Putrid
Re-Exhumation

April 2010
Released: 2009, Keltic Records
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Re-opening the ancient, nearly forgotten graves is kinda cool, I mean if you happen to like the smell of old putrid and decay and the noises of old, white bones when your shovel crunches into the ground when your favorite and morbid hobby is put in action.



Putrid, this 4-piece grinding death metal band, belonged to the first wave of Finnish death metal bands that crawled out from their tiny holes into the daylight back in early nineties, leaving a couple of good traces behind them that they are still remembered for - at least among some of the most sworn underground death metal fanatics if nothing else.



Putrid´s whole career can now be found under one package; this package having been titled as RE-EXHUMATION (their 1st ´91 demo was called EXHUMATION, so the title makes surely some sense, I guess), containing the band´s rare 5-track demo from ´91, 3-track rehearsal from ´91, 4-track EP from ´92, added with one unreleased song. Musically I would describe Putrid a mixture of Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Autopsy, even if sort of more raw and teeny-weeny more grinding version of those three names in question. The band´s EXHUMATION demo in its entire wholeness – even including a hilarious sounding intro, is definitely the most appealing part of this collection – I mean, if you are into more the type of limb-heavy and raw death metal that bands like Hellhammer/Frost and Autopsy used to churn out back in the early days. Putrid´s 4-track EP, originally released on After World Records in ´92, is also kinda cool sounding effort from them, even if way more doom-ish and sludge-ish product compared to the ´91 demo songs – and already showing clearly the musical path the band was about to take when changing their name from Putrid to God Forsaken almost right after the release of this EP.



It looks like a fairly good amount of people around the