Exhumed – Death Revenge (Review)

Exhumed are a US death metal band and this is their sixth album.

I’ve had a huge, (wet, mushy, bloody), soft spot for Exhumed from the first time I heard Gore Metal way back when it came out, and ever since I’ve been a fan. I mention this only because Death Revenge is being released almost 20 years after their legendary debut, but demonstrates a band that have probably never sounded better.

Exhumed are somewhat of a household name in gory death metal circles. Here is a band that’s managed to take a style that was pioneered by early Carcass and refine it and play it so well that the band themselves have become synonymous with this type of gore-soaked, jagged death metal.

Featuring the requisite amounts of the band’s trademark surgical brutality, liberally strewn with elements of grindcore, thrash, and even the odd dash of melody, Death Revenge is an extremely strong release. The album is a conceptual one, with a themed story running throughout the album. Exhumed work this angle well, both in the lyrics and in the different musical moments of creativity that spring up from time to time.

These additional elements of creative inspiration pop up here and there, with various different ideas included across the playing time, most notably in the classical interludes that pepper the album between the main slices of carnage. This also manifests as the occasional instrumental section, a particular rhythm or melody, etc. Within the bloodshed and carnage of the main delivery, Exhumed show that their creative juices are flowing as freely as all of the other bodily excretions.

Catchy, memorable, and with a surprising amount of rusty, diseased hooks, the songs on this album are probably among some of the best that Exhumed have regurgitated. In many respects Death Revenge is a breath of corpse-fresh air for the band, and they sound revitalised and ready to carry out their wetwork with passion and enthusiasm once more.

I tell you, a blood-soaked theatrical death metal concept album has never sounded as good as Death Revenge does.