Let me get right to the throat(hacked off if possible!), the EXHUMED "Slaughtercult" album is fucking beyond amazing. I still can't get this thing out of my stereo. How did you guys make this album so killer, catchy, brilliant, etc.? How long did it take to prepare for this album? What really influenced it the most? I really think it's one of the best death metal albums since the early 90's stuff (Grave, Pestilence, Bolt thrower, Massacre, etc.).

First off, thanxxx for the flattering words on the album. "Slaughtercult" took shape throughout 1999, and was a combination of a lot of stuff. Two of the major factors were Fleshredding fret-rapist Mike Beams being with the band for the whole conception of the album. When he joined the band in 1998, "Gore Metal" was already written, and he didn't have anything to do with the way the songs took shape. With Mike in the band, we focused more than ever on getting everything faster and tighter. It also was a result of our first touring experience in 1999 with Soilent Green, Today is the Day, Morgion, and Nasum. After seeing Nasum 11 times in a row, we were definitely pumped on real Grindcore and wanted to get Mieszko involved with the production of the album. Also, the live arena got us more used to playing with a more raw, stripped down approach that seemed really effective, and we wanted to create the same effect in the studio. Another thing was that Ross was no longer in the band, so a lot of tension was gone, and we didn't have to worry about getting in huge debates over samples, sound-effects, intros, etc. That's why there are none of those "studio" extras on "Slaughtercult", even though they have been part of our sound throughout the years. We didn't feel like they fit in with the overall direction of the material and the feel of the album and we just wanted to make something 100% over-the-top and in-your-face.

The album never lets up for a minute, and it's never boring. Each song keeps ripping your face off and there's an energy level that other bands don't have. I really think this is the best thing the band has ever done. Did you guys want to make a different album, after all the old stuff you guys did? Because this album is definitely different from anything the band did before.

We always hope to do something new for every album, I feel like "In the Name of Gore" is different from "Gore Metal", which is different than "Slaugthercult". We just wanted to capture the energy that we were feeling live and make an album that didn't need any fancy extras or studio gimmicks to be sick and intense. We didn't really sit around and discuss the direction or anything, we just stripped the main ingredients in the Exhumed Smorgasbord (Grindcore, Thrash, and Death Metal) and then wrote the best songs that we could. "Slaughtercult" is the kind of album that doesn't fool around, it's like a fucking lawnmower, once you get it going, it just tears through whatever is in its way. I think that it's just a really stripped-down kind of raw Death Metal that you don't hear a lot anymore, without sacrificing a lot of the more sick and brutal elements from the older stuff.

I still love the songs from the split CD with HEMDALE, and I think the songs on the "Chords of Chaos" CD are some of the best death/grind tunes ever, but there's something about "slaughtercult" that stands out even more. Sorry to ramble on, but dammit, this album is the reason why I still love this kind of music after all these years! Are you guys still happy with the older songs?

We're proud of everything that we've done, even the really cheesy stuff, since we were just kids in High School when we started cutting demos and EP's. "In the Name of Gore" is one of my all-time favorite things we've done, same with the "Horrific Expulsion of Gore" demo, and a couple of the EP's like "Blood and Alcohol" and "Totally Fucking Dead". The songs on "Chords of Chaos" are actually all from earlier demos from 93-95, funnily enough. They were just re-recorded with the line-up we had at the time for the split. That's cool that you dig it. That's such a fuckin' raw recording and it's a little sloppy, but it's got the energy. All of our recordings may not be the tightest or the best produced, but they all kind of have the feeling of a bunch of guys that really are going for it 100%, and that's the most important thing, I think. It's always cool when someone is into the old shit, especially when someone brings up a bunch of rare shit at a show or something. It's cool when those people who maybe got our demo in '94 are still into the band and the scene.

One thing I always admired about EXHUMED was that you guys always still did really underground releases, like split 7" ep's and stuff like that. Most bands that reach a larger fan base give up on stuff like that, but you guys are always into doing splits and stuff like that. how come you never gave up on that? What are some of the latest ep's you guys have planned? I still never saw the split 7" with SANITYS DAWN, did that ever come out? What are some other bands that you'd like to do splits with in the future?

