HARLOTT Delivers An Album For The Ages
BAND: HARLOTT
ALBUM: EXSEQUIIS
LABEL: METAL BLADE RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 2026
RATING: ★★★★★
HARLOTT wastes very little time establishing what kind of record Exsequiis is going to be. “Incipiam” opens with crystal clear melodic guitar work before “Void” comes in swinging like a forty ton fist, vibrant in its urgent crossover velocity, angular riffing and pointedly familiar Bay Area thrash feel. Andrew Hudson’s sandpaper snarl gives this music a mean, bristling edge. He occasionally issues Tom Araya-like phrasing, but Hudson's tone is very different and very much his own. By the time “Void” hits its breakdown and comes roaring back with voracious fury, it is already obvious that HARLOTT is not interested in simply finding three good riffs and repeating them until the song ends. The band put some serious thought into songwriting and their detail-driven approach pays of in thrashed up dividends of heaviosity.
That becomes one of the defining characteristics of Exsequiis. HARLOTT will insert four measures of something unexpected, change the rhythm underneath a familiar figure, drop into a groove, fracture it, accelerate, pull back and then head somewhere else entirely. The changes do not feel random. This is a band that writes with intention, and the constant movement is a major reason the record remains interesting from beginning to end. HARLOTT’s music is a moving target.
There are a myriad of recognizable ingredients throughout the record, but these touchpoints have been absorbed deeply enough into the sound of the band that they function as musical tools rather than obvious quotations. Razor-edged old-school thrash, crossover stomp, blackened tremolo picking, technical riffing, melodic guitar work and modern extreme-metal dynamics all appear at different points. Individual moments may trigger a familiar association, but the overall personality belongs entirely to HARLOTT and that is why this record is so effectually tremendous.
“Messiah Simplex” opens in territory that is flavored with black metal, with tremolo picking and blast-beat intensity setting the tone before drummer Glen Trayhern starts throwing flurries of ear-ripping kicks underneath the cacophony of riffing and showing his mastery of timekeeping by changing direction on a dime. The chorus chants are harsh and nasty, and the skilled production sensibilities gives Trayhern enough space to hit without turning the track into a wall of noise. The black-metal elements are not pasted on for decoration. HARLOTT uses them to change the dynamics of the songs, and that makes the shifts into thrash and groove sections hit much harder.
There is also a hardcore band somewhere deep inside this modern blackened thrash configuration. It comes out in the way HARLOTT understands physical groove and in the way certain sections seem built to make a room move, but Hudson’s vocals are something else entirely. At his nastiest, he does not sound “hardcore” so much as venomous. In “Trial By Liar,” he spits portions of the vocal over a stripped-back guitar figure with enough hostility to make the reduction in instrumentation feel more aggressive than the full-band attack.
“Trial By Liar” is a fucking relentless single. The band keeps moving the target, shifting between outright velocity, choppier passages and moments where the production itself becomes wild enough to make the listener stop and wonder what just happened. Near the end of the track, HARLOTT veers into a genuinely strange passage that feels almost dropped in from somewhere else, yet the song never loses control of itself. It is one of several moments on Exsequiis where the band does something just unexpected enough to demand another listen. And another. and so on. You know a record's a keeper when it keeps you coming back for more.
“Kleptogenesis” is hectic, frantic and angular, and it may be the best early example of just how good the songwriting is. A breakdown opens into twin melodic guitar licks, mid-paced double kicks change the weight underneath the section, and then the band tears back into super-fast technical thrash before hitting a solo that actually sounds composed. That distinction matters. There are plenty of players who can shred; HARLOTT’s leads usually sound like they were written for the song rather than dropped into an empty space because a solo was expected.
The contrast between Hudson and Leigh Bartley’s soloing styles is one of the record’s strongest musical features. These guys bring their own hot licks. Some of the leads are cutting and angular, some are harmonically rich, some are frantic and almost unhinged, while others stretch out with an almost cosmic feel. The approaches are different enough from one another to give the record another layer of personality, but they always remain connected to the composition. The musicianship is top notch throughout, yet HARLOTT never lets technical ability become the point.
