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Sanatorium > Celebration of Exhumation > Reviews
Sanatorium - Celebration of Exhumation

Brutal Death Metal Genocide - 91%

Metaphysical_Anomaly, January 10th, 2007

- Zilinia, Slovakia

"This is CNN news live at what witnesses say is the incursion of a genocide of biblical proportions. The radical separatist group is calling itself the P.S.M. or Poseur Slaughter Movement, centralized around local death metal band Sanatorium. The separatist movement is going from home to home, searching music collections, citing inquisitions, and murdering those it feels are "weak" in the name of metal."

*loud rumbling in the distance, music starts playing*

"It now appears that Sanatorium have begun a concert in the western market area! There are people running our direction, they look to be running away from something!"

*screams of pain*

"I'm afraid we have to cease our report, the safety of our news crew is in jeopardy! The separatists are advancing on our position with weapons in hand. The music seems to have sent them into an uproar!"

*screen cuts out, white noise...*

With all the rage of a genocidal conquest, Sanatorium's "Celebration of Exhumation" has surpassed all expectations, delivering a hard hitting, bone grinding, technical brutal death metal album to be celebrated throughout the metal nations. Offering a slight change in style from their previous album, namely the way they have implemented some technical scale variations, the band uses their new methods with flawless drive and gives the listener 8 brand new reasons why Sanatorium crush poseurs. The album itself is brutish, aggressive, violent force packed with more heaviness than a lead elephant, and a certain disdain for the well tread path.

"Shapeless and Decomposed", far and above my favorite song on the album, is also the most drastic change in style for the band, using countless tempo shifts, scale sweeps, and a vocal display from Martin not seen too often. Martin actually seems to break away from his pattern of guttural belches a bit in the song to offer a collection of raspy bellows. Martin however is not the only one overachieving on the album, as the guitar work by Magick and Damian is inspired. In many parts of the album, they guitarists seem to enjoy going back and forth between each other, playing matches of "who shreds better" within songs. This is most especially apparent in "Human Trophies" which features lightning fast guitar interspersed throughout, and an excellent grooving section near the end. The drumming on the album is nearly perfect, faltering in only a few areas where the drummer will slip up for a second and hold a beat for a bit too long. Otherwise, nearly every song is outstanding in it's own right.

Overall, there's not a fan of death metal out there that wouldn't enjoy this album. If the immense crushing force that Sanatorium puts into every note of the album doesn't make you appreciate this, the technical precision and variation will. Herein lies a gateway to a savagely pleasing form of audio decimation. Enter the gate.