Slaughtercult

There’s pretty much no such music more abrasive or extreme than grindcore/goregrind, especially with its ridiculous and over the top lyrical content and artwork. It took me awhile to get into it myself, but ultimately bands like Carcass and Napalm Death helped me appreciate its brilliance, regardless of how twisted and sickening it can get. Exhumed is pure Carcass worship but they do it so well; their self brand of “gore metal” (also the title of their first album) is a dizzying display of energy and overwhelming sonic force. The group’s second album Slaughtercult might just be their best effort to date, for both its pioneering status and consistent quality.

The mix of bassist/guitarist Matt Harvey’s higher register rasps and other guitarist Mike Beams’s ridiculously low guttural growls automatically draw to a Carcass comparison, as Jeff Walker and Bill Steer often did the same thing on the early Carcass records. The sound is so vigorous with the relentless onslaught of grinding guitars and blast beats from drummer Col Jones that it’s actually a bit overwhelming. The album opener Decrepit Crescendo is less than two and a half minutes and hits like an absolute freight train, yet it’s over before you know it started. Most of the tracks are in the 2-3 minute range for maximum impact and are completely void of any pointless meandering or dead weight as Slaughtercult consistently gets straight to the point. This means there is literally no room to catch your breath as a listener, listening to this album is the equivalent of being thrust into an alleyway and getting the beating of a lifetime, only to get dragged back out, bruised and bloodied after about 35 minutes of punishment.

Not to say this album is a pain to listen to; on the contrary this album is an absolute delight. Following the fierce opener is Forged in Fire (Forged in Flame) and A Lesson in Pathology which are among the most memorable of Exhumed’s early material. There’s enough cohesion and patterning in the arrangements to make for some melody which is ultimately what makes music memorable to the human brain. The catchy riffs in Fester Forever provide for another excellent song. Slaughtercult has enough old school death metal inspired riffs that are accessible in comparison to the relentless grind that keep the record both an over the top sonic assault and an enjoyable and memorable experience. And every time an excellent track ends, an equally quality replacement takes its place and bludgeons you in a different part of your eardrums, while maintaining a consistent aesthetic. Songs on the tail end of the album like the title track, Funeral Fuck, and Vacant Grave help Slaughtercult go out with a bang and end as great as it started.

As much as I love the low gutturals from Mike Beams, I have to say that the higher shrieks from Matt Harvey carry the songs really well. His delivery is clean enough to follow along to the vocal melodies, and Beams works really well as a complementary piece, trading off for gutturals that would make even Tomb of the Mutilated era Chris Barnes jealous. Both are just so relentless and sadistic sounding, it’s almost too much to keep up with. When I was younger I used to be amazed at how uncompromisingly heavy bands like Slayer and even Metallica sounded, I never even imagined music this intense existed. The fact that it’s just as enjoyable (albeit in a very different way) makes me understand the wide variety of extreme metal that the world has been exposed to so far, and I’m impressed at the constant pushing of boundaries.

A lot of the impact that Slaughtercult delivers is from the intensity of the record, but I have to still praise Exhumed for their musicianship. Harvey and Beams are a wicked guitar duo; they’re not the most technical but the ability to play at such incredible speeds is impressive enough on its own. They cycle through so many catchy riffs with seemingly an endless amount at their disposal, and also manage to throw some really wild leads in. Not everything has to be overly technical or complex to be impressive, and as a thrash metal fan I’ve always valued speed as well as precision playing. Harvey excels equally with the bass work which just adds another layer to the heaviness of the record, and drummer Col Jones brings it all together with his frantic energy. The drumming could have easily equated to a child button mashing on a video game but Jones holds everything together with tight and precise playing.

The production is pretty amazing too. It’s far from the murky and grimy mix of early grind records from Carcass, Napalm Death, and Repulsion; instead Slaughtercult has a clear and pummeling sound that maximizes the force of the drums and tone of the guitars for next level intensity. So as much as I love my old school grind, I have to admit that Slaughtercult packs an arguably greater punch with an upgraded mix where every little guitar flourish or blast beat can be appreciated.

Carcass is one of my favorite extreme metal bands ever, so naturally Exhumed has earned a lot of affection from me as well. They are clearly inspired by the legendary Englishmen but their sound as a grimy American edge to it, likely an ingredient of the more extreme thrash and Florida death metal scenes. I still consider Slaughtercult a somewhat modern release along with anything else post 1990s, so if I’m to follow that rule then I must say that this release is among the best in modern extreme metal. It’s fast, brutal, and absolutely unrelenting yet still the gold standard for a band that’s been putting out great material throughout the 21st century. It will continue to stand as one of the best grind albums of all time, regardless of era.

