Review by Adam M on October 7, 2019.

Exhorder get the Southern flavor down pat with their new album Mourn the Southern Skies. The songs have a brash thrash nature, but also a tinge of the South that makes them even more interesting. These are head-banging songs to get in your head in a similar manner to how Down did with the album NOLA. While there is more of a thrash vibe to these tracks, there is a similar Southern nature to that album or even Corrosion of Conformity that makes it more appealing and authentic.

The songs have some groove to them but maintain the thrash impact to create an assault on the senses. Though there were moments of acoustic bliss on the album, for the most part it kept the pedal to the metal and things moving at a nice pace. Like the classic Down album or any album from Corrosion of Conformity there are certainly some catchy moments as well that will have you thrashing around like a madman. The vocalist is a little different than Phil Anselmo and more typical sounding. Kyle Thomas shows a need to be more traditional sounding as he is with the traditional doom outfit Trouble. The songs themselves are fairly straightforward and fit into a mold that makes them stand out and have an impact. Just see the opener My Time for an example of the razor-sharp Southern thrash nature that the album has. There is certainly the crunch there, but there is also a sludgy aspect to the sound of the tracks that makes them more interesting.

This was a great album for the genre, but bands like Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity and Down have done similar music at least as effectively in the past. This thus has a pedigree to live up to and ends up just sitting in a very good position rather than a great one. Fans of Southern styled music or thrash music will still want to check this album out.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by JD on April 20, 2012.

It makes me angry as hell when people look upon metal as something that has no real discernable intelligence to it, and just is mindless and vulgar noise bent on destroying everything. It is true that we do have lyrics like that, but metal is much more than that -we dare to look at the world, and tell it like it is. We may not be like our irritating little brother Hardcore Punk, we can actually articulate what we are needing to say with class and great music as well. Brazil’s Drowned is one of those bands that can do that.

Combining the fury, explosiveness and dynamics of Death Metal with equal parts of Thrash, Speed and shades of Punk into the fold- Drowned brings intelligence to the brutality and kicks your ass with it. With massive riffs overtop of venomous vocals, this band brings a new aggression and fight - think as if this is Death or Sepultura with the intelligence of System Of A Down with Thrash tendencies.

Songs like the deathly Thrashing of 'Before You Try To Kill Me' or the more traditional Death Metal side of things represented by the nasty 'Universal Killing Portion' shows a band that can walk that so small of a tightrope between delivering full out Death Metal blast and some maniacal yet musically awe inspiring Thrash. The results is a album that is begging to be on everyone’s top ten lists at the end of this year.

Gotta say that Drowned’s "Belligerent - Part Two: Death And Greed Are United" was the style that Brazil’s metallic masters Sepultura should have done rather than going with the whole tribal beats things that had started with "Roots Bloody Roots". They lost me on that album, and continued to on all future ones as well. Drowned has picked up the torch, and has deposed Sepultura as Brazil’s best band. Sorry guys... this band is that damned fuckin’ good.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Production: 9.5
Originality:9.5
Overall: 9.5

Rating: 9.7 out of 10