Review by Jeger on February 13, 2026.

Overlooked, underrated… Exhumed! Putrid Gorehogs and proprietors of true American Death Metal. Frontman, Matt Harvey, boasts a supreme Death Metal IQ, and having been at it since 1996, he has put it to good use. Exhumed's discography? Looks more like a Black Metal catalogue than your typical DM album list: demos and splits galore. And it has not been time that has tested Exhumed, but they of it, as every Exhumed album is of the timeless variety; standing boldly in opposition of modernity. Release it 35 years ago! Or drop it today, doesn't matter, because true Death Metal is ageless, just like Exhumed's forthcoming ear-raping opus, "Red Asphalt", scheduled to drop like a tire iron through your fat head on February 20 via Relapse Records.

Exhumed just arrived a little late on the scene, or else they'd be soaking up as much notoriety as some of the heavyweights of the genre: Cannibal Corpse, Obituary and Deicide. However, there's the reality of the fact that Exhumed has remained unwaveringly, 100% centered down true BM's pathway since the beginning and on through today while those aforementioned do whatever it is they're doing these days, which isn't real Death Metal. Massacre, Autopsy and of course Exhumed are more like it. And with "Red Asphalt", there is no technical mumbo-jumbo, no dorky progressive shit or core-infused breakdowns. The mood is unsettling and the lyrical content is disturbing. The title-track sounds and feels all choppy and brutal in the vein of "Necroticism" (Carcass), while the following track, "Shock Trauma", races along to blast-beats and guitar riffs/bass lines that rip like shattered windshield glass through tattered flesh and mow you over like a Semi. A celebration of all the most macabre realities of the road is "Red Asphalt", and set to no bullshit Death Metal.

No need for pretense or gaud. "Red Asphalt" delivers ten cuts, not one of them reaches the five minute point, because the business at hand is death and death awaits no one. We're here in this place where road rash is like a hand job and the only thing to bear witness to are scorched corpses and highway wreckage for miles. Matt Harvey and Exhumed are proving once more that there's a huge difference between classicism and status quo. The former is an attribute that is understood over time and through the development of one's deep understanding of Death Metal. The latter is simply settling for mediocrity.

Midway through, you'll find yourself at the mercy of "The Iron Graveyard" - a mammoth steamroller of an album cut that that plows you through blast-beats and choppy riffs like that fantasy you have of running your boss over in the parking lot; skull popped and pothole filled with cranium soup… Every phase is as important as the next from the crunchy bass line during the intro to "Crawling From The Wreckage" to the mix, which is stellar - a masterful blending together of all instruments into an all-enveloping blood-soaked sonic tapestry.

Hooded Menace is another band that I can't help but be reminded of here. Both bands have an identical ear for melody and during some parts of "Red Asphalt", the speed is dialed down a bit; resulting in similar Doom-like riffs out of Exhumed along with a myriad of varying percussive onslaughts and therein no shortage of unpredictable moments, yet there's this sense of warm familiarity to every track that hearkens back to those late night romps through the corner Record Shop with your non-poser brothers in arms. With "Red Asphalt", Exhumed has quietly released what will go down alongside Paganizer's "As Mankind Rots" LP as one of the year's best Death Metal albums. So, why don't you have a few tall ones and drive home, or text and drive, better yet, get some road head; anything you can do to possibly cause a major accident. And put on some Exhumed while you're at it…

Rating: 9 out of 10