When you're dealing with an
Exhumed CD, you can safely expect several things: a disgusting album cover, humorously tasteless song titles, ridiculous guitar solos, and plenty of no-frills,
Carcass-inspired death metal riffing.
Slaughtercult comes through on all counts. There's a tendency among bands with such a patented approach to stagnate or become predictable, but while
Exhumed doesn't throw any real curveballs here, they still deliver the goods. That's because songs here are well-written (it may take a few listens, though, to figure out exactly what's going on) and the performances are just plain savage. Miescko Talarczyk's (
Nasum) production only ups the ante, putting the guitars way up front, burying the vocals, and giving the whole record an in-the-red, in-your-face sound. There are no intros, outros, or interludes, and scarcely any pauses between songs. As a result, many listeners will find this record to be an indistinguishable blur. However, if you're a fan of gory, grinding death metal (and you probably know who you are by now), then you are likely to enjoy this album. [The album's also available in this clean version.] ~ William York