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A classic full of solid material with very little to complain about.-
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| Exhumed: Gore Metal |
Death Metal, Grindcore
Relapse Records
November 23rd, 2998
- Necromaniac - 2:31
- Open the Abscess - 3:18
- Postmortem Procedures - 3:21
- Limb from Limb - 2:31
- Enucleation - 3:59
- Casketkrusher - 3:24
- Deathmask - 2:52
- In My Human Slaughterhouse - 2:01
- Sepulchral Slaughter - 3:03
- Vagitarian II - 3:40
- Blazing Corpse - 2:04
- Deadest of the Dead - 5:52
- Sodomy and Lust (Sodom cover) - 4:47
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| Review Information |
Release length: 43:23
Review posted on July 3rd, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 9/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Goregasm (1992) • Gore Metal (1998) • Slaughtercult (2000) • Anatomy is Destiny (2003)
Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated (2005) • All Guts, No Glory (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Excreting Innards (1992)
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| Split(s): |
Exhumed/Haemorrhage (1995) • In the Name of Gore (1996) • Blood and Alcohol (1996) • Chords of Chaos (1997)
Exhumed/No Comply (1997) • Pray for War/Tales of the Exhumed (1998) • Indignities to the Dead/Lujuria de Chivo (1998)
Totally Fucking Dead/Sterility (1998) • Recordings 2000 (2000) • Exhumed/Gadget (2001)
Deceased in the East/Extirpated Live Emanations (2003) • Something Sickened this Way Comes/To Clone and to Enforce (2006)
HF Seveninches Collection Vol. 1 (2008)
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| Demo(s): |
Dissecting the Caseated Omentum (1992) • Excreting Innards (1992) • Cadaveric Splatter Platter (1993)
Grotesuq Putrefied Brains (1993) • Horrific Expulsions of Gore (1994) • Rehearsal 99-00 (2000)
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| Compilation(s): |
Platters of Splatter (2004)
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| Review |
When you think of Goregrind in any form, there's a good amount of names that immediately come to mind. Acts like Carcass and Exhumed are some of the most immediate that come to the minds of fans, both for their pioneering approach to the styles, and their overall intensity to the music. While Exhumed stormed onto the scene through the underground with the strictly limited album Goregasm that has yet [at the time of this review] to receive a proper release, it was the album Gore Metal that threw the band into the hearts of dedicated Goregrind fans. Considered one of the most inspiring releases to fans of the style, it clearly has earned the reputation that is has with vigor and plenty of guts.
Gore Metal is essentially just a brutal Grindcore assault. The music at this point in the group's career reflected a strong Death Metal presence as well, and with it came a perfect harmony that rarely has been seen and executed with such ease. While the music here pounds away with blistering fury, there exists a noticable Death Metal groove to many of the songs, and that's how Exhumed establishes themselves and Gore Metal on this release. "Necromaniac" hammers away at the listener with the general intensity of a Grindcore song, but it's speed is slightly reduced outside of random moments of blast beat goodness, and that groove brings in a more intimidating atmosphere with plenty of varying elements and changes in speed to keep the listener attentive from start to finish. The addition of rhaspy, sinister higher pitched vocals against deep, monstrous gutterals just makes the overall brutality of many of the songs much stronger and establishes a more resilient Death Metal influence to the material. Of course some of the random sound effects, such as a bone saw cutting into skin on "Open the Abscess", really takes the music into a much more gruesome, disgusting environment.
But while the effects and even the vocals can create that rather filthy vibe to the album's atmosphere, the production itself is rather clean. The sound of the music is top notch, being a little more higher pitched then what you would want, but still clear enough with the proper levels that everything is heard without anything being drowned out. You also a heavier distortion on the instruments that gives the brutal nature of the music a more blunt and muddier vibe. The only real complaint aside the higher pitch of the music itself would be that the cymbols often feel a little too loud at times, and seem to be corrected on other tracks. For instance, "Open the Abscess" has a strong opening that really focuses in on cymbol crashes, and coupled with that slightly higher production quality, it gets to be a lot louder then it should be right from the start, yet on following tracks, such as "Limb from Limb", a sonog that has a strong focus on cymbols at the start once again, but after a chainsaw audio sample kicking the track off, they seem to be podded down moreso in the final mix and not as blunt and dominating.
The pace never seems to let up on the effort though, which is a good thing. Exhumed doesn't try to add anything else to the mixture, and what they present really works. "Casket Krusher" is another strong track that blends together the Goregrind concepts with Death Metal to the same intensity as "Open the Abscess". It's not a carbon copy of the same song and features enough changes in the music, even in the blastbeats due to the different snares and cymbols being utilized, and the groove itself is different with a strong bass presence making sure that it's felt throughout the song, as well as with each other song. These tracks feel a little dirties and heavily Grindcore focused, while "Necromaniac" and "Death Mask" possess a stronger Death Metal presence and groove with reoccurring blast beats to establish that Grindcore presence, all the while focusing more on a deeper guttural performance on the latter of those two tracks to really help seperate it from the others. "Death Mask" also has a bit of a breakdown, which is something other tracks don't seem to utilize too much, and it really just adds more to the overall punishing atmosphere of this particular song, making it a lot stronger then in others with it's ominous, slower paced chugging that gives more of a hopeless sensation amongst the brutality.
One of the biggest things about this album is that the band knows their limitations. Practically each song on here remains a decent length for a Grindcore meets Death Metal release, usually around three and a half minutes or less. This allows the band to give plenty of quality tracks, and while there are times where the music doesn't quite feel as unique from one track to another, such as "Postmortem Procedures" and "Sepulchural Slaughter", for the most part the material remain consistant and still has enough variation to keep the album going. The ending of the album, however, finds the band branching out a bit and violates this rule they established through most of the recording. "Deadest of the Dead" clocks in at nearly six minutes, and "Sodomy and Lust", and Sodom cover song, nearly five minutes. Granted the cover track is bound to break the overall foundation they established, but "Deadest of the Dead" being an original composition is enough to make one worry. Given the faster approach and shorter lengths, it poses the possibility of sinking the album. However, while the song isn't the most engaging, it does lend a creepier vibe to the music, and showcases an obvious Death Metal influence, coming off as something one might expect from the band Deceased, but with Exhumed's own style of Death Metal and Grindcore. Of course, the cover of "Sodomy and Lust" sounds dramatically different compared to the original, and has the band's unique sound hamering away once more, leading to an interesting interpretation of the Sodom classic that is definitely worthy of banging your head along to.
It's damn near impossible to sit down and try to pick apart the good and bad of Gore Metal, more because there really isn't anything bad to be said about it. The album is full of energy from start to finish, and practically every song is of a high quality. Sure, sometimes the album starts to feel a little repetitive, but Exhumed does a good job at changing up the music from track to track, offering a good amount of variety to the speed, groove, and impression made by Death Metal and Grindcore for that particular song. With only three songs on here that don't really hold up well, and two of them coming off as a high quality filler then anything, there's no denying why this album has been considering a huge inspiration for Goregrind bands and inspired plenty of other acts to follow in Exhumed's footsteps. If you haven't had the chance to hear Gore Metal yet, then there's no better time then now to check out this band and see what you've been missing.
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