Photo Credit: Niuvis Martin
Death metal supergroup Gruesome will be releasing their debut album Savage Land in North America via Relapse Records on April 21st, 2015, April 17th in Germany, Benelux and Finland and April 20th in the UK, rest of the world on CD and digitally. Featuring within their bestial ranks members of Exhumed, Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa, they are a supergroup of sorts paying homage to the game-changing sounds of Death’s early recordings.
Gruesome was born out of guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey (Exhumed) and drummer Gus Rios‘ (Malevolent Creation) mutual involvement with the Death To All tours – Harvey serving as frontman for the original nine-member mini-tour and Rios performing “Baptized In Blood” and working with DTA drummer Sean Reinert on the following US tour where Exhumed filled in as support on a several dates. After discarding the idea of putting together another incarnation of DTA to focus exclusively on Death’s first two albums, Harvey half-jokingly suggested writing their own songs in that vein. It wasn’t long before the idea gained traction, and the “band” had five songs written. Rios later recruited Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez and Derketa bassist Robin Mazen to record the material in Florida.
The result is the eight scathing tracks contained on Savage Land. Recorded by Rios and Gonzalez at Riversound Studios in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, mixed by Jarrett Pritchard at Mana Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida and including a guest guitar solo on “Closed Casket” by James Murphy as well as cover art by legendary illustrator Ed Repka (Death, Megadeth, Massacre, Athiest et el), Savage Land is a truly gruesome slab of late-’80s/early-’90s Florida-styled death metal.
Stream “Hideous” here or here.