In the savage, blood-stained tradition of Skinless, Dehumanized, Dying Fetus and Abscess, this is exactly what the title suggests, a full-on gore metal assault, complete with all the necessary references to defiled innards and samples. Those samples really get quite amusing sometimes too ( as do the lyrics), with the opening track Open The Abscess featuring a magnificent, glorious sample of a chainsaw going through what sounds like a liver . These ornate Mortician touches can only thrill the ardent horror movie fan and add to the totally sick death spillage that ensues. Musically a successful blend of 80s thrash (Sodom, Destruction, Kreator…you know), 90s grind (Soilent Green, Abscess) and totally crushing brutal death (Malignancy,Fleshless), Exhumed is a total headbanging fest at times but also a huge cloud of confusion at others. Their hell-for-leather, speed-fed, relentless brutality only serves to churn out a dizzying and incoherent mess at times even though they are essentially brutally tight.

My complaint is that at times this cloud swells into a large aural space where catchiness and melodies are totally left behind for armageddon. There are exceptions to the rule as the album goes on though…Casket Krusher and the three tracks which follow all feature some neat hooks and catchy rifferama reminiscent of Suffocation and Morbid Angel before settling back to a brutal death groove, and the cover of Sodom’s classic Sodomy and Lust is particularly inspired. So, an album of varying quality throughout but definitely a must on any true-blue gore metal fan’s list. Fucking armageddon.

[8]

© 2000 equimanthorn