From the horrors of prolific basement level kill-sites and demented operating theatres San Jose, California-based death-grind quartet EXHUMED deign to yank all ears away from the grime-smacked corridors of white tiles and bug-eyed gore to the splatter of the open road on this ninth full-length album. In doing so they treat ‘Red Asphalt‘ with at the same high standards enforced since reforming in the late 2010’s, having developed admirable consistency and surety of self in the years since. Though their core inspiration remains undaunted this one best resembles a third arc of deathgrind stylistic evolution found at the apex of death metal’s popularity wherein the gory extremity of the underground briefly merged with thrashing, sometimes swinging melodicism via unsteady evolution.

Exhumed formed in their teenaged years circa 1990 for the sake of playing death metal in a band. With vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey and drummer Col Jones as the major force behind their demo-era output their ranks would form and retract ’til medical gore themed deathgrind in its most nascent sense was the result. Their earliest material was (unintentionally) contemporary with other progenitors of goregrind (re: General Surgery, Dead Infection, Haemorrhage) and inspired by ‘Reek of Putrefaction‘-era Carcass but with a heavier focus on pure death metal of the time. This era of the band is generally untapped beyond the odd archival tape reissue, a demo compilation remains a missed opportunity. My favorites include their first kinda pro tape (‘Dissecting The Caseated Omentum‘, 1992) which showcases their brutal origins and the full-length demo ‘Goregasm‘ (1992) for how much they were packing into that set. Both tapes offer curio which fans of exaggerative gore, grind and brutality in death metal should appreciate. From that point the band weren’t all that focused on defining themselves yet but you could hear their growing experience informing their tapes with the underrated ‘Horrific Explosion of Gore‘ (1994) demo suggesting they were album ready. All that work leading up to their maligned debut LP (‘Gore Metal‘, 1998) is worth digging through as it all has riffs, carrying over a sound attuned to both grindcore spasticity and ‘old school’ death metal’s most viable era.

The band kinda hated making their debut, weren’t getting along, and the public wouldn’t come to appreciate that record for ages after. That first era of the band basically died for many fans (revisionists esp.) soon after bassist/co-vocalist Ross Sewage left to join the more popular Impaled as well as form Ghoul but I didn’t hate ‘Slaughtercult‘ (2000) at all as it was basically their first proper LP beyond the dropped pre-production scuzz of ‘Goregasm‘ and the quickly shit-cannoned ‘Gore Metal‘; I won’t dig too heartily through their discography beyond a certain point because I think the way most folks discovered (or, rediscovered) the band wasn’t through album hype after they’d reformed in 2011 but rather on tour as Exhumed are notoriously a band that’ve toured like a machine since then. I think it was the ‘Death Revenge‘ tour in late 2017, coming off of a re-recording of their debut, where I’d felt like they were the band that’d stood out on big tour package with like six or seven groups performing, the energy was there in a way that’d kinda outclassed the headliners.

From that point Exhumed have done a fantastic job of clarifying, or, better curating their identity through gore, horror, grind and death metal with a nostalgic lens applied to their style and aesthetic. In more recent years ‘Horror‘ (2019) aimed for quicker-shot, maniac deathgrind and ‘To the Dead‘ (2022) ushered some of their melodeath-goregrind nature back into view with songwriting contributions including past members. Though I didn’t give that album full review at the time I think I can sum my own (moderate at best) fandom with the thought that “[the band are] the opposite of the “older stuff is better” trope, in the sense that the new stuff (which they’ve made resembling the old stuff) is better than what they’d done before.” as those experiences funnel into my reception of ‘Red Asphalt‘ as the product of stabilized purpose and identity. Also, it just kinda generally sounds like ‘Anatomy is Destiny‘ for whatever reason as it kicks off with a few songs that hit that ‘Necroticism…’-isms heavy mark.

So, if you’ve ever heard Exhumed before you more-or-less know their sound but the shape is what matters on these newer records. These songs are more along the lines of those found on ‘To the Dead‘, ~3-4 minute thrashing death metal pieces that use a rocking melodic death standard which should be obvious enough to the average ear. This is most clear via the first three songs including opener “Unsafe at Any Speed“, a confrontational sluice of chunkier riffcraft that takes a heavy rocking stance as it develops and with a sound that approximates but doesn’t fully imitate the Colin Richardson-era touch of ‘Heartwork‘ and the congested but deliberate thresher of the album that came before it. The title track (“Red Asphalt”) hits that same button hardest when its lead guitars are slung and the main grooves found on “Shock Trauma” solidify that thought directly. The spin that the band puts on this sound is basically having no real chill, expressing none of the patience of the albums I’d compared them to for that first throng of pieces.

By the time we hit “Shovelhead” on the running order the pace slows, grooves intensify and the hooky swagger of their gib turns to something far less engaging: Mid-paced death metal slugging. The snarl is there but the riffs aren’t for my own taste and this’d slowed the momentum that ‘Red Asphalt‘ had struck me with outright. That’ll sound a little bit cross-eyed on my part considering “Crawling From the Wreckage” kinda pulls a lot of those same cards, throws in a few throated/pitch-shifted gurrgs and reaches a similar effect before whipping into speedier kicks and bluesy dual guitar solos but the point is that the Side B opener does more with its time. Though I could go track-by-track here attempting to quantify quality with relation to quantity of riffcraft I’d rather suggest that it is obvious when a piece suffers from a lot of ideas versus a couple which were just torn through for the sake of adding some manner of aggressive dynamic to their rocking and roaring movement.

Though I’m not sure Exhumed have created the be-all, end-all standard for this amalgam of swinging grotesquery but as I’d suggested prior they’ve been entirely consistent in delivering stylized, complete grinding death metal records these last ten years. Notes on production values, aesthetics and overall curation are moot here because those standards have been exactly this high since 2016 at least. They probably weren’t the purist’s choice at any point in their original run through the early 90’s ’til the mid-2000’s but here on ‘Red Asphalt‘ (and the two or three albums before it for that matter) we get a polished and ramped-up version of what they’d always been about. Again, I think this band sells their deal best at an actual gig/performance but this record represents ’em well without breaching their established identity. It doesn’t stick in mind so heartily but it is a great ride. A moderately high recommendation.

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