Readers with a keen eye might note that I'm a fan of the recent crop of black/death metal from ye olde Adelaide town (notably CHARNEL ALTAR and ENDLESS LOSS), which is otherwise largely a non-event of a place to. Whatever the reason for the city's resurgence in the style, I'm here for it, as Melbourne's output in similar sounds has been lacking in recent times. EXHUMED KORPSE bring the hammer with 16 minutes of pounding, grinding old school 90s-rooted black/death metal clearly influenced predominantly by the likes of ARCHGOAT, BLASPHEMY, CORPSE MOLESTATION, grindcore of the era (80s NAPALM DEATH, XYSMA etc.) and some slightly more "modern" death/grind like early 2000s MACHETAZO. The songs are mostly mostly fast with the odd slower break to maximalise the impact of the rest of the blasting, and an ominous, spacey, noisy dark ambient interlude in the middle serves to reset the listener's ear for the remaining 5-6 minutes of mayhem. The mix feels like a well mic'd rehearsal recording, i.e. not "clean" but by no means shithouse. Raw but legible guitars, warm and natural drum sounds and the 100% pitch-shifted vocals (always a plus) all sonically sit together nicely, but it all could have used some more bite in the higher register to up the viciousness and rage. However, this isn't a huge complaint and overall, the tape makes for a VERY solid debut release. I'm hanging for more from EXHUMED KORPSE!
At the time of writing, the cassette is still available via Televised Suicide, linked below.