We Are the Grim Throng

You gotta give credit to Exalted. It's pretty rare that an American based-band can seem so perfectly European when it comes to design concepts and overall aesthetics, at least where classic black metal is concerned (though there's a subtle giveaway thanks to the inclusion of a photo of the ruins of Richmond, VA after the conclusion of the Civil War in the album booklet). Clocking in at a waste-no-time 33 minutes, We Are the Grim Throng works in familiar territory with its blur of feedback and hyperspeed drums, not to mention the near vomiting screech of the vocals, presumably the credit of Halhatatlan, the "unpunished architect of vile deeds." But sort of like Pig Destroyer, the skill of Exalted lies in knowing how to make actual riffs that stick in the memory. The strutting punch of "As the Sky Turns Black" is tailor-made for a late-'80s mosh pit time warped 20 years into the future, and they even know how to rock a cow bell towards the end, which crops up as well on the chunky-as-hell "Conquered Shores." Moments when almost everything drops away to a stripped down feedback howl and the roil of drums, as in "And the Cinders Tell the Tale," or the murky spoken word start of "Caves of Lost Rejection" further show that Exalted know how to work in some variety — and some honest to god drama — as well. Meanwhile, as has been implicitly noted, they've got a great "you needed anything else?" way around song names — something like "Ride of the Black Horde" is as perfectly simple and effective as Cirith Ungol song titles.