EXHUMED "Anatomy is Destiny" Cd

(Relapse Records)
Release date: 2003

Review: First time I heard Exhumed was when their Split Cd with Hemdale came out. Back then, their sound was slightly muddy but still heavy, I thought they sounded like a crossover between Carcass-type grind-gore and Us death metal in the Suffocation vein. A few years forward, I don't think their style has really changed , their sound production is now crystal clear and their musician skills improved tenfold, but the aggressivity hasn't been toned down and their death metal kept its grind edge. You'll still find all the key Exhumed elements on this new album, the Jess Walker-y tortuous mid-range shrieks, the backing deep guttural growls (alot better mixed on this new album than they were on 'Slaughtercult", in that they're now actually audible...). Guitar riffs are still trenchant and ripping but also delivered with a higher level of intricacy; within this album can be found some of the most demented songwriting by the band, complexly composed and extremely well-balanced songs, and always preserving their sharpness and force. Violent grinding, vicious thrashing, crushing double-bass drumming, some morbid melody and technical guitar solis... the band blends everything so well... There might be a slight increase of slower parts than before, but the stuff always remains catchy and it's still pretty fucking fast for the most part. Taking the best from genres such as thrash metal, death metal and grindcore and creating a coherent style of their own. Exhumed just keeps on evolving musically but they didn't change a bit to me, this is just death metal the way it should sound to me. With this album, Exhumed has reached a level of metal craft it could almost be called Exhumed's "Necroticism"... More elaborate, slightly less straightforward but still pretty darn brutal. I'm sorry I can't comment on lyrics and artwork because Relapse's cardboard promo cover is very limited in these areas, I might update this review when I get the actual cd... Anyway, this is some of the finest death metal I've ever heard, don't miss this.

Tracks: 1)Anatomy is Destiny 2)Waxwork 3)The Matter of Splatter 4)Under the Knife 5)Consuming Impulse 6)Grotesqueries 7)In the Name of Gore 8)Arclight 9)Nativity Obscene (A Nursery Chyme) 10)Death Walks Behind You 11)A Song For the Dead

www.exhumed.us

EXHUMED "Slaughtercult"

(Relapse Records)
Release date: 2000
Total running time: 35:00

Review: If you love Carcass era "Symphonies of sickness", Kreator "Pleasure to kill" era and early Entombed/Grave. This new Exhumed album is for you, they're the incarnation of all the good things in matter of extreme death metal and grind. The sound production is oh so powerful, almost confusing because of so much top notch abusive heaviness. Songs are blazing fast, guitar riffs are like indestructible walls of freaking reinforced concrete, vocals are mostly maniacal mid-high pitched screams (think Carcass' Jess Walker or Kreator guy) and very low-pitched backing growls (kinda badly mixed, as they often dissolve with the background heaviness, like Mortician stuffs). And song compositions are marvelous, some riffs and guitar solos sound like something out of early 90s death metal gold age, with some sort of cocaine-snorting destructive intensity as bonus. In fact, one may be overwhelmed by so much unrelenting intensity, but personally I just crave for it. This album is stunning, probably Exhumed masterpiece. They make so damn noise, and yet, they're only 3 members in the band now. Amazing! It's been recorded by a guy from Nasum, so think Nasum "Human 2.0" album for the sound quality. As usual, expect a whole lot of tasty dark humour about carved meat, butchery, flesh eating, pathology, autopsies turning into lunch, morbid sexual perversions, grave-robbing and necrophilia... Just a lot of fun!

Tracks: 1)Decrepit Crescendo 2)Forged in Fire (Formed in Flame) 3)A Lesson in Pathology 4)This Axe Was Made To Grind 5)Carnal Epitaph 6)Dinnertime In The Morgue 7)Fester Forever 8)Deep Red 9)Infester 10)Slave To The Casket 11)Slaughtercult

www.exhumed.us

EXHUMED "Gore Metal"

(Relapse Records)
Release date: 1998
Total running time: 43:23

Review: Chopping up limbs, microwaving severed heads, cooking rotten instestines, and having sex with disintered dead people are daily life of violently shocking american band, EXHUMED!!!! Damn! I was waiting for this album for a while! and I'm not disapointed! Everything is at full speed, with hyper blasting drums, relentless ripping guitars and groovy bass distortion... I feel many influences from some of great metal kings like CARCASS on "Symphonies of sickness": because of the same cryptic sound and throat disgruntling gory vocals, SUFFOCATION on "Effigy of the forgotten", especially for the guitars solos, OBITUARY on "Slowly we rot" for some of the fast rythms and loud riffs... Some influences of todays best goregrind bands like HAEMORRHAGE, DEAD INFECTION or REGURGITATE can be heard too I think. Even some fast melodic guitars riffs are reminding music of 90' black metal bands... As well as the screamy vocals... which does not sound bad at all! There's really a great sound! Well, maybe the songs tend to be messy, and the catchy thing isn't always very clear... but after a few listenings, most of the songs definitely become obviously crushing("Necromaniac", "Open the abscess", "Casketcrusher", "Sepulchral slaughter", "Blazing corpse"...). Finally, I can say(without any doubts) that Exhumed is the best and most grinding and GORY sounding band in the U$ death & grind scene... Another thing; Thanks for the very funny, macabre(very macabre!) and black sense of humour inside the lyrics, and through the full colour large cover artwork, (extreme close-up to a severed head, pinkish guts and splattered reddish blood streams...). OK!!! If your gorelust have to be satisfied, and your eardrums to be pierced and tortured, don't hesitate to get this necro-obsessed ultimate piece of gore-encrusted grinding brutal death metal! (Last note: the last song is a killer SODOM cover version, check it out!)

Tracks: 1)Necromaniac 2)Open the abscess 3)Postmortem procedures 4)Limb from limb 5)Enucleation 6)Casketcrusher 7)Deathmask 8)In my human slaughterhouse 9)Sepulchral slaughter 10)Vagitarian II 11)Blazing corpse 12)Deadest of the

www.exhumed.us

Exhumed Review: Exhumed is excellent too. Faster and more obscure than Hemdale. Everything I expect from a good gore band... Fastness, gory vocals (really refined growls and manic screams), tortured song structures and total grindcore spirit (alot of humour). They inherited alot from early Carcass. They have the same sound and intensity. And the witty fun-filled pathological lyrics as well (with more necrophilia and depravity through it though). This split cd is something you have to hear.
Tracks: 14)Horrendous Member Dismemberment 15)Septicemia (Festering Sphinctral Malignancy Part 2) 16)Masochistic Copramania 17)Necrovores: Decomposing the Inanimate 18)Disinterred, Digested, and Debauched 19)Bone Fucker 20)The Naked and the Dead 21)Necro-Transvestite 22)Torso 23)Dissecting the Caseated Omentum 24)Death Metal (Possessed cover)