Exhumed, Cephalic Carnage & Withered @ The Key Club. 8/7/11.

Exhumed was one of my favorite death metal bands when I first discovered this whole extreme music scene back in the early 00's. I blew my chance to see them live back in the day before they went on "hiatus" for the last 5+ years. So now Exhumed is...back from the dead and I was STOKED to finally catch them live. Too bad this show landed on the same night as Torche headlining over at the Troubadour. I didn't care though, I HAD to see Exhumed.

So, I got off work later than expected and had to scramble to the venue just in the nick of time (like usual =/) so I wouldn't miss Withered. Some of you might remember my praise for this band from HERE. Withered's brand of sludgy black metal didn't exactly wow the crowd, but didn't seem to piss them off either. I'm so stoked I made it on time for their set. Aside from Exhumed's reunion, this was the band I wanted to see the most. Sadly, none of the photos/video I took from their set came out clear enough to use. Oh wells. I did manage to snag this sweet ass Withered poster (created by Paul Romano) from their merch table though!

Cephalic Carnage were next. I was super crushed to learn that drum god extraordinaire John Merryman is no longer in the band. His replacement is supposed to be a hot shot drum shredder and even a close friend of John's but honestly, the guy is NO John. It's sad that the band even opened with my favorite song of theirs ("Wraith") but the haphazard drumming totally let me down. I know it's tough crafting an awesome setlist when you're stuck in an opening slot on a tour like this, but Cephalic's choice of songs and shaky performance left me rather disappointed.

I think I was one of the only people in attendance who didn't care about Macabre. I know they're supposed to be legends or whatever but I've seen them before and the whole telling wacky stories in between songs shtick just didn't win me over. Their music is kind of generic/sloppy thrash that gets hailed as some kind of awesome proto-death metal but I just don't see it. Everyone else at the Key Club was stoked though. I sat down on a nice comfy couch and waited for Exhumed...

FINALLY, after years of waiting Exhumed took the stage. Sadly it wasn't the super star lineup that recorded their awesome new album All Guts No Glory but rather frontman Matt Harvey and some hired gun ringers. That being said, the band still put on an awesome show. New songs off their latest comeback album blended perfectly with older tracks off Gore Metal, Slaughtercult and Anatomy is Destiny. Matt Harvey looked like he was having a blast onstage as the crowd near the front thrashed around while all us folks standing off to the side stood in awe watching our favorite gore metal band reanimated and kicking ass once again. Hopefully they don't vanish for another half decade.