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Astute observers of the extreme metal underground over the last two decades should already be aware that few bands come close to Exhumed when it comes to flat-out ferocity and all-encompassing metallic purity.
Their second post-hiatus outing, Necrocracy again paints these Californian reprobates as guardians of both the sacred spirit of death metal and the notion of brutal music as a form of gleeful entertainment, with all the neck-threatening bursts of old school thrash abandon and Carcass-saluting twin-lead grandeur that such mastery entails.
In contrast to 2011’s All Guts No Glory, these songs steer clear of too much one-dimensional blasting and are far more memorable as a result, the Exhumed ethos of ultra-sharp song construction benefiting greatly from a more varied array of tempos and some of the most unashamedly traditional hooks and solos in recent memory.
Everything is delivered with utmost aggression and bug-eyed intensity, of course, from the twisted catchiness of Coins On The Eyes and The Shape Of Deaths To Come through to the pummelling Schuldiner-isms of (So Passes) The Glory Of Death and the dual-tempo bludgeon of The Rotting.