Thanks, Billy. We just enjoy the split 7" format. To me, the ultimate split of all time is the IMPETIGO/BLOOD split. Both sides are just so fucking godly! Right now we are working on finishing the cover art for a split Live 10" with ABORTED. Our side is called "Deceased in the East" and was recorded in April in Tokyo. I just think that we shouldn't have a different mindset just because we're signed on a "real" label or anything. We're an underground band by any definition of the term, a long, long way from being rockstars or anything, and the only thing that keeps us from doing more split EP's is simply time to come up with more material and go into the studio. Hopefully that will change next year after we finish the new album. We are hoping to do splits with: Dataclast, Absorbed, Ingrowing, Nunslaughter, Cianide, and I would love to a ton more with other bands that are friends or that we're into. If we can get half of those I mentioned done, I would be pretty fucking pleased. We'll see how many we actually are able to get to. The split with Sanity's Dawn did come out. It sold out really, really quickly, though. Not too many copies even made it to the US. I almost had to buy my copy, since the guy who put it out was pissed that we delayed the release by six months because we never completed our artwork due to touring and general laziness!

Tell us about the next EXHUMED album. I heard it was going to be slower and a bit more "bizarre" sounding. Sounds really interesting. I think it will be another great ablum, and I'd hate it if you guys tried to copy the "Slaughtercult" CD. Any new song titles to share? Album titles possibly? Album cover art ideas? Any release date planned? This will definitely be on of the best albums for next year I think.

"Bizarre"? Who told you that? Well, it definitely has more slow sections than "Slaughtercult" (which had only six or seven slow riffs in thirteen songs- and one song had three of those riffs!) and is a bit more intricate and articulate. So far we have 6 songs down with the entire band and they're totally crushing the older material. The only comparison I could make is the sickness and variety of the "In the Name of Gore" days, mixed with the aggression of "Slaughtercult" but with way better playing and solos, and more involved arrangements. I don't know if that's helpful, but it's the closest I can come to describing it. The vibe of the whole album is still developing. The artwork will be a lot more elaborate and professional for this one as well, and should be surprising… That's all I'll say for now (and by surprising, I don't mean "not gory"- don't worry!)…

When is the planned "discography" CD coming out? I heard there's going to be 3 CD's in the package! Is this going to include EVERY release? What is the packaging going to be like?

The discography will come out next summer, right after the new album. It's going to be called: "Platters of Splatter: A Cyclopedic Symposium of Execrable Errata and Abhorrent Apocrypha". It includes most of our releases, but not all. It will be a two disc set with covers and information on all of our 7" EP's, the "Chords of Chaos" stuff, "In the Name of Gore", and the following demos: "Dissecting the Caseated Omentum" (1992); "Grotesque Putrefied Brains" (1993); and "Horrific Expulsion of Gore" (1994). The first 1000 pressed will come with a third disc that will have an additional 70 minutes of material, with some stuff from the "Cadaveric Splatter Platter" demo (1993), unreleased tracks, live tracks from a radio show, demo versions of some songs from "Gore Metal", as well as tracks from a few old compilations. The only stuff that's not on there at all is the "Goregasm" session from 1992, the 1st rehearsal demo from 1991, and our side of the split live tape with Haemorrhage (which is one of the worst recordings EVER!). The triple disc is pretty comprehensive, though. The DCD regular version still gets the point across pretty well, though. The packaging is cool, it has a huge photo collage from the past 11 years, and the cover is a splattersome collage of elements from a lot of our past covers.

Who would you say are some of the best death/grind bands around today? Any new bands you heard that you've liked? Any new thrash and other kinds of metal bands you like that are new?

Umm… For bands today, here's some of the stuff I get into… Cripple Bastards, Nasum, Regurgitate, Pig Destroyer, Engorged, Inhume, Benumb, Ingrowing, Nunslaughter, Desaster, Pentacle, Cianide, Mortem, County Medical Examiners, Destroyer 666, Disgorge (Mex), Lord Gore, Impaled, Ghoul, Aborted, Deranged, Murder Corporation, Discordance Axis, Retaliation, King's Evil, Sodom still rule, Abscess, Laughing Dog, Catheter, Wasteoid, Mastodon, Leng T'che, Fuck… I'm Dead, Carpathian Forest, Genocide SS, Head Hits Concrete, Bodies Lay Broken, Hypnosia, Funebrarum, Hate Eternal, Cannibal Corpse is still doing good shit, of course Mortician and Incantation, and I like listening to the guitar solos in Arch Enemy, some of the Brazilian stuff like Abhorrence and Rebaelliun, as well as Angelcorpse, although they broke up and I guess they're not really that new anymore. I also listen to a relatively wide variety of other music as well. If you want to ask me what old Metal and Grind shit I've been listening too, though, then we'd really have a list!

Whatever happened to the CADAVERIZER project you had planned with Kam Lee from ex-MASSACRE? I was really looking forward to that! Any plans for that? I heard there was going to be a split 7" ep with FUNEBRARUM(another great newer death metal band!).

