EXHORDER's Next Album Will Include Songwriting Contributions From Former CANNIBAL CORPSE Guitarist PAT O'BRIEN

In a new interview with The Chill Dude On A Couch, vocalist Kyle Thomas of thrash and groove trailblazers EXHORDER was asked about a possible follow-up to the band's fourth full-length album, "Defectum Omnium", which came out in March 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records. The 55-year-old New Orleans-based singer, who also fronts doom metal legends TROUBLE, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Right now, actually, there's a lot going on. Being that I'm also the singer for TROUBLE, I'm actually in the process of writing and recording vocals for the new TROUBLE album. They're almost finished with the music. So right now it's kind of on me to start wrapping things up. So, that makes it tricky with a tour coming up. I have to do it when I can. This TROUBLE album's very overdue, so as soon as we can finish it, we'll deliver. But in the meantime, we are still working on new EXHORDER stuff, now that we are at the end of our two-year cycle to promote 'Defectum Omnium'.

"I won't leave for rehearsals until a week from Saturday, but [bassist] Jason [VieBrooks] and [drummer] Sasha [Horn] are actually working together right now on some new material. They're jamming it out and I think they're gonna go into the studio and record some demo versions of songs. And that's how the process goes. You record it early and start seeing what works and what doesn't work. Then they send it over to me once they feel like it's worth looking at as possibly finished musically. And then I have to do the same thing. I have to record to it and see what works and what doesn't. I'm also going to be putting some of this together myself. I actually do my writing here in this room, right here with a drum program. I send it over to Sasha and he tweaks it a little bit. [Former CANNIBAL CORPSE guitarist] Pat O'Brien is also going to be offering up some music for this next album. And I'm very excited about that, to have his input on this one. 'Cause the last one he just played solos, but I think he's excited about the potential of writing for an EXHORDER album now as well. He's been in the band for almost four years now, so he's earned the right, for sure. And he's capable and worthy of it as a skilled player."

Elaborating on how the songwriting process works in EXHORDER, Kyle said: "Jason has been writing the majority of the music for us the last few years, and I'm grateful for it because I'm so busy with all my other musical projects and it's a lot of pressure when you're the only one who's responsible for writing. So to have somebody who is as driven as Jason is to string riffs together, and he's very good at it. All three of the singles that we released off of 'Defectum Omnium' last year were songs that he put together riff-wise. I'm not too proud, as the last remaining original member, I'm not too proud to say it's okay if someone else is writing songs that maybe connect a little bit better as a single. And it's not to say that I'm incapable of writing a single, it's just that his songs, we felt, were the stronger ones to lead off with in that instance. Pat's a very technical guy, so he's probably gonna bring something very challenging for me. I have asked him to have mercy on me as a guitar player. But what we do is for the songs Jason writes, he records the guitars for them. For the songs I write, I record the guitars for them, and I'm sure for Pat, it's gonna kind of be the same thing. And then we just learn each other's material and play them live."

EXHORDER will kick off a U.S. headlining tour later this month. The "Unforeseen Circumstances Tour 2026" winter run will commence on January 29 in Lafayette, Louisiana and close on February 22 in Hobart, Indiana. Support will be provided by LUICIDAL, RINGWORM, PHOBIA and SLOWHOLE on select dates.

Featuring 12 tracks and ominous cover artwork by Travis Smith (KATATONIA, OPETH),"Defectum Omnium" followed EXHORDER's critically revered 2019 release "Mourn The Southern Skies".

"Defectum Omnium" was recorded in part at Fat Track Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio with engineer Rob Nadler. The LP marked EXHORDER's first with O'Brien, who made his live debut with the group at the 2022 Maryland Deathfest.

The Maryland Deathfest gig took place three months after guitarist Marzi Montazeri left EXHORDER, explaining at the time in a statement that he "decided to no longer be a part of it."

Shortly after the Houston-based Montazeri announced his departure from EXHORDER, the remaining members of the band — Thomas, VieBrooks and Horn — said that they and Marzi had been "moving in different directions" and assured fans that they would "continue to thrive"

Thomas is now the sole remaining founding member of EXHORDER, which released its debut album, "Slaughter In The Vatican", way back in 1990. In February 2020, EXHORDER parted ways with its original guitarist Vinnie LaBella, who wrote much of the material on "Mourn The Southern Skies". The remaining members of the group later issued a statement saying that they would fulfill their "touring and recording obligations for 2020 and beyond."

EXHORDER released two albums in the early 1990s through the Roadrunner label — the aforementioned "Slaughter In The Vatican" and 1992's "The Law" — before breaking up, with Kyle going on to form FLOODGATE and also briefly appearing live as the vocalist for TROUBLE, which he later joined on a full-time basis (and is still a member of).

EXHORDER, which is cited by many as the originator of the riff-heavy power-groove approach popularized by PANTERA, completed a U.S. headlining tour in late 2021 during which it performed "Slaughter In The Vatican" in its entirety.

Photo credit: Erik Hernandez / EHP Photography (courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records and Earsplit PR)