sleigh

Exmortus releasing new LP, touring (dates & streams)

By Doug Moore

Exmortus, “sleighing to the sword”
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California’s Exmortus remind me of bands like White Wizzard or (early) The Sword — not necessarily because they sound alike, but because all three pay genuine homage to classic metal tropes while maintaining some distance from them. Exmortus is a little more aggressive than most bands who take this tack, and they really, really like to shred.

We’re streaming a song from their upcoming third album, Slave to the Sword, over at IO today — they take a page out of the Yngwie Malmsteen playbook by banging through a metal arrangement of the third movement from Beethoven’s “Moonlight” sonata. From our writeup:

Slave to the Sword, the third album from Californian melodic death/thrashers Exmortus, lives and dies by its unswerving commitment to shred. This band moves in an orbit not entirely dissimilar to, say, Revocation, but their collective musical upbringing clearly bears the mark of obsessive amounts of At the Gates, Arch Enemy, and the classic tandem guitar attacks of Mssrs Downing/Tipton, Murray/Smith, Hanneman/King, et al. Even when Exmortus’s songs are sturdily constructed and passably memorable — as they often are — they remain principally vehicles for shred, solos, shred, chromatic riffs, shred, whiplash, and more shred.

Slave to the Sword will come out on February 4 via Prosthetic Records. Stream the “Moonlight Sonata” cover and the album’s title track below.

Exmortus will also be on tour for much of the winter and they’ll hit NYC twice in the coming months: once with Dark Tranquillity and Omnium Gatherum at Stage 48 on February 3, and again with Lich King at Blackhorn 51 on March 7. Tickets for the Stage 48 show are on sale now.

Check out all the dates and the aforementioned tracks below…

Exmortus tour dates
1/23 Anaheim, CA – The Juke Joint
1/27 Tucson, AZ- The Rock
1/28 El Paso, TX- Larry O lounge
1/29 Laredo, TX – Cold Brew Rock Bar
1/30 New Orleans, LA – Siberia
2/1 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade #
2/2 Baltimore, MD – Soundstage #
2/3 New York, NY – Stage 48 #
2/4 Worcester, MA – The Palladium #
2/5 Montreal, QC – Foufounes Electriques #
2/6 Quebec City, QC – Dagobert #
2/7 Ottawa, ON – Mavericks #
2/8 Toronto, ON – The Opera House #
2/9 London, ON – London Concert Theatre #
2/10 Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s #
2/11 Columbus, OH – Skully’s #
2/12 Joliet, IL – Mojoes 22 #
2/13 Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater #
2/14 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater #
2/15 Salt Lake City, UT – In The Venue #
2/17 Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater #
2/18 Seattle, WA – El Corazon #
2/19 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater #
2/20 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge #
2/21 Las Vegas, NV – LVCS #
2/22 West Hollywood,CA – House of Blues #
2/23 Tempe, AZ – Club Red #
2/25 Dallas, TX – Trees #
2/26 Houston, TX – Scout Bar #
2/28 Louisville, KY – Diamond Pub & Billiards #
3/1 Pittsburgh, PA – Altar Bar #
3/2 Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero #
3/7 New York, NY – Blackhorn 51*
3/8 Trenton, NY – Back Stage of Champs*
3/9 Richmond, VA – Strange Matter*
3/10 Charlotte, NC – Milestone*
3/11 Columbia, SC – New Brooklyn Tavern*
3/12 Savannah, GA – Dollhouse Productions*
3/13 Jacksonville, FL – Atticus*
3/14 Miami, FL -Church Hills Pub*
3/15 Tampa, FL – The Brass Mug*
3/17 Johnson City,TN – The Hidaway *
3/18 Murfreesboro, TN – Main St LIVE*
3/19 Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups*
3/20 Cleveland, OH – Now Thats Class*
3/21 Rochester, NY -The Bug Jar*
3/22 Florence,MA – JJs Tavern *
# with Dark Tranquility & Omnium Gatherum
* with Lich King