We were sidetracked by 3 months of touring last year, immediately followed the lack of anyplace to rehearse for a little over 6 months, and by the time we got all of the elements together for the split, Kam basically had to quit the project due to other more immediate personal stuff that he's working out. We've unfortunately lost touch with him, but plan on resurrecting the band next year, and hope that he'll still be involved. Either way, it's essentially heavily influenced by albums such as "Scream Bloody Gore", "Severed Survival", "Into the Grave", "Seven Churches", "Abominations of Desolation", "INRI", "Serpent Temptation", "Season of the Dead", etc. It's just basic, dark, old-school Death Metal. We ended up coming up with about 6 or 7 songs that we will resuscitate next year. It's totally unrelated to Exhumed, although both bands are definitely Death Metal.

I heard some of the leads you did on THE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINERS CD and they came out cool. What do you think of this band? I heard you jam in a Carcass cover band called GENITAL GRINDER, tell us more about that! Ever think of recording anything? I bet a lot of grind fans would love to hear it. Is it just a live thing?

I was really into the demo disc, and had been in touch sporadically with Morton for a while. It was cool that it worked out, scheduling-wise for me to be able to do it. I've heard the new album, although not under optimal conditions (i.e. on 10!) and it totally shreds. The lyrics really take the whole pathological theme to the next level. I was really pleased that he was an Exhumed fan (because he's the biggest purist EVER!) and I think the feeling was mutual. Sean McGrath (Impaled), Leon DelMuerte (Murder Construct, ex-Impaled, ex-Exhumed) and I have a band sort of going called Genital Grinder. We actually asked Michelle from TCME to join, but she politely declined. Morton had the same reaction. We have only played one show, and it was just for fun. I was doing bass and vocals, and we had the whole Carcass image going on, blue jeans, I had my hair in braids and wore a fanny-pack, and announced all of the songs with an English accent. It was the result of getting drunk at our old rehearsal space a couple of years ago, nothing serious. Now that Leon has gotten a LOT better at drums, we're getting it started again. So far it's just a live thing, since we're a cover band, there's not much point in recording, but who knows??!??

You've been in EXHUMED for a long time, do you think it will ever end? Do you plan to keep the band alive forever? Seems like a lot of the great bands from the past never made it past a first or 2nd album, but you guys keep going which is great. What's in store for the future you think?

Well, we don't really have a "long term" outlook or anything. I think the time to stop or move on will come though. When it seems like there's nothing new left for us to do or accomplish with the band and the music then we'll probably hang it up. Right now, I'm too focused on the idea of playing shows in places we've never been like Korea, Australia, Brazil, the UK, etc. and pushing our sound even further to think about quitting. It has definitely gotten harder and harder to keep things going though, with everyone in the band getting older, careers, marriages, divorces, all kinds of growing pains between personalities, etc. and if it gets to the point when it's just a pain in the ass and not fun anymore, than we'll definitely quit. Right now, we're all pumped to get a new album out and are 4 of the tightest guys you'll ever meet, and we seem to get along better and better every tour and have better and better responses and crowds, so there's no reason to quit now! As always, we just look to the next goal, which is to get the new album out, and get on the road.

Wasn't there going to be an EXHUMED/DISGORGE/MACHETAZO/REGURGITATE 4-way split CD release? I think something like that was planned but it never happened? A lot of people wanted to know about that, so I'm finally getting to ask you about this!

Well, I only know a part of the story, so here goes… We recorded what was supposed to be a split EP with Regurgitate for Headfucker Records. Headfucker, as most everyone knows, went under, so we just had these tracks lying around unused. Relapse proposed to do the 4 way split disc, but then someone else there was talking about using one of the songs, "Goreified", as the bonus track for the saw-blade shaped edition of "Slaughtercult". That project got done first, and then Regurgitate ended up using their songs for some other split, so the whole thing kind of collapsed. Also the guy spearheading the release quit working at Relapse so the whole project just kind of evaporated. We ended up using our tracks for our split EP with Gadget on Relapse, along with the Carcass cover we did for the tribute. I just thought it would have been cool to see Disgorge and Machetazo on a Relapse disc… Oh well, maybe someday?

Do you think there's any new "juice" left in this style of music? I mean, do you think the gore style of metal/grind can continue without getting completely useless? Who do you think, besides Exhumed, can keep the future alive for this kind of music?

