Artist: Exhumed
Country: USA
Label: Relapse Records
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2026
Although the band also has a few serious misses and some negligible EPs under its belt, Exhumed is still the institution that sets the benchmark for the Death/Grindcore genre. The blueprint may have been delivered by Carcass towards the end of the 80s, but these Americans have long since taken over the baton.
Although the band continued to perfect their Carcass-esque artistry after their return with the 2011 album ‘All Guts, No Glory’, they ultimately landed somewhere between the classic Carcass sound and the more modern Death Metal variant that the English icons later began to play. Nevertheless, ‘Horror’ (2019) surprised with a clear step back towards the Goregrind of Exhumed’s early days. That turned out to be a one-off burst of nostalgia, because the band has since picked up where it left off and is mixing Goregrind with Death Metal (and a pinch of Thrash Metal) as familiar to us by now.
‘To The Dead’, released in 2022, was, in my opinion, an excellent return to prime form. Without straying from their tales of gore, Exhumed has demonstrated over the years that they have much more to offer than the average Grindcore band. Matt Harvey has, in various Thrash and Heavy Metal bands, been able to express his love for those genres, but that experience has, consciously or not, also crept into Exhumed. Just like Carcass later in their career, Exhumed has also managed to incorporate melodic elements and actual solos into their music. After three decades, it’s no secret that Exhumed is at the top of the league in the field of Goregrind/Death Metal, but the further and more natural incorporation of that melodic component is something that Harvey/Sewage & Co. are getting better and better at. Arguably, the slow musical evolution began with ‘Anatomy Is Destiny’, Exhumed’s third full-length album from 2003, but in fact it has been part of their game since they dropped their debut album almost thirty years ago.
But it is precisely this advanced musicality, without deviating too much from their Grindcore roots, that lies at the heart of Exhumed’s strength. The almost frivolous and playful way of making music and the effortless manner in which they do so shines through in every composition. Add to that the abundance of tongue-in-cheek humour; they still do not take themselves too seriously in terms of artwork and lyrics. However, there is no denying the professionalism of the music. Not only does Exhumed affirm their status within the Death/Grind crossover genre with ‘Red Asphalt’, it proves even more that, perhaps due to their advancing age, they are still true fans of the genre and have a lot of fun making music with this band. That is most likely THE secret of Exhumed.
