Exhumed // All Guts, No Glory
Rating: 4.0 —Withal rotten to the core
Label: Relapse Records
Websites: myspace.com/exhumed | facebook.com/exhumedofficial
Release Dates: Uh… fucking July, dudes. Buy it.
By: Fisting Andrew Golota

Exhumed - All Guts, No GloryAne of my great failings equally a fan of heavy music is that I will listen to the originators of a detail style/genre, but ignore all the bands that arrived in their wake. If I want to hear thrash, I'm not going to put on Warbringer, for instance, I'k going to heed to fucking Exodus [Hear, hear! – AMG]. And I find it hard to give a shit about the more contempo crop of sludge/stoner rock, seeing as how I've already got the first 10 Black Sabbath albums. Merely sometimes, beingness a closed-minded asshole means you miss out on some good stuff. And plainly, during the 15 years I was pissed off that Carcass broke upwards, I missed out on Exhumed.

Luckily, I've been given a 2nd chance. Later on spending about of the 2000'south working an office job, Exhumed mainman Matt Harvey has resurrected the goregrind legends with a new-and-improved lineup and a new album, the aptly-titled All Guts, No Celebrity. Then permit's talk the new members: longtime drummer Col Jones sits this ane out, replaced capably by Danny Walker of Intronaut/Jesu/Uphill Battle fame. The rest of the band includes guitarist Wes Caley (Uphill Battle) and bassist Leon Del Muerte (ex-Intronaut; I wonder if that makes band practices with Walker awkward?)

I'yard more often than not skeptical of any band that replaces 3/4ths of the lineup, but my research shows that All Guts sounds remarkably similar Exhumed's last album, 2003's Anatomy Is Destiny. The long hiatus does not seem to have had any agin consequence on Harvey'south ability to write furious riffs and gruesome lyrics. If annihilation, 8 years in Office Space mode might have given him a renewed passion for death metal, because All Guts is fucking ripping.

Exhumed 2011It’s worth mentioning that Harvey has been playing in Exhumed for the majority of his life (he founded the band 21 years ago, at age 15) and the dude patently has a solid understanding of what makes grindcore great. This puts my leaders-non-followers bias to the exam, because while Exhumed might non accept done it commencement, they do information technology and so well. They get it. The blatant Carcass-isms, the big dog/piffling canis familiaris vocals, the surprisingly melodic lead guitar work â€" all of information technology comes off as the work of someone who is truly a fan of this music, someone who wishes it was 1990 just equally much as nosotros exercise. And who could perchance accept a trouble with that?

There’s actually no point in going into a rails-by-track breakup here. The album starts off with the championship track, a ii-minute instrumental, so beats the shit out of y'all for the next 33 minutes or and so. I suppose "Death Knell" and "As Hammer To Anvil" stand up out from the pack somewhat, by virtue of catchiness and killer lead piece of work. Having said that, all the songs are really well put together, and jam-packed with mortiferous riffs.

Credit must also exist given to whoever produced and mixed this thing, because information technology sounds big and meaty, like punching a giant bloody steak. It's a very fine line between sounding like grind and sounding like shit, and the sound on this tape is definitely the one-time.

All Guts, No Glory is a solid grind record, and the fact that it came after such a long fourth dimension abroad from the music business makes information technology even more impressive. Very few bands pull off this way with as much enthusiasm and confidence as Exhumed. And until Bill Steer and co. become around to that inevitable reunion anthology, All Guts is about equally good equally information technology gets.