MM: Can you tell us how Exhumed started, weren't you and Col Jones about 15 or 16?
Matt Harvey: Yeah, we were just little whipper-snappers back then. Basically, I was playing guitar, and we had two other friends who played guitar and bass, and there was Col- he didn't play anything. This is 1989-1990. We wanted to start a band, and he was the only other guy in our circle of friends, so he was elected to play drums. We all started jamming, with another friend on vocals who ended up moving to AZ, doing covers from Sodom (Bombenhagel, Persecution Mania), Kreator (Ripping Corpse, Riot of Violence), and Death (Regurgitated Guts, Zombie Ritual). Then Col started playing with us, it just got heavier from there.
MM: Back then, what were you guys like? What it always going to be a gore/death/grind band?
MH: Well, the first few songs we worked on together were more in a Death / Obituary vein. Then as things went on they got grindier. After seeing Carcass live in October 1990, we definitely took a turn for the
sicker. We started a "project" band, called Constipated Gut, where we did all kinds of 3 second songs, and total grind stuff, mixed with some Autopsy type riffs, etc. Then that kind of all got absorbed into Exhumed in early 1991. It was always going to brutal, sick, gory, etc. One of the earliest titles we had was "Premature Burial", in early 1990. Then it got changed to "Unnatural Disgorgement of Intestinal Fermentation" by '91. I was 15 for most of 1991, and wrote all the material for the first proper demo during that time- stuff like "Oozing Rectal Feast", "Embryonic Regordation", "Ziploc Bodybag", etc. The
band concept wasn't as clearly defined back then, but it was definitely all about Gore and Death Metal and Grindcore somehow mashed together.
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MM: How did you find yourself going onto sign for Relapse? MH: Well, over the next few years, we underwent a lot of line-up changes. Col (Invincible Zombie) Jones and myself, along with our old guitarist Derrel Houdashelt became the core of the band and we did a few more demos, went from a 5 piece to a 4 piece to 3 piece, then back to a 5 piece, then finally settled on being a 4 piece for good in 1996 when we were working on the material for the "In the Name of Gore" split with Hemdale. During that time, we also were recording a bunch of EP's and playing out around the Bay Area as much as possible. We dubbed over 1000 of our last demo, "Horrific Expulsion of Gore" (there's that word again!- recorded in November of 94) and word started to spread from there. That led to the Hemdale split, which basically led to working with Relapse. All the bands working with Visceral Productions, which were basically Exhumed, Hemdale, Incantation, and Nile, went on to work with Relapse. When the opportunity presented itself to work with the label, of course we jumped at it and haven't regretted it yet. |
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MM: Who/What has been your main influence as a band
musically and lyrically?
MH: Hmmm... Everyone of course says "Carcass!" right off
the bat, and they have been one of our main
influences, but musically, it's a pretty wide
spectrum. Some of our main influences are just from
a band's attitude (Wasp, Kiss, Venom, Motley Crue,
etc.) or their songwriting (Beatles, Red House
Painters, Pink Floyd, Swans, Velvet Underground,
etc.), so a lot of times our influences are kind of
indirect. Definitely Metallica, Slayer, Napalm Death,
Hexx, Epidemic, the first Entombed record, Repulsion,
Sodom, Exodus, Exciter, Kreator, Unseen Terror,
Terrorizer, Extreme Noise Terror, Master, Possessed,
Autopsy, Death... Those are the bands that are probably
directly heard in our sound, but we've listened to
everything- from J-pop to country and everything in
between. Col and Mike are huge Madonna fans, Mike is
heavily into Enya, I love Bauhaus, Christian Death,
Alien Sex Fiend, Siouxsie, early Cure, Killing Joke,
Test Department, Psychic TV, Skinny Puppy, Foetus, but
then I also love Foreigner and Boston too. Lyrically
it's a bit easier to narrow down, since I write all
the lyrics. Basically, I love the old Carcass lyrics
for their intelligence, the Metallica lyrics for their
catchiness and the Repulsion lyrics for their
ugliness. I try to convey some of the ideas that are
put forth in the bleaker parts of existentialism by
guys like Camus and Sartre through the gore filter,
and keep some of the humor and sarcasm of two of my
favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick in
there somewhere too.