Exhumed, along with Impaled, are essentially the bastard Californian children of the great Carcass. While the latter may emulate the original a little more safely, Exhumed take the dual guttural/snarl vocals and apply them to a lot more 'thrust' in the music. This is fast, furious, vitriol, like a morbid butcher in a rush to clean up the body parts of his latest 'works' before the authorities arrive. Grinding, brutal guitars are not entirely void of melody, and each track on Slaughtercult is a veritable riff slugfest of undeniable pathos. Their second full-length effort, it managed to destroy Gore Metal in all conceivable ways and wound up one of the best death metal albums of Y2K.

This is just one of those unrelenting death metal events which remains entertaining throughout its entire playlength. Most of the 13 tracks clock in around the 2-3 minute mark, the perfect length to get you excited, rev your bonesaw, inject the formaldehyde, molest the corpse, and get the hell out of Dodge. The immediate one-two knockout punch of "Decrepit Crescendo" and "Forged in Fire (Forged in Flame)" is the aural equivalent of a nuclear explosion in your pants. Violent orgasms of spasming, grinding riffage and carnal lyricism.

'Scalding and melding her minge
Smell the acid reek of pubic hair singed...
Melt and weld...Raze and smelt
Blistering crotch...Searing hot...'

OUCH. "A Lesson in Pathology" once again features great grinding rhythms over the dual bludgeoning throats of Matt Harvey and Mike Beams, and the explosive leadwork is just awesome. "This Axe Was Made to Grind" is pretty much a metaphor for the entire career of this excellent band. "Carnal Epitaph" shows a slight Necroticism/Heartwork influence in its cold but full riffing. "Dinnertime in the Morgue" is simply superb, rarely have I heard cannibalistic grinding death of such intense quality. There is not a stinker in this bunch, unless you mean the stink of corpses, of which there are plenty available to play with. Other choice tracks on this morguenum opus include "Fester Forever", "Slave to the Casket" and "Funeral Fuck".

Slaughtercult sounds insanely good even by modern standards. Perfect grinding tones over slightly lower drums in the mix than usual, but this is what creates the punishing sound. The vocals, though totally Carcass clones, create an added layer of percussion. The guitars slay, and not simply because of their aggression, but the amount of quality riffing interweaved with the forward propulsion. If you can sit or stand still while listening to this album, you are out of order. A robot. Exhumed is a whirlwind of chainsaw bliss, worthy of any mortician's meatpile. Like the yeast on a cadaver's nethers, it grows finer with age.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Exhumed aren't one of those bands who simply make music to sing about disgusting, inhumane acts of perversion and gore. They prove a point behind each song structure. They are the leaders of all that is gore, and all that is jamming slaughtering guitar riffs, sickening vocal vomit, and shrapnel shards of blastbeats into every song.

With the introduction of "Slaughtercult", the average death metal/grindcore fan should be drooling all over every inch of its contents. The passing eye will see the same old "gore filled" album cover on the front, but should really be searching into that pile of innards or the festering pool of blood. Inside of it all, you will find one hell of a demonic, savage album.

Produced by the legendary grindcore master, Mieszko Talarczyk (R.I.P.), its sheer velocity will not stop from invading your auditory canals and raping them with every second left. It's disgusting. It's vile. It'll make you want to happily puke all over the place. In other words, it's Exhumed. From the blistering "Carnal Epitaph", full of riffs slipping all over the fretboard, to the masterpiece "Forged in Fire", you will find an array of amazement ready to be swallowed. The use of psychotic solos are implemented perfectly, matching alongside the persistent blast beats, tapping, hammering, and shredding all through human flesh. In here, you'll find thrash based riffs, blended into grind format, rigid and just fucking schizophrenic.

For some reason, I find the vocals the treasure to this album. The gutturals are the most deepest noises I've ever heard that can come out of a human mouth. They reach the depths of the ocean, and bubble the flames in hell around in a putrid fashion. When not drowned in visceral growls, screams are implemented with high, ballistic, vicious force, and Matt Harvey slits the throats again, again, and keeps on cutting until there is no tomorrow.

The only problem I had with this album, was that the drumming was a little weak at times. The snare is usually lost in amongst the guitar bludgeons and vocal raping, but that doesn't take away much, as it picks up throughout as the song evolves into a bloody pile of perverted amazement.

You can never go wrong with an album like "Slaughtercult". Every song has something unique to it, whether it be that memorable chorus ("Forged in Fire - Forged In Flame - You will never FUCK AGAIN!"), to the astounding solo's of "Funeral Fuck", to the absolute rampaging guitar riffs in "Decrepit Crescendo". Exhumed really jammed the machete through the skull with this one. It's a personal favorite of mine, and probably will be one of yours as soon as you put it in the stereo.

