EXHUMED: “BEYOND THE DEAD”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Oct 162023
 

(Below is DGR‘s review of a new EP by Exhumed, which is out now on Relapse Records.)

Still catching up on everything that has passed through the void between the two eardrums in the last few months. This is going to be a weird/wild journey by the time we call it.

Exhumed‘s sudden release of their new EP Beyond The Dead came as a pleasant surprise. Their album To The Dead ranked pretty high with yours truly, and just about any time the band are tearing through a bevy of death and thrash riffs with a high-low vocal interchange tends to leave us in a happy place.

Exhumed have traversed through a few genres over the year but always within a familiar heirarchy; that a band calling themselves Exhumed are familiar with the worlds of deathgrind and goregrind should come as no surprise. Beyond The Dead comes from the grindcore songwriting philosophy of sudden-appearance/sudden-exit, and that includes the way Beyond The Dead appeared, with the band releasing it at the tail end of August just as they were gearing up to hit the road. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: GOATWHORE, EXHUMED, ATEIGGÄR

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Aug 302022
 


Goatwhore – Photo by Stephanie Cabral

 

This Tuesday roundup of new music will be shorter than usual, but hopefully you’ll still find it sweet. Without further ado…

GOATWHORE (U.S.)

Goatwhore have a well-deserved reputation for being one of the hardest-gigging bands around, and every one of the half-dozen times I’ve seen them they’ve played as if it would be their last show. You always get your money’s worth from these dudes when they hit a stage. But somehow they found time amidst all the touring — no doubt aided by the pandemic shutdown — to punch out a new album where, once again, angels will fear to tread. The title of this one is Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven.

It’s been a five-year wait since Vengeful Ascension, and Goatwhore have made up for that with 47 minutes of music. The album also includes the work of a new bass player (Robert “TA” Coleman) and it’s the band’s first production with Kurt Ballou who worked along with producer Jarrett Pritchard in his second effort with the band. Continue reading »

A DGR REVIEW ARCHIVE (PART 1): EXHUMED AND GRAND CADAVER

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 152021
 


Exhumed

 

(This is the first Part of a week-long series of reviews by DGR as he tries to clear out a back-log before year-end Listmania descends.)

With year-end season quickly approaching it’s time for the final sailing of the good review ship. This time, like every year, there’s a collective of music that’s been unleashed over the past few months – and earlier, because the search for new noise never really stops – that deserves to be written about.

Whether it’s a surprise release from a larger name or a ‘why did we never follow up on this’ way down the line, this attempt to briefly review a whole smorgasbord of metal releases that emerged over the last few months is an effort to get some names out there before year-end season fully takes over the website and yours truly does the annual exercise of numbering things for my own amusement.

Throwing yourself into the heavy metal maelstrom never stops being fun – especially when you emerge from the other side with no clear idea how you’re still standing – so who knows what else we might discover in the near future. In the meantime though, here’s the first installment of a huge batch of offerings that may please the musical hordes. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HOUR OF PENANCE, EXHUMED, CREPUSCLE, XOTH, HIGH COMMAND

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 122019
 


Hour of Penance

 

Much as I hate to do this, I’m going to resort to the format I used last Saturday when I was similarly pressed for time — just serve up some of the new songs and videos I’d like to recommend from what I’ve encountered this week, sans verbiage from me (except in one case). I’m probably going to do the same thing tomorrow, because I have a long list of recommendations.

My shortage of time is going to persist from now through the weekend, thanks to travel, meetings, and nose-to-the-grindstone efforts required by that thing that pays all the bills around here (my fucking day job). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: COMMUNIC, EXHUMED, THE KENNEDY VEIL, ORIGIN

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Sep 072017
 

 

This will be a very busy day at our site. We’ve posted one review already, we have another one coming, and we have four (!) very good premieres lined up. But thanks to DGR, we also have a brief round-up of new songs and videos that have recently appeared elsewhere — to which I’ve added one news item at the front end, one wisely suggested by my comrade Mr. Synn. So, you’ll have to tolerate a bit of my verbiage for the first item, and then I’ll turn you over to the words and selections of DGR.

COMMUNIC

This has been a banner year for metal album covers, and Berlin-based Eliran Kantor has been responsible for many of the best ones, including the one above, which accompanies a new album by the Norwegian progressive metal band Communic. And the fact that we will have a new Communic album this year is itself very welcome news.

The name of the album is Where Echoes Gather, and it will be released on October 27 by the band’s new label, AFM Records, following four previous albums released by Nuclear Blast. Continue reading »

CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST 2016 (DAY THREE)

 Concert Reviews  No Responses »
Oct 182016
 

cdf-monday-morning3

Monday morning, Oakland waterfront

This wraps up our coverage of the second installment of CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST, which took place from October 14-16, 2016, in Oakland, California. As was true of my posts on Day One and Day Two, I haven’t written fulsome reviews of the performances I saw on the final day, though this time I have included a few more impressions than in the earlier installments — but I’ve once again included photos and videos I made using my iPhone.

