Exhumation

Before Putrid changed their name to God Forsaken and began playing death/doom in 1992, they played some really nasty, wretched death metal in the early 90’s Finnish tradition, as exemplified on this here recording. 1991’s ‘Exhumation’ demo is chunky, phlegm-drenched old school Finnish death metal more in line with Purtenance Avulsion and Rippikoulu then the death/doom stuff they would later on do under the new name, and in my opinion far surpasses their later material too. The only hints you’ll find in here of what they would later do is their obvious favoring of slower tempos, but it’s strictly kept within the death metal realms on here, albeit incorporating a bit more sludging then some of their other contemporaries.

The production is perfect for this sort of a recording. Like the music, it’s heavy, muculent, raw, and ugly. However, don’t mistake its rawness and hideous nature for inaudible shittiness prior to listening, as this is very well mixed and each instrument is heard with great clarity. The vocals are right up front have some lightly-delayed yet heavily-reverberated effect on them, which sounds especially cool when he lets out his slow “eeeuuuugggghhhhhsssssss!!!”. The guitar is right up there with its saturated, meaty tone, and is complimented by the equally as deformed bass tone. And speaking of that bass tone, how many examples can you think of where a cleanly played bass tone sounds just as dirty as the heavily distorted guitar (other then Autopsy, to name one example)?. The drums are unfortunately the lowest instrument in the mix, but they are still loud enough to serve the purpose they were intended for, which is to inexorably pummel the riffs and rhythms into place, and to really drive this mess forward.

Putrid’s ‘Exhumation’ demo fell much more into the death metal category then their following material under the name God Forsaken, but as I said, there are still some traces of what would become their full-blown death/doom sound. These hints are really only apparent in the sluggish tempos the band would weave into each song though, which I feel is a good thing, and helps move the recording along at a nice pace. Even the faster parts still have a semi-lethargic sense to them, giving the whole recording an oozy, gore-ridden aura that was mastered by bands such as Autopsy and Asphyx a couple years prior.

Double-vocal attacks are pretty much always awesome, and this is certainly the case on here. While the main vocalist, Mika Hankaniemi, vomits forth tales of gore and death in a mid-range cackling growl (in broken English), the guitarist Hannu Kujanen will occasionally chime in to add some extra oomph to the already vomit-inducing vocals of Mika. He’s also pretty damn good at writing riffs too. They typically sound like a more Autopsy-influenced Celtic Frost, and remain fairly simplistic almost throughout the whole recording. However, this is in no way a bad thing, as the music doesn’t call for technical fretboard masturbation in order to portray the diseased, vile atmosphere the band was obviously going for. He uses a lot of palm mutes and chugs for the slow riffs, but not in an irritating wigger “metal” fashion. Hammer-ons are also another technique he has a real liking for, which sound especially great when the drummer uses his double bass at the exact same time. Actually, the drumming on here in general is just top-notch for this form of death metal, meaning the drummer doesn’t try anything too fancy but also keeps it varied enough to prevent any sort of monotony. He also really knows how to properly apply his double-bass drum skills to where they are fitting, and does not overdo it like a lot of other drummers do. And on the subject of bass drums, I really like the way the tape captures it on here. It has a really low-end, pummeling rumble sound to it, rather then a nauseatingly compressed clicking sound that doesn’t even sound remotely like a real fucking bass drum.

It is a real shame Putrid decided to change styles so drastically in the following years, as this demo is a pretty damn good piece of old-school Finnish death metal. If you liked ‘Slumber of Sullen Eyes’ or ‘Member of Immortal Damnation’, chances are you’ll like this one.