Band Line Up 2020
Formed in 1991, when the band's sole remaining founding member Matt Harvey was at the tender age of 15, Exhumed spent much of the ensuing decade hacking its way through numerous line-ups, demos, split CDs, and Eps. The band finally recorded their debut album, the genre-(re)defining and critic-repulsing Gore Metal in 1998. The album crystallized the "old-school Death Metal meets full-on Grindcore with the spirit of Thrash" sound forged with their last demo and first split CD (1994's Horrific Expulsion of Gore and 1996's In the Name of Gore respectively – the band envisioned the three releases as a trilogy of sorts).
Gore Metal led to the enlistment of then-bassist Bud Burke to complete the line-up for the band's first US tour and festival appearances (their only previous touring had been 9 dates in central Europe in 1997 with Hemdale supporting In the Name of Gore). Exhumed upped the ante with their go-for-the-throat sophomore record Slaughtercult in 2001. The album blatantly blended the band's brutal cult-thrash influences into its sonic meat-grinder and sparked multiple US tours and their first proper European tour, including co-headlining festivals like Fuck the Commerce and Obscene Extreme and appearing at Wacken Open Air. 2002 even brought the band to Japan for the first time and saw them as an unlikely opener for Rob Halford's West Coast tour.
The band evolved further with their third album, 2003's Anatomy is Destiny with more sophisticated arrangements, production and instrumentation within the gore metal formula. After the departure of the band's co-founder, drummer Col Jones (Repulsion, Cretin, Mortuous) the same year, the band issued a massive 2CD compilation of their early recordings, appropriately dubbed Platters of Splatter. After touring all over America, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and Iceland, the band realigned its personnel yet again, notably adding guitarist Wes Caley (Fatalist, ex-Uphill Battle) and the re-enlisting bassist/vocalist Leon DelMuerte (Murder Construct, ex-Impaled). The revamped line-up released an album of cover versions called Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated in 2005 which was intended as a stopgap release before a new album. Work was also undertaken on a DVD with live footage and documentary material, but the band's dissolution in '05 left the project in limbo.
After six years away from the scene and numerous other projects, Harvey, Caley, and del Muerte teamed up with drummer Danny Walker (Intronaut, Murder Construct, Phobia), who had toured with the band during the Anatomy... era, for their acclaimed comeback album, “All Guts, No Glory” in 2011. The album earned them spots on numerous top 20 lists for 2011, including Decibel Magazine (#13) and Pitchfork's Metal column, Show No Mercy (#11). With the positive reception of the record, Exhumed undertook a grueling road schedule which led to the enlistment of a full-time, road-worthy line up. Mike Hamilton (Deeds of Flesh, ex-Vile) took over the drum throne, Rob “Body Bag” Babcock (ex-Gravehill) assumed bass and low vocal duties, and Caley was eventually replaced with Exhumed alumnus Bud Burke, this time on lead guitar.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this touring, the band found the time to write and record a new album, Necrocracy, released August 6, 2013 to critical acclaim from publications like Decibel, New Noise, MetalSucks, Stereokiller, and PopMatters, all of whom included the album on the best-of lists for 2013. Exhumed followed up that release with a split alongside Relapse label-mates Iron Reagan (2014), and then returned to the studio to fully re-record their 1998 classic Gore Metal. The recording, titled Gore Metal: A Necrospective, also featured the return of bassist / vocalist Ross Sewage as well as completely new artwork and was packaged as a deluxe 2CD set.
Now in 2017, Exhumed return with their 6th full-length as they tread into ambitious new territory with their first concept album. Lock the mausoleum doors and chain up the cemetery gates – Death Revenge is a musical melodrama in thirteen parts based on shocking true events Death Revenge takes place in the late 1820s in Edinburgh, Scotland and tells the macabre tale of a series of brutal murders where the victims’ cadavers were sold to anatomists, amid a grisly underground trade of grave-robbery. Recorded with producer Jarrett Pritchard (Goatwhore, Hate Eternal, Gruesome), Death Revenge takes the band’s signature gore-drenched, death metal mayhem to theatrical and ghastly new depths.
Exhumed:
Bud Burke – guitar, vocals
Ross Sewage – bass, vocals
Mike Hamilton – drums
Matt Harvey – guitar, vocals
