Exhumed may not have written the book on horror, but they did release a brutal album last year with that name, so their chops are definitely proven. Their brand of grinding death metal is something of a revival for the roots of the gore-filled genre, piling bodies on top of one another along the way. Together, with labelmates Gruesome, the band released a ripping split EP, harkening back to the tape-trading days of old. A portmanteau of Exhumed's aforementioned Horror and Gruesome's Twisted Prayers, the slicing and dicing Twisted Horror is a triumph of a brutal DM release, a flash of red against the darkness of the world today.
Exhumed provides the first three odes to violence, starting with "Rot Your Brain." Starting off with chaos and cacophony, the verses dive into D-beat country quickly, with the odd pinch harmonic thrown in to grab the listener by the collar to make sure they're paying attention. It's a potent track, informed by thrash and grind for maximum damage. "Buried to Die" is blistering in its execution, as the vocalist switches up the techniques at the drop of a hat. The guitar solo doesn't get too flashy because it doesn't need to, it's effective in creating sparks to shock the victim before getting back to shoveling the earth onto them. Finally, Exhumed brings us "Dead, Deader, Deadest," kicking off with notes of Slayer and Morbid Angel before getting into familiar grind territory. It's a pummeling track, with enough melody to be picked out, though trying to do so is like finding a piece of hay in a needle stack.
Gruesome's offerings for the split begin with "A Mind Decayed," styled like old school, rotten-to-the-core death metal. It's gravelly and gory throughout its five and a half minute run, whether running at high speed or employing a more calculated, chugging approach. "Led into the Dark" is another classic DM nightmare, keeping to that stripped down, no frills production that makes Exhumed's music work so well, especially as a celebration of the origins of the metal of death.
This is for the fans of the way it used to be, as far as extreme metal goes. Both bands are out for blood on Twisted Horror, and by the end of the twenty minutes of terror, plenty of the red stuff is spilled. Splits aren't usually the most celebrated releases these days, but Exhumed and Gruesome definitely have a case against that notion here.
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