Artist: Haemorrhage
Country: Spain
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP
Year: 2025
Haemorrhage’s roots go as deep as to 1990 and have ever since been a band that’s been amongst the leading acts when it comes to chunky Grindcore/Goregrind. The band’s earliest output was definitely more crude and Grind-minded, but with time more and more Death Metal influences surfaced. Consequently making Haemorrhage a welcome guest on many cross-genre Extreme Metal festivals and in the collections of Grindcore and Death Metal fans alike. It is therefore maybe not that strange to see Haemorrhage being released by Hells Headbangers, a label that might have more of a Black- and Death Metal tradition but already started with releases of bands like Mortician and Fleshgrind back in the day.
Besides, Haemorrhage already had one of their many split 7” EP’s (the one with Nunslaughter) released through Hells Headbangers in 2005. That brings me to a phenomenon that is pretty much a common thing in Grindcore: sharing a piece of vinyl (or tape, for that matter) with a like-minded band. That is how every bit Haemorrhage’s music came into my collection. Although I am really fond of old school Grindcore and I have been into the genre from the very start of my personal journey into extreme music, I never really got into Haemorrhage’s full-length albums. Just one or two tracks on a split always felt enough. For some reason, the long-players have never been able to hold my attention. Consequently, the albums I had have all gone by now, what I have left are a stack of those split 7″ EPs.
‘Opera Medica’, the band’s latest effort, is an EP (or mini) that clocks in well under twenty minutes. Knowing that and the fact that Hells Headbangers, which I generally hold in high regard musically, gives me enough zest to give these five new songs (including Dismember-cover) a shot. The opening track, “Scalpels, Scissors And Other Forensick Instruments,” for a moment suggested that we are dealing with an old demo here, as it bears the same title as the band’s second demo tape from 1996. But, frankly, this is really Haermorrhage’s first new material since ‘We Are The Gore’ (2017) and the split LP with Hemdale and Meat Spreader from 2018.
The label’s promotional text cites that Haemorrhage never wimped out in terms of a more commercial sound, unlike their most obvious musical inspirators, Carcass. That might very well be true. It might have been seven or eight years ago since we’ve heard from the band, but they are as frantic as ever. I even dare to say that this sounds much fresher and more inspired than ‘We Are The Gore’, an album that did close to nothing to me. ‘Opera Medica’ might not be an old demo, the meaty grooves, the relentless pummelling of both the drums and thumping bass definitely revive old times. Vocalist Fernando “Lugubious” Errazquin also sounds vicious in an old-fashioned way again, and that while I always found that his contributions on much of the older Haemorrhage material were the weakest link. Actually, I thought Errazquin sounded a lot better on the old Lugubrious demo, which I recently heard via the vinyl reissue by Spanish underground label DiscosMeCagoEnDios – now you have a good excuse to pick up this great record as well.
Haemorrhage’s penchant for (old school) Death Metal is nothing new, the aforementioned split 7” EP with Nunslaughter is a good example, but of all the Haemorrhage material to date, ‘Opera Medica’ might the most Death Metal-minded. The cover of Dismember’s ‘Deathevokation’ is only exemplary to this slight shift in musical focus, as the other tracks share the same sort of meaty and crunchy Death Metal tonality. Subsequently, anno 2025 Haemorrhage sounds more and more like General Surgery, a band that is known for blending the best of Grindcore and (Swedish) Death Metal.
When I first read that Hells Headbangers Records promoted Haermorrhage as “the most influential gore-obsessed Death Metal band besides Mortician”, I frowned. But, perhaps they are right and we can slowly start filing Haemorrhage under Death Metal (as well). Their claim that these Spaniards are as influential as Mortician may be a bit over the top, but at least the band delivered us a very solid return with ‘Opera Medica’.
