Besides writing reviews and attending shows, I have both full time and part time jobs, a family and too many cats. It’s safe to say that I like to stay busy but I have nothing on Exhumed founder and frontman, Matt Harvey. In this year alone he toured with both Gruesome and Death tribute band Left To Die (performing Leprosy in its entirety!) If that’s not enough, he somehow conjured up more hours in a day to write and record Exhumed’s latest batch of gore soaked madness, To The Dead (Relapse Records).

Exhumed has pumped out some impressive releases in recent years with 2017’s concept album, Death Revenge and 2019’s return to their roots splatterpiece, Horror. Exhumed has been at the gore metal game for over thirty years and seem to have no sign of slowing down or growing tired and stale. Quite the opposite actually, as the band seems to be releasing career  highlight after highlight. 

Exhumed’s wretched history is celebrated on To the Dead with the inclusion of former Exhumed members who helped write and record tracks for the record. Mike Beans, Leon de Muerte, Matt Widener and Bud Burke were each on hand to help craft perhaps the band’s most ambitious gore opus to date.

Production-wise, To The Dead sounds fantastic. Grind purists may want to see a little more grime and filth on the recording, but this a much more mature band than they were many moons ago. Just like their idols the mighty Carcass, Exhumed has learned death metal can be just as nasty with a little polish. 

While Horror was a return to a more grind metal style, To The Dead feels like a celebration of “Gore Metal”. Some songs feel more melodic and groovy and others are ready to kick your teeth in. Most tracks are sped up and ferocious charges with filthy yet well built compositions. Exhumed are masters of killer tempo shifts that will snap your neck like Jason with dope smoking teenagers. Speaking of neck-snapping, this album is full of crushing grooves, so if you’re an older death metal fan, don’t forget the asprin. 

Not everything goes straight through the skull as Matt Harvey and Sebastian Phillips lay down some incredible guitar work in their soloing. Some of the dual solos have a slight Slayer feeling and that’s never a bad thing. This along with some riffs and hooks prove that it’s okay for extreme metal to feel catchy. 

Having Ross Sewage on dual vocals with Matt Harvey is one of the strongest tools in Exhumed’s medical bag. His monstrous and inhumanly deep vocals are a perfect match with Matt Havey’s higher end vocal delivery and screams. ‘Defecated’ is one sick track that takes full advantage of this. Sewage’s delivery on the chorus to ‘Rank and Defiled’ will lovingly live rent free in your head for many days after listening. 

Exhumed is one of death metal’s top acts for good reason. Their songwriting is consistent and they can be relied on to deliver a killer album again and again. Each release is something different from their last and not a lazy “rinse and repeat.” 

This is one monster that refuses to rot. 

Buy the album here: https://store.relapse.com/exhumed-to-the-dead

9 / 10

ANDREW RISCH