Yes, this is a half-assed way to document a festival compared to what you will probably see from a few of the more well-healed metal publications out there who employed professional photographers and videographers. However, because “Half-Assed” is in fact my middle name, I’m being true to myself. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: NAPALM DEATH AND VOIVOID ON TOUR, DECIBEL NAMES THE TOP 100 DOOM ALBUMS, AND NEW MUSIC FROM ARCHGOAT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Nov 052014
 

In today’s posts we’ve thrown quite a lot of new music your way, but we’re still not quite done. There are a couple more songs I want to recommend that I discovered over the last 24 hours, plus some news items that perked my interest. We’ll start with those and then move to the songs.

THROUGH SPACE AND GRIND TOUR 2015

Through Space and Grind is the name of a 2015 North American tour whose roster is full of eye-catching names: Napalm Death, Voivod, Exhumed, Iron Reagan, and Black Crown Initiate. The tour begins on January 27 in Miami and runs through February 28 in Houston.

The following bands will also join the tour on selected dates:  Ringworm, Dayglo Abortions, Theories, and Phobia. Here’s the full schedule: Continue reading »

MATT HARVEY (EXHUMED): THOUGHTS AFTER READING “EXTREMITY RETAINED”

 Mosh Pit  31 Responses »
Oct 092014
 

EDITOR’S PREFACE:  Thanks to a recommendation from my friend MaxR at Metal Bandcamp, I discovered an article written by veteran musician Matt Harvey of California’s Exhumed that he posted at the Exhumed blog (here) in late August. It consists of reflections about the evolution of death metal, as he has witnessed it, over the more than two decades he has spent in the scene.

I thought the article was really well-written and very thought-provoking, and it occurred to me (and to Max) that it was something more people ought to see. I also suspected that it would generate some interesting discussion among readers of our site. So, I contacted Matt Harvey and asked for his permission to re-publish his article here, and he graciously agreed.

I’ve re-posted the article exactly as it appeared on the Exhumed blog, with the same graphics, links, and music clips. Perhaps needless to say, I hope people will make the time to read this in its entirety and to add your thoughts in the Comments. I don’t expect everyone will agree with all of Matt’s observations and opinions, but I think you’ll find it informative and interesting, regardless. Here you go: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: BLACK CAP MINER, EXHUMED, COFFINS, AND TWO AUTHOR & PUNISHER REMIXES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 022013
 

Here’s a collection of selected items your humble editor witnessed and heard while stumbling around the interhole yesterday. As usual, the stuff is all over the musical map.

BLACK CAP MINER

Black Cap Miner is the side project of West Virginia vocalist/guitarist Chris Ojeda of the mighty Byzantine (whose 2013 release ought to get some kind of award for comeback album of the year). The objective of the project is to get you to headbang like it’s 1988. To be more precise, OJ and friends are recording covers of some old school thrash songs. But not just any songs, and not just any friends. Check out his list of guest performers:

JAMES MALONE (Arsis)
GREG BURGESS (Allegaeon)
TONY ROHRBOUGH (Byzantine)
JAY HANNON (Gizmachi)
KYLE THOMAS (Exhorder, Trouble)
CHRIS POLAND (Megadeth)
CHUCK BILLY (Testament)

I think a robust HOLY SHIT! is in order, don’t you?  I mean, not to take even one little thing away from Chris Ojeda, but that’s a mighty fine group of comrades to assemble for the recording of some thrash. Continue reading »

NEW THINGS FROM DARK TRANQUILLITY, EXHUMED, AND CORPSET

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jun 132013
 

Here are a trio of things I spied on the web this morning. The first two are in the nature of coincidental follow-ups, since our last post was a review of Dark Tranquillity’s new album, and since yesterday we frothed at the mouth over the newly announced North American tour involving Exhumed (headlined by Dying Fetus and also featuring Devoured and Abiotic). And then the last item is a semi-obligatory check-in with Finnish metal.

DARK TRANQUILLITY

The August issue of DECIBEL magazine (order-able here) includes yet another installment in the magazine’s Flexi-Disc series, and this one is a previously unreleased song by Dark Tranquillity entitled “Sorrow’s Architect”. The song was recorded during the sessions that produced the band’s new album Construct. DECIBEL kindly began streaming it today on SoundCloud.

To my ears, it sounds much in the vein of the more “experimental” songs on Construct, predominantly mid-paced and moody, with dreamlike, synth-assisted instrumental passages that add a dark ambience to the song (nut no clean singing). I do like it. Go HERE to listen. Continue reading »

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