Continuing with their obvious grind-era Carcass worship along with early 90’s death metal influence (Cannibal Corpse and similar acts), Exhumed have released their second album, which lives up to the band’s name, as initially portrayed on their debut, ‘Gore Metal.’ Death metal was not at its peak at the time of this release; on the contrary, I’d say it was somewhat jaded. It was jaded from the endless death metal clones that were constantly making music parallel to their favorite bands – no new bands really stood out at all because we’d all heard their material before they’d even released it. During the time of the seemingly never ending clone bands, Exhumed decided to step in and offer listeners another breath of fresh air, while nuking all of the bastard bands by dropping the ‘Slaughtercult’ bomb on their armies. Now the majority of those bands are nothing more than a bunch of bad ideas long forgotten.

A step up from the previous production efforts, the mix is more violent and less restricting than Gore Metal; less restricting in the sense that there is no computer-editing of the sort and the sound is not polished. Less polishing could be considered more restricting, but no one can deny that it adds to the nightmare environment of every instrument colliding at once, leaving your brain in a complete wreck and blood creeping out of all orifices. This is by far the most intense and most distinguished piece of work from the masters of ‘gore metal’ (a style which Exhumed are recognized for coining) thus far – extremely loud guitars, bass, vocals, and drums slapped on top of each other; it’s almost like a live atmosphere without the bloodthirsty audience.

The loud guitars grind and crush with savage down-tuning and never cease with sonically razor sharp assault. These riffs show direct influence from Carcass with unrelenting battery of thrash-like down stroke riffs combined with death metal strumming and tremolo picking. One could argue that there is some influence from Death, Slayer, Iron Maiden, or even Judas Priest in the solos by their sparseness alone; Exhumed didn’t settle on creating a solo that would require the skill and effort equivalent to a masturbation session. They put a lot more thought into this part of the album by creating complex and attractive guitar solos on top of the chaotic mess of sound. These guitars embody the experience of taking a more hands on approach inside of a slaughterhouse by chopping up carcasses with loud and buzzing heavy machinery; a fitting sound for an album title like ‘Slaughtercult.’

The crushing bass demands recognition as it pounds, clicks, and crashes in the brutish mix of murdering and nightmarish riffs. Many people shrug off the presence of bass in death metal, as if it were just a little child and their presence is of little significance in a family of savage brutes. A small and innocent looking child couldn’t possibly do any harm, right? Not in this case. This is the murderous defect child of the Exhumed family and Bud Burke isn’t afraid to give listeners a dose of true carnage with relentless and bludgeoning bass work. The youngster doesn’t want any money for candy or ice cream; he wants the blood and guts of posers…and the brutality reigns supreme in Bud’s performance.

The drumming style in death metal is often repetitive, which is pretty much what goes on with the stern drums of Exhumed with tons of wild blast beats. Col Jones may not win an award for craziest speed, originality, or jaw dropping breaks, but he gets the job done. Some snare parts are a bit muted by the excessively loud guitars and the demonic vocals, but most listeners will be pleased with Jones’ performance. Much like the other instruments, the speed is very consistent. For this aspect of Slaughtercult, this is a good performance…but brings nothing new to the table.

The trade off vocal duties between Matt Harvey and Bud Burke is pretty cool. Matt Harvey takes some aspects of Bill Steer’s raspy growls and adds a little more aggression and speed. The higher pitched growls and screams most definitely resemble the vocal work of Carcass. Bud Burke, on the other hand, goes for ultra low growls, using Chris Barnes on the Cannibal Corpse album, ‘Tomb of the Mutilated’ as a reference point. Although Harvey’s vocals are often times the more dominant voice of the band, I think anyone can appreciate the two different vocal styles that both of these guys bring to the band – which can only heighten their stage presence and performance during a live show.

This monster album goes straight for the jugular with a keen knife, and there are no subtleties about that at all. This release is a keeper and worth looking into if you like huge balls of sanguinary death metal.

Slaughtercult is the ULTIMATE album to blast around old people and neighbors. Nothing quite attracts looks of horror and befuddlement like FUNERAL FUCK. Exhumed is sonic terrorism in its purist form... a fucking sloppy mess of a death-grind album, complete with requisite Steer/Walker imitations, blast beats, and sludge-thrash riffage.

First off: the mix is atrocious. There is no way a functioning human being can put this on full volume and live. The drums, guitar, and deep vokills clash and overlap all over the place. Gore Metal sounded pretty good... why is Slaughtercult such a cesspool?

When you can actually HEAR a riff, it kicks ass.... Infester, Forged in Fire - Formed in Flames (YOU WILL NEVER FUCK AGAIN!), and This Axe Were Made to Grind are solid and somewhat infectious tunes. Carcass, obviously, a reference point... however, Impaled sounds way more like Carcass than Exhumed. Asides from their lyrical content, Exhumed have more in common with early 90s death metal

If you can stomach a swirling dervish of noise.. go for it. Piss off your mom