LP Review: "Death Revenge" by Exhumed

Death Revenge

It's been too long since death metal has worked it's oily fingers through these here pages.

My twitter followers have already heard this, but it's time to allow the wider universe to hear about it. This year my car situation was upgraded from a dying Honda Civic to a very much alive Toyota Prius.

Not only for the environment, but for my personal pocketbook, having that Prius has been great. My car goes over 400 miles per ten gallon tank.

Now, most folks who listen to my kinds of music don't drive hybrids, and Priuses especially due to the Left Wing Stigma attached to them. Me, I think it's totally cool that my life straddles this juxtaposition.

So, a few days after buying that car, I placed an order online for a Death Metal sticker. Not any particular band, but a sticker featuring several skulls, and the words "death metal" written in a conventional album cover font.

Exhumed loves kitties and Ghostbusters

For the past while though, doom and stoner metal have been just exemplary. The avant-garde black metal scene, same deal.

Lots of the death metal coming across my desk has been far too color by numbers for my taste.

Today though, it's our old friends from San Jose, CA, EXHUMED.

Now, it's been a minute since we've heard from them.

In that time, apparently they were plotting a new album that takes the rifftacularness of Obituary, the harsh vocals of Cannibal Corpse, and the musicality of Carcass. The end result is the best death metal record to pummel my ears since perhaps Carcass's Surgical Steel.

Highlights of this record include fun drum lines that don't overpower the riffing. Vocals that sound like they're growled in human tongues rather than gargling blood into an empty Safari Coffee Can.

Not only that, but there are varied deliveries. It cannot be overstated that death metal vocals do matter to the listener and it takes more than just being brutal to make something great.

Guitar solos are here. You won't miss them. There's a bit more progressiveness in this set of songs, which is a welcome change. Death Metal needs to have an extra bump in musicality because of the rhythmic vocal style.

This is the death metal album you've been waiting for. It's got all the classic conventions that make the genre amazing, and they pass on all the cliches that make the genre terrible.

Release: 9/13/17
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Relapse
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