Exhumed – To The Dead Review - Your Online Magazine for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

Gore Metal

Relapse Records

Release date – October 21st 2022

Line Up:

Matt Harvey – Vocals/Guitar

Sebastian Phillips – Guitar

Ross Sewage – Vocals/Bass

Mike Hamilton – Drums

Tracklist:

1 – Putrescine And Cadaverine

2 – Drained Of Color

3 – Carbonized

4 – Rank And Defiled

5 – Lurid, Shocking And Vile

6 – Undertaking The Overskilled

7 – Necrotica

8 – No Headstone Unturned

9 – Defecated

10 – Disgusted

Exhumed was formed in San Jose, California in 1990 and over the next fifteen years, they produced some of the most vicious and goriest metal ever. They split in 2005 only to return in 2010 with a definite death metal direction. Since then, they have been pretty consistent with their releases and now we get the full force of their horrifying imagination.

Ripping straight into the face-ripping ‘Putrescine And Cadaverine’ they set their stall out early. This is pure evil brutality – torture even – but enjoyable! Is that weird? ‘Drained Of Color’ starts with a groovy chug all driven by Hamilton’s huge double kick before they change gear and tear off into another aural assault. I like that they have both the death and black metal growls going at the same time. ‘Carbonized’ raises the brutality until ‘Rank And Defiled’ ease back on some superb death metal. ‘Lurid, Shocking And Vile’ couldn’t have a better title because it’s all three wrapped up in a ball of animal aggression which continues ‘Undertaking The Overskilled’ before ‘Nerotica’ makes it the hat trick. ‘No Headstone Unturned’ comes down a pace and grooves along for a bit then it takes a left turn and obliterates with a smile on its face as does ‘Defecated’ – who writes a song about shit? Exhumed do and they throw it all over the place which brings us to the final cut ‘Disgusted’ which ends things in a riot of extreme metal noise.

This is the extreme of the extreme – music to do bad things to and seriously piss off your neighbors yet strangely cathartic. Exhumed do what they do better than anyone else in my opinion. The uninitiated may just call it noise but to these ears the riffs and lead breaks are superb, and the rhythms just pummel you into submission plus as stated already they have both the death and black metal voices going on. Not for the faint of heart but an excellent example of the most extreme of metal.