“A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits” is one of the strongest thrash songs of the year. The band tears into a ripping black-metal passage, adds broad backing vocals that expand the section, and then turns on a dime into the growling, pounding main riff. The transition should feel abrupt, but it does not. HARLOTT makes it sound natural because the band understands how to use contrast as part of the composition rather than as a stunt.
“The Joyful Stain” comes from another direction and is simply mean. The song leans into thick crossover weight and muscular groove without sacrificing precision, and the change in physical feel gives the album another dimension. HARLOTT knows when a riff needs speed and when it needs mass, and there is a recurring willingness throughout Exsequiis to let a heavy groove do the work instead of trying to win every battle with velocity.
“Endling” brings another massive riff into the equation and then starts moving again. Cool backing vocals open up the chorus before the band drops into a funky, syncopated thrash passage and then snaps back toward ferocious high-speed riffing with Hudson ripping over the top. There is a lot happening in the production here: screams fading into the distance, sustained guitars carrying sections together and an enormous mosh-ready groove developing underneath it all. Tom Richards’ bass tone is especially good on this track, thick enough to feel but clear enough to follow.
In fact, the bass deserves special mention across the record. Richards is not buried beneath the guitars, and his tone has real character. There are passages on Exsequiis where the bass alone would be worth listening for, which is not something that can be said about enough modern thrash records. The overall production is excellent. The guitars chug without mud, the drums are well miked without dominating the mix and the lead tones cut through with clarity even when the arrangements get dense.
Glen Trayhern is a monster behind the kit. The double-kick work is obvious, but the more impressive part of his performance is how tightly he controls the constant changes. He maintains tempo through abrupt transitions, switches rhythmic feel instantly and knows when to push and when to sit back. On the title track, he pounds the ride bell like it owes him money, and the groove benefits from every hit.
“Vice Borne” is extra beasty, but it also contains one of the record’s better melodic turns. A melodic vocal line briefly changes the atmosphere before setting up the return to the chaotic motif, and the contrast works because HARLOTT does not treat melody as relief from heaviness. It becomes another way to create tension. The track closes with guitar work that combines power and harmony rather than simply trying to end faster than everything that came before it.
HARLOTT also uses fade-outs a lot. It is probably the most noticeable recurring production habit on the record, but it works more often than not because those fades make the next introduction feel more dramatic. Instead of every song ending with a hard stop or a final chord held for emphasis, sections sometimes seem to disappear into the distance while the next track arrives from somewhere else entirely.
The title track brings many of these ideas together. “Exsequiis” begins clean, with a restrained, dramatic introduction before settling into a cool mid-tempo groove built around a pronounced riff and Trayhern hammering that ride bell. The band starts inserting short four-measure ideas between the larger sections, then a descending thrash lick sets up another burst of speed before a tasteful lead break takes over. From there the rhythm becomes choppy and staccato, the sequences keep changing and the song refuses to sit still.
By the end, HARLOTT erupts into a black-metal torrent with what sounds like a ritualistic chant rising out of the chaos. It is an appropriately strange ending for a record that spends 46 minutes refusing to repeat itself unnecessarily. There is a lot going on in Exsequiis, but almost none of it feels added simply to show that the band can do it.
That is ultimately what separates this record from a merely excellent thrash album. The musicianship is exceptional, the production is sharp, the guitar work is often spectacular and the rhythm section can flatten a room, but none of those things would matter much without the songs. HARLOTT keeps finding ways to make each track move, change shape and reveal something else before the listener has time to get comfortable.
A great thrash album like this is rare. Exsequiis hits all the switches hard without disappointing, and even late in the running order the band is still producing memorable riffs, smart transitions and moments that demand another listen. It is modern thrash with blackened edges, crossover muscle, serious technical ability and an identity strong enough to hold all of it together.
Exsequiis may be the thrash album of the year.