Exhumation (Bgr) – Towards the Werge

There are many bands named Exhumation. This one in particular is from Bulgaria. They formed shortly after the fall of communism and released one EP called Towards the Werge in 1995. They broke up sometime after that. They also released a split EP, but I can't find that anywhere. I'm rather confused by the title of this EP. What's a “werge”? Don't they mean verge? And why are they moving towards this “werge”? Never mind, let's just listen to the music.

One peculiar thing I've noticed about the early Bulgarian death metal scene is that it's more gothic in nature than other death metal scenes of that era, sort of like how Russia contains an unusually high number of doom/death bands. For one thing, Exhumation utilizes a lot of keyboard work that helps to give the music a more epic feel. It reminds me of the early works of Therion. They played death metal but they also used a great deal of powerful symphonic keyboards. These keyboards in particular often switch between displays of beauty and passages that sound more dark and suspenseful.

The keyboards are great, but the actual death metal sounds great as well. The drums often switch between slow, doom/death beats and rapid blast beats, as well as some double bass that shows up on occasion. I loved their incredible performance on the appropriately titled “Ferocious Aggressiveness”. The snare hits really hard and the constant clashing of the cymbals create a special dissonant quality. I also like how prominent the bass is. They use this prominence as an opportunity to show off their technical skills and provide the music a great deal of muscle.

The vocals consist of a deep, hoarse growl that sounds quite similar to a lot of doom/death bands that existed around that time. They fit the dark, gothic nature of the music quite well. There are also some moments where they perform low-pitched clean vocals, thus keeping in line with the gothic influence that permeates throughout the album. Personally, I felt the clean vocal performance wasn't up to par with the rest of the album. If you ask me, he sounded bored. Oh well. Doesn't hurt to try new things. As for the guitars, they're excellent. They play lots of dark tremolo riffs as well as plenty of slow, plodding doom/death riffs. There are also moments where they play fast and simple chugging riffs that sound similar to thrash metal in structure. Not only that, but there are also certain moments where they play some great atmospheric clean guitars that offer a nice bit of variety.

This was an amazing obscure death metal EP. Personally, I was expecting a heaping bag of shit, but I'm glad to know I was pleasantly surprised. I loved their implementation of the keyboard, I loved how prominent the bass was in the mix, I loved the growls, and I loved the old school riffs. Don't you love it when you finally discover a nugget of gold in an ocean of shit?