Back after a 4 year hiatus, follow-up from the 'Necrocracy' (2013), Exhumed seems to be a little stronger and more brutal than their predecessor. But! Not as convincing as their 'All Guts, no Glory' (2011). However, this one takes a seat in the middle in my opinion as a well liked Exhumed record. A different sort of production and now that they're on Relapse, that may explain a certain "dryness" in the making or sound to this one. What I mean by that is that it's a little bit flat in tone, especially the drums.

They're sticking with some staple members though, that being Matt Harvey on guitars/vocals, Ross Sewage vocals/bass, Bud Burke guitars/vocals, and Mike Hamilton who joined the band on drums back in 2011. If I'm to understand correctly Matt Harvey has been frontman and with the band for the longest period of time. In one interview, he's said to have started way back when he was a teenager with the guitar and wow the lineup changes over the years. That must've been hard to pull off, especially on live performances teaching fill-in members, but but they did it.

Let's hope Exhumed continues in this direction of death/grind in the vein of Dying Fetus and Archspire, just not AS technical as those bands, but still in the vein of them. Exhumed did form when there was a huge death metal since in the 90's especially in Tampa (Death, Obituary, et al), though their origin is in San Jose, California circa 1990. That's the first where they formed and have been on and off over the years, in the most recent years, making more albums now then before.

I still would have to say that the gut and locked in sounds of 'All Guts, no Glory' remain to be my favorite. However, 'Death Revenge' is one piece of work. If only a few things that I pointed out were remedied (production/mixing) then I would've given this a higher rating. But it is what it is here and I'm sure that fans were pleased with the new one over the previous one. 'Necrocracy' was a bit too melodic for this band, their roots lie in the death/grind sort of arena.

Some cool tracks to check out are 'Defenders of the Grave', 'Unspeakable', 'A Funeral Party', and the title track. Their all good though, despite my axing of the production sound. It may just be something to get used to for me. The leads by both by Matt and Bud were supreme and the music is what glorifies the release. It's definitely one to look into. Check out those songs or download the album on Spotify, but do your best if you like it enough, purchase the record.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
05/04/2018 20:25