MM: You guys have released many splits/demos/compilations before you debut release "Gore Metal", are you proud of every single one of them or are there a few, if any that you would change/not do if you could go back?
MH: I would probably change all of them, given a chance to
re-record them now, with the knowledge and experience
that I have now vs. when a lot of that stuff was done.
I would love to have another shot at re-recording
"Gore Metal"- there are 1,001 production issues with
that album. At the same time, I am proud of all of the
demos, etc. as they have what's important, the
intensity and the feeling of a band that's pushing
themselves (however ineptly) to play the music that
they care about as intensely as possible.
MM: How easy/hard are all your releases before "Gore Metal" to obtain?
MH: They're all pretty hard to find, being out of print,
hand-duplicated, etc. There will be a compilation
coming out next year called "Platters of Splatter"
that will have most of the early stuff compiled on it.
That's something we've been talking about for quite a
while now...
MM: Co-Founding member Col Jones has recently left the
band, how saddened are you be his departure, is there
any change of Exhumed stopping altogether?
MH: I was definitely bummed, but it was something that
happened over a long period of time. It was a
decision that was reached well before the recording of
"Anatomy", so we had a while to get used to the idea.
Stopping altogether was something we considered, but I
don't see that happening in the immediate future.
MM: Danny Walker (Uphill Battle) has joined the ranks
for your forthcoming tour, any news on a permanent
replacement?
MH: No news yet. Danny did a fantastic job on tour
though. He's a great drummer and we hope to keep
working with him in whatever capacity in the future.
MM: Onto your new album "Anatomy is Destiny" now, I
know it's still pretty early but, any feedback from
magazines/webzines etc?
MH: So far, most of the response has been pretty positive,
which is cool. Press reaction is really not that
important to us. There are about 20-30 people that we
know personally whose opinions really matter a lot to
us, and about 2 of them write for magazines. Really,
we just do what we do, and if people like it, then
that's great, but if not, we don't really give a fuck.
MM: I couldn't believe it when I heard the news
regarding the album release (or lack of) in Germany,
for those who haven't heard yet, can you tell us a bit
about it?
MH: Well, basically, the album in Germany is printed
without any of the interior artwork or lyrics at all,
due to some total stupidity on the part of the German
government. The whole situation is pretty ludicrous.
Inside the booklet of the German CD is a rant from me
on the idiocy of censorship. Still- one thing I'm
proud of is that if we can have an album with a
completely tame album cover that's still brutally
censored, then we must be doing something right on a
deeper level than pure shock value, and that's the
biggest compliment we could get. Especially from an
objective 3rd party like the German govt.!
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MM: Can you tell us a bit more about your side projects Dekapitator and Cadaverizer MH: Dekapitator is basically an old-school Thrash band in the vein of early Kreator and Exodus, with a little bit of Possessed thrown in. It's very 80s. We are currently toying with the idea of adding a melodic singer and moving into the Agent Steel / Helloween area a bit more. We'll see what happens. Cadaverizer is a simplistic, primitive Death Metal project in the vein of Necrovore, Nunslaughter, Mantas/Death, Massacre, Autopsy, Sarcofago, Hellhammer, Pentagram (Chile), Insanity, Repulsion, etc. Very basic "Scream Bloody Gore" infused Death Metal. |
MM: Any chance of a live Exhumed album?
MH: We did release a live CD as a bonus disc for the first
5000 of the European version of "Anatomy is Destiny"-
but it wasn't really a proper live album, just a noisy
ass soundboard recording from our Japanese tour in
2002. No plans of that for the future, possibly a DVD
though?!?
MM: What's your opinion on sharing music over the
Internet?
MH: I think it's fine. It's the same thing that tape
trading was in the 80s and early 90s. The people who
really care about the music will buy it anyway.
MM: What is your favorite album of all time and why?
MH: "Master of Puppets". This one has everything. The
greatest riffs, lyrics, arrangements, production, and
a killer overarching, yet un-intrusive concept running
throughout. Not one note out of place- and so dark.
Fucking brilliant! "Horrified", "Scream Bloody Gore"
and "Symphonies of Sickness" are close runners-up
though!
MM: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, any last
comments
MH: Thanks for the interview and we'll see all the
necromaniacs out there either on the road or on the
slab!
Only gore is real!
http://www.exhumed.us