period where it hadn’t broken away from thrash yet and many of the bands from Florida were the cream of the crop. I’ve found a lot of Scandinavian groups that have been able to capture this same rabid and chaotic take on the genre perfectly, but why not a newcomer from the same state that spawned many of the originals? Hexorcist offers just that, having formed in 2019 with the intention of writing death metal that keeps that old-school spirit alive. Their debut Evil Reaping Death does just that, offering up very rabid yet calculated attacks that bring just the slightest bit of modern polish to that ugly and evil aesthetic one would expect.
A short and ominous intro kicks off Evil Reaping Death, and aside from a few other interludes that pop up the rest of the album does its best to level everything in its path with fast and furious instrumentation. As mentioned earlier, the sound here pulls from those formative years of death metal where it was starting to break away from thrash in favor of even darker and rabid tonality. Hexorcist captures that perfectly, though their production values bring just a slight bit of modern polish to that old-school spirit, allowing for the ugly and noisy nature of the guitar and bass to shine through while still maintaining a bit better balance between the instruments then was common in those early years. You’re likely to have a slew of 80s albums come to mind while listening to this one, though my ears pick out early Morbid Angel and Possessed’s Seven Churches as some of the most obvious influences. It’s a familiar approach, but Hexorcist does it justice by knowing exactly when to pull back their punches. Rather than going at 100% for the entire album, there are some strategic pauses and eerie interludes that gives them time to refocus the intensity and catch your attention with some stand-out riffs. Admittedly Evil Reaping Death doesn’t quite have those individual tracks that stick with you and made some of the classics worthy of that title, but it has more variety than most and comes damn close.
The vocals are another area where Hexorcist makes an immediate impression, as their lead singer has the type of scream/growl that towers slightly above the already immense instrumentation. His voice is drenched in just the right amount of reverb and there are some higher pitched screams backing things up, ensuring that the album maintains that appropriately evil and sinister vibe throughout. It’s an approach that works well, and at certain points when both pitches come through at the same time the amount of power reminds me a bit of black/death bands like Adversarial in how the tone feels like it can break through walls.
Hexorcist is pulling from a very specific era of early death metal, and they understand what makes that style still so appealing thirty plus years later. Their debut adds a bit of modern polish to it without sacrificing the unhinged and destructive tendencies of their inspirations, and while some elements do blend together a bit there’s still an onslaught of killer riffs to unpack here. The natural pauses and interludes go a long way, and with their material already at this high of a level for album one these guys are going to be worth keeping track of in the years to come. Evil Reaping Death is available from Memento Mori, Unholy Prophecies, and Godz ov War Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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