EXHUMED — All Guts, No Glory (review)

EXHUMED — All Guts, No Glory album cover

Album · 2011 · Goregrind

4/5 · 2011-08-21
UMUR

"All Guts, No Glory" is the 6th full-length studio album by US death/ grind act Exhumed. The album was released in July 2011 by Relapse Records. The "regular" version of the album contains 11 tracks, but there is also a deluxe edition available which features a 2nd disc with no less than 6 bonus tracks.

The music on "All Guts, No Glory" is gore themed death metal/ deathgrind. Exhumed succeed pretty well in keeping the tracks interesting by often changing pace. So this is not only a "pedal down" blast fest allthough the pace is mostly very high. The tracks feature heavy mid-paced parts in addition to faster played parts and all out blasting parts. The vocals are the "classic" high pitched aggressive sneer versus the deep growling vocal style. The two vocal styles compliment each other perfectly and are one of the real assets on the album. Another asset on the album are definitely the many melodic guitar leads. The vocal style, the gory lyrics (check out songtitles like "Your Funeral, My Feast" and "So Let It Be Rotten… So Let It Be Done" for a good laugh) and the melodic leads remind me somewhat of the "Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious (1991)" album by Carcass. It´s not fair to call Exhumed a Carcass clone but there are many similarities between their respective styles. I´d also mention acts like Gorerotted and Aborted as references.

The musicianship is on a pretty high level. We´re exposed to fairly technical playing for the style and it´s nice to hear that filthy and gory deathgrind can be delivered with precision playing without sounding sterile in any way. In fact the sound production has a well sounding organic touch to it that greatly enhances the listening experience IMO. Exhumed obviously aimed at that distinct dark and murky early nineties death metal sound and succeeded. The more modern studio techniques of today mean that everything is audible and powerful in the soundscape though. Something that wasn´t necessarily true on many early nineties death metal releases.

"All Guts, No Glory" is an excellent deathgrind release to these ears. Despite a level of brutality and aggression that´s really high, the tracks are memorable. So even though "All Guts, No Glory" is sure to beat you to a bloody pulp, you´ll still be able to remember which track hit you where and how hard. A 4 star rating is fully deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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Wilytank wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Gore fucking Metal

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´m not terribly familiar with the previous releases by Exhumed, but I expected something a lot less memorable and more grinding. Instead I was met by a really well played, well composed and well produced deathgrind album. I really good surprise. I´ll definitely be checking out the earlier releases by Exhumed too.