Well, I've always thought that this kind of music has been interesting. In the early 1990's you had kind of the first wave of bands doing the "Carcass" thing, like Xysma, General Surgery, Necrony, Funeral Feast, etc. and the first generation of US bands like Mortician and Impetigo. Then in the mid-1990's bands like Regurgitate, Haemorrhage, Blood Duster, Dernaged, and Dead Infection really came into their own and shaped the Gore scene at the time. The Exhumed/Hemdale split came out right at the tail end of this I think, in 1996. The scene was a lot more happening in Europe then. Now in the late 1990's it seems like bands like us, Impaled and Engorged, have kind of taken the gore thing and added a bit more traditional Metal elements into it and have started another wave of it. You have other bands coming out, like Cattle Decapitation, who are starting to really make waves, doing this kind of music in the US and getting taken seriously, pretty much for the first time. I think that "Gore Metal" definitely still has something to say, and that it will continue to change just like any other music scene. It's also great that so many bands like Regurgitate, Haemorrhage, Deranged and Mortician have managed to stay around since the early and mid-1990's and are still kicking ass. We don't try to write our shit as a way of "keeping the style alive" or anything that abstract, we just play musick that we like the way we want and really don't give a fuck about anything else, but hopefully the style continues to progress. If we've helped that, then that's the greatest compliment we could get.

Seems like a lot of people are divided on EXHUMED sometimes. Some people worship the band, but some think the band is too "thrashy" or too "slow", which I think is retarded. do you think you guys lost some of the older fans who want everything to be "brooootal" all the time, or do you think you've gained even more fans with the awesome "Slaughtercult" album? I think it's stupid how anybody who claims to be a fan of death metal could not love the album, I really think it's a masterpiece! Even some of the "gore-grind" fans bitched about the album which I thought was really stupid, any thoughts on this?

The only place I really see any of that is on Metal chat boards or whatever. I think that "Gore Metal", especially because of the production, was a bit more fitting with the typical definition of "Brutal Death Metal" than "Slaugtercult", which kind of threw a few people for a loop. All I can say is that music is just music, and that we don't cater to anyone's expectations except our own. For "Goregrind" fans, all I can say is that we're not a Goregrind band- that's why our first album was called "Gore Metal". As far as album sales and attendance at our shows, we have definitely grown with Slaughtercult, especially in Europe, where we see guys with Mohawks and guys with Mullets and patch jackets headbanging side by side at our shows. I really don't worry about nit-picking within the scene, because I know that we're following the direction that we want to go in, and we do what we do for the right reasons, not to please anyone. "Slaughtercult" is way more extreme and way faster than "Gore Metal", so if anyone thinks that we've lost something in extremity or "grindiness", they're just not really listening.

I notice you guys don't have a web site anymore. Are you sick of the whole internet "scene", especially the shit talking one? I'm personally sick of all those message boards where people just bitch and complain all day long, most of which is not even about music! I respect you guys for not having a web site, it's pretty interesting considering how every band has one these days. Please explain.

We are planning on doing a new one at some point, but it is kind of tedious with all of the internet stuff that goes on in the scene now. It's just kind of silly. We would like to have someplace that people can go listen to MP3's of stuff they can't find, see tour dates and find out pertinent information on the band, but I definitely don't buy into all of the gossip and stuff that goes on online. I'm just into the music, and if email is a faster way for me to find out about something than cool, if not, I don't really care. I don't begrudge people the right to write whatever they want, I just would rather not be a part of it. I'm more into reading or practicing or drinking with friends than sharing opinions with a bunch of people online. There are a lot of cool people that are really into it in the internet "scene", but it's just not my thing.

What current non-music things have you been into lately? Any cool books, comics, movies, etc.? Feel free to talk about whatever you'd like here.

Well, book-wise, my favorite author is Philip K. Dick, who's a science fiction writer. I just finished reading a book called Dr. Bloodmoney, as well as two thick books of his short stories. I also read an old novella called "The Stranger" that was great. Right now I'm reading a book about serial killers which shows the progression of their crimes and the motifs that they use in their killings. Pretty interesting stuff. Movie-wise, there's not too much that interests me, aside from a few movies like Spider-Man (being Spider-Man was my career ambition until age 10), Lord of the Rings, and Minority Report. I have been digging out some of my old EC comics, which have always been a big inspiration for the band, as well as some old Dead World issues, and some 1960's super-hero comics.

Well, that was my mini-epic EXHUMED interview! Thanks for answering these boring questions man. I've been an EXHUMED fan for a long time and as long as you guys keep putting out great albums like "slaughtercult" then I'll be a fan forever. Any last words?

Thanks for the interview and the support, Billy! Also, keep putting out killer shit on Razorback! You should sign Funebrarum, they're right there in Jersey, for fuck's sake! Also should mention that it's great to have an interview in Braindead, my favorite webzine… As for anyone reading this, be ready for a gore attack from the grave next year, as we'll have a new album out in late Spring, followed by the "Platters of Splatter" compilation and we'll be on the road as much as we're able to be, so we'll see you in the morgue, on the road, or at the bar!