At this point, the boundaries of what constitutes “extreme metal” have been drawn. Sure, there are many ways to bring in different influences and create a mix between extreme metal and “something else,” and this has created some valuable works of art. But aside from these types of experiments, the core disciplines of black metal, death metal and grindcore are pretty recognizable. And it’s not as if combining these styles creates anything new either, after all, they basically all started together. So the challenge any young band faces is: How do you create great records in an established style without simply redrawing the past? There’s no point in repainting “Virgin of the Rocks” (except for practice perhaps), but you can create something worth exploring in that style.
Likewise, you can’t simply re-record Sodom’s Obsessed by Cruelty or Sarcofago’s INRI, but you can still make an awesome extreme metal record. And that’s exactly what Exhumation has done on the fantastic and relentless “Opus Death.” Honestly, the only complaint I could possibly make about the album is “it’s been done before,” which only bears out the answer “please keep doing THIS!”
Though the band hails from Yogyakarta, in Indonesia, the band’s ghostly, reverb-laden style of extreme metal bears the mark of legends of old from Brazil, Germany, Norway and the United States. Through ripping songs like “Soul Wanders” and “Upon Our Hordes,” the band execute their admiration for bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide and early-Mayhem in a brilliant fashion that makes excellent use of menacing riffs and heart-pounding speed.
But as the suspenseful piano-based track, “The Sleeping Darkness” shows, the band has more to their skills than just classic rip and bash. Most interludes like this are a waste of time, usually cobbled together to pad the length of the album. But in this case, Exhumation actually took care in letting the song stand on its own. And it makes for a great lead into the dramatic “Graveyard Alike” and “Labyrinth of Fire,” which bears a noticeable Hell Awaits-era Slayer aspect to it. Later on, as the album comes to a close, the band rolls out an acoustic number to let the listener’s senses recover from the vicious, haunting experience of Opus Death.
Taken as a whole, “Opus Death” is an extreme metal gem crafted in the style of the mid-80s, refined with touches of Altars of Madness, Scream Bloody Gore and perhaps a bit of Deathcrush as well. It’s an interesting departure from the band’s previous album, Hymn to Your God, which contained a much more polished, even technical death metal sound, with a shade of the classic “Sunlight” sound mixed in as well. While all these variants of death metal have “had their day” so to speak, the work of Exhumation shows that the work of those days is still worth pushing into the future. It will be worth seeing what that future holds for Exhumation as well.
9/10
Favorite Songs: “Soul Wanders,” “Upon Our Hordes,” “The Sleeping Darkness,” “Graveyard Alike”
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