Exhorder singer and guitarist Kyle Thomas said a major record label is actively chasing them, at a time when the band is thinking about how it will put out the follow-up to 2024’s Defectum Omnium.
Speaking to Scott Davidson on the Chicago show “Rebel Radio”, Thomas responded to reports that portrayed them as being without a label. He had said in an interview that they don’t have a contract at the moment, Blabbermouth picked up the story and chose “we don’t have a label” as its headline. “I felt it made us look like nobody cares, and that isn’t true,” he commented.
According to him, Exhorder currently have a very big label chasing them very actively, but they’re not in a hurry, because they have the resources to move forward on their own. There’s also a second, smaller label with interest, meaning many labels want to sign the band. He didn’t name any of them.
Thomas also talked about how songs are written now. He’s the only one left from the old lineups, but the shift toward groove and melody had been planned long before the 2017 reunion. Around 1993, after 1992’s The Law, which was very technical and almost prog, they decided to leave that path: the next album would have more structured songs, further from thrash and closer to groove. So when Mourn The Southern Skies came out in 2019 and some complained about the change in style, he reminds people that this was the plan from 1993.
“We were never a 100% metal band, nor 100% punk,” he said, stressing that they always did whatever they wanted. A reggae beat wouldn’t make sense, but the big stylistic differences on the last two albums are part of the expansion. In his fifties he’s no longer an angry young man, so he’s looking for new motives. The goal stays the same: when they finish a song, to answer honestly whether it fits an Exhorder album, even if it sounds different.
The core Exhorder lineup is Thomas, bassist Jason VieBrooks and guitarist Pat O’Brien, formerly of Cannibal Corpse. Drummer Sasha Horn left in March 2026 for personal reasons and Corey Pierce, known from God Forbid, played with them on the tours that followed. No permanent replacement has been announced.
Thomas is the last active founding member of the New Orleans band. The debut Slaughter In The Vatican (1990) and its follow-up The Law (1992) came out on Roadrunner Records before the band broke up. He later formed Floodgate and also sings for doom metallers Trouble.
See also: Chuck Billy: Testament’s sound changed so much that the two albums sound like different bands and Absolutely Wasted Tour: Eternal, Parhelion, Toxic Pub and Bludgerot in Larissa.
Source: https://blabbermouth.net/news/exhorders-kyle-thomas-we-have-a-very-big-record-label-right-now-thats-been-very-very-active-in-pursuing-us