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Exhumed > Anatomy Is Destiny > Reviews
Exhumed - Anatomy Is Destiny

In The Name of Gore... and all things AWESOME. - 95%

ColdJustice, March 29th, 2024

Exhumed, gore touting death metal fiends have always been great at their craft. Their past two efforts are iconic and thrashing fun for sure. But this album is something else compared to the previous two. It is iconic whilst being melodic, it's faster and dare I say even more frantic than its predecessors. The Carcass worship shines through this release in the best ways imaginable. This is Exhumed's third nightmarish bout of brutality, third dive into the cemetery and a bleeding magnum opus for Pete's Corpse.

The vocals on this one are no slouch. From shrieks, screams, raspy yelling and gutturals. I personally don't care for the gutturals but they do their job very well, with the slow vocals from our guttural friend giving me goosebumps at times from how well these spurts are delivered. It works as good backing vocals too, making the duet moments bone chilling. As for the slasher man himself, Matt Harvey's throaty aggression vocals are even better than before. From screaming out at the beginning of songs in a cliche yet fun manner, delivering his lines speedily yet in a legible manner and more, these are some of the best raspy vocals I've ever heard.

To go alongside the vocals, I must talk about the lyrics. The lyrics on this album are paralyzing and have made me wince in shock on multiple occasions. They evolved from senseless gore to truly horrifying atrocities with this album. Arclight and Waxwork are good examples of this. They reek of horror film inspiration, which makes the songs even more convivial if that's your kind of thing. They fit some hilarious parody songs in this jam packed album too. Songs that just about being Exhumed and Gore gods. This may deter some, but trust me when I say parodying songs are just as bludgeoning as the rest. The lyrics truly took a turn for the best alongside the evolved sound. Hell, they even sneaked in some nihilistic lyrics into Grotesqueries, speaking about the horrible state of the world and how terrible it is, by comparing humans to crawling maggots and the earth to a rotting corpse. Overall, the lyrics are awesome and better than ever.

The drumming on this is pretty much everything you would expect from Exhumed. Except that's the thing, they went even faster on this album. So the drums in turn just got more frantic in response to the sonic speed of everything else. Well timed blast beats which is quite the rarity and hard thing to believe, but trust me when I say they are well timed. These beats aren't just thrown in for mindless extremity and to fill in gaps. They flow splendidly and don't ever feel frivolous in the slightest. The non blast beat segments are worth mentioning too. The skank beats utilized here are like constant machine gun fire, or perhaps the pounding of a sledgehammer depending on how you look at it. The use of the snare drum is cliche yet great when utilized. The best example of this is during the intro of Waxwork. He's just hitting that thing super fast, but it works. The drumming remains the same for the most part, but there's definitely a sound upgrade, the drums are much clearer. They overall sound less muddy and you can hear each hit reverberate in the most superlative way possible.

The guitars come with a twist in this album. Instead of pure grinding, crushing riffs for whole songs, we get riff style switching throughout this whole album. They sprinkled in some very melodic riffs throughout this album. It may feel a bit alien at first, but trust and believe its just as good as typical Exhumed. Great melodic riffs are featured throughout almost all of the songs. They usually kick in at later parts of the song instead of the beginning bits. Another thing I'd like to mention about the riffing is how thrashy this band became. They were mosh worthy before, but now it is an obligation. Sudden switches from grinding riffs, thrashy bits, melodic spurts and slow crushing bits where the guitar fades in and out leads to very frantic yet great songs. The best part is definitely the addition of solos to Exhumed sound. They are using that whammy bar on full throttle. The solos are well placed as well and don't feel out of place, which is something death metal struggles with at times. But not this band, they pull it off. Finally the bass is loud and triumphant as usual. You can hear every pluck, even during the fast grindcore segments with blaring blast beats and during solos. The bass is clear and assaults with each note. The distortion has been turned up higher than usual death metal, so it has a Bolt Thrower sound to it. The bass will be leaving you savoring every slice, especially in songs like Consuming Impulse or In the Name of Gore.

This album is the strongest Exhumed could ever be, even in this massive discography. Bone Chilling, Thrashy, Terrifying, Grinding, Distorting, Triumphant, Melodic... I could go on and on about how good this album is and what terms fit it. But just listen to it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. The whole album is just great, the only thing limiting this for me are nit picky bits like the weird ambiance in A Song for the Dead or the children singing in Nativity Obscene - A Nursery Chyme. Otherwise if you like death metal or grindcore, I would advise you give this at least one spin. You will enjoy this album thoroughly, one way or another I assure you.

More boring Swedish crap - 40%

Noktorn, February 2nd, 2011

Of the two biggest shitty Carcass clones out there that I would never listen to, Exhumed was definitely better than Impaled, who are on my short list for bands I'd like to see get devoured by sea creatures. This is not to say that Exhumed were a great band by any means; they started as a capable death/grind band before falling into the same Swedecore shit that seemingly everyone did at the same time, and 'Anatomy Is Destiny' comes off as a weird combination of 'Necroticism' and 'Heartwork'-era Carcass with some decidedly odd Swedish influences. Of course it's not good; what would you expect from that description!?

I guess this album is where Exhumed lost all their real goregrind influences and just became a straightforward death metal band, and I guess it could have been worse. Unlike Impaled, the 'Heartwork'-worship melodic riffs are relegated to small parts of songs, not drenching everything in sickly-sweet harmonization. The primary influence here I guess is really 'Necroticism', with its more restrained sense of technical death metal alongside some weird hints of hardcore punk influence on tracks like 'Death Walks Behind You'. To the band's credit, all these odd additions to the formula are pretty listenable and not as jarring as you'd think, but the problem is that the bulk of the music just isn't very interesting. 'Anatomy Is Destiny' sounds really dated, from the pretty boring, hookless riffs to the silly cock rock solos that pop up every once in a while. Exhumed play fast and mildly brutally, but the riffs aren't catchy and the songwriting is using the same blast versus midpaced break paradigm that every band in this style has been driving into the ground for like a decade now.

Nothing really seems to happen over the course of this record; yeah, occasionally they'll stumble onto something neat (like the absolute Carcass theft that the opening riff on the final track is), but it seems mostly coincidental. Every song is arranged in basically the same way and the whole of it is just so predictable and standard for this style it's really impossible to be enthused by it. Exhumed seem to be phoning it in for a paycheck: there's nothing to the songs that suggest they were works of real enthusiasm and passion. If they were, why would they be so boring? Exhumed has about two riffs (the churning, low tremolo riff and the popping, thrashy midpaced break) and pounds them into the listener over and over again over the course of the record, and none of the variations included really do anything to inspire confidence. It's not bad, just mediocre and boring, and there's too much of that in the metal scene already.

I guess the time period where Exhumed was regarded as a real, major band has long passed by now, but I still think it was pretty undeserved even when they were popular. This album doesn't have much to recommend for it- I guess it'll be neat if you're just getting into The Black Dahlia Murder or something, but I'd prefer to spend my time somewhere more worthwhile.

Each atrocity exacerbating on a carnal continuum - 85%

autothrall, January 12th, 2010

Much as its predecessors Gore Metal and Slaughtercult took a heavy Carcass influence and modernized it into an arguably more brutal disposition, Anatomy is Destiny also follows those English lords, but this into the more melodic territory of Heartwork, with a fine balance of chugging, brutal rhythms and melodic metal solos. This isn't to say the album is a complete ripoff, because by this point Exhumed have taken on a life (death) of their own, with a chunky guitar tone and slightly different approach to some of the riffing. It's a heavier and faster album than any of the later Carcass discography. Yet the tongue in cheek humor of their 'mentors' remains intact.

Anatomy is Destiny is not as brutal as Slaughtercult, and in my opinion not as good, but there are still plenty of quality tracks to sink your bonesaw into and let loose. "Waxwork" is a complex piece with a number of large, shifting grooves and grinding blast beats. "The Matter of Splatter" is a ruthless, aggressive thrasher in which all bets are off. The lyrics retain their wild rhyming absurdity (with the band would later transfer over to the Ghoul project).

But the better gems on the album only begin with the winding melodies of "Under the Knife", and the hyperkinetic riffing of "Consuming Impulse", which has some great vocals. "Grotesqueries" is tense and confusing, neckbreaking goregrind. Other incredible tracks here include the brutal and mesmerizing "Death Walks Behind You" and the grinding gait of "Arclight".

Anatomy is Destiny has a boxy crunch to its rhythmic tones, yet the guitars still slash like surgical knives through the mix. The solos are wild and always provided above some meaty, driving selection of chords. The vocals are what you expect, a mix of snarls and guttural grunts that ape the band's biggest influence. Exhumed have never failed to impress with any of their full-length releases, and while I would place Slaughtercult at the apex of their output, this is a fine addition to their discography.

Highlights: Under the Knife, Consuming Impulse, Arclight, Death Walks Behind You

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Recipe for a Classic - 85%

The_Ginger_Behemoth, March 18th, 2009

Anatomy Is Destiny is a great gore metal album in the sense that it has the perfect recipe for a great gore metal album. The music is stripped-down but relatively well-produced, shredding and often down-tuned guitars with a prominent and thumping bass line. The drummer, while not flashy or a showoff, plays with the correct precision and complexity for this record. The bipolar vocal assault is one of the best aspects of this album, the vocals always matched the musical context present. The artwork is disturbing but pleasing to the gore fiends' eyes. As if this were not enough, the album has a brilliant title. It relates to the content of the album and it is catchy, one of those titles that could easily become a classic, one that if said in a conversation among metalheads no one would ask "Who made that album?" The spectacular aura of this album is only exceeded by what it contains.

Exhumed maintain the same level of intensity throughout the disc, never letting up for an overrated "soft section" or anything even remotely close to it. "The Matter of Splatter" is my pick for the best track on the disc. It starts with one of the most haunting and tortured but amazing screams I have ever heard over a thick layer of distorted shredding. From there the whole song keeps you intrigued and keeps up the brutal intensity with every new riff. "Under the Knife" is also an excellent track, it constantly pummels your senses into submission and one cannot help but to nod your head to the beat. "Nativity Obscene - A Nursery Chyme" is definitely one of the strangest songs I've heard because in the middle of the song the typical down-tuned riffage is accompanied by the soft sound of a children's choir or something, singing at a completely different tempo then the music. This brings about a sense of disturbance, in which no matter what you might be doing while listening to the song, that other activity quickly becomes second in your mind to what you are hearing. This haunting interlude only increases one's interest in the music and how the idea of putting that sound bite over death metal came together. Where this album falters is that some of the riffs are played slightly too long or seem to reappear in other songs with very minute differences. This made some of the songs sound tired and uninspired.

This album as a whole is another stellar record of gory death metal from one of the most prominent American bands in the genre. Exhumed have never compromised their sound, always crossing lines and pushing the boundaries and not heeding to what is considered obscene and hopefully will continue that trend in the future.

in the spirit of Carcass - 81%

Korpsegrinder, June 7th, 2005

First pee drops fell to my pants when I saw the name of this cd and it awaked instantly one single thought: GORE! And this is it. Gorestars from USA are back with their new sickened 11-track masterpiece Anatomy Is Destiny. Their style is deathgrind or goregrind (the same I think) in the spirit of early Carcass. I don't think that this isn't really a copy of any Carcass album because the masters of this genre stopped right when they started (Heartwork wasn't the thing that it was meant to be), so it's really great pleasure to realize that someone does this kind of rot anymore (don't count those South American 5.000 other buzzing gore wannabe groups). Well, this was hot stuff at 92-93.
It is true too that these guys have listened their Necroticisms because the riffs sound very unique and close to Carcass's album but Exhumed has added much more pace to their grinding than Carcass. also BIG hooks are added here and there. just wait and see. Drums sound few times pretty lame but unique like that double singing. And of course, the one is like Jeff Walker and the other is singing low and growly. VEEEERY low and growly. and good. You can also find this so called "yankee fury" (as said in Finland) from someplaces. This music catches and your legs are eventually drumming with Exhumed. So groovy but so brutal. Like the song Waxwork or In The Name Of Gore. These are the best pieces of excrete in this album. Only last song leaves bit bad feeling. when you first hear it you propably say like "whatta fuck is this!!" because brutal, fast and furious pace shifts to bit slower. But listen to it further. There will be those big meat hooks that gives you pleasure in the end.
But eventually this sound just too similar compared to others, like Impaled or Carcass, and the music gets boring, because same patterns in their music are nearly the same in every song. one pattern is that song starts slow, then comes few blast beats, then little break part, blast beats, few solos, blast beats and last line that usually sounds little different from those before. But if you prefer dirtyer and faster style of metal and listen to Carcass and Impaled, then you propably like this too. Your ears are propably just a bloody mush after you have listened this. Fair album, though not obviously the best of this genre, but this gets close enough. FOREVERMORE - IN THE NAME OF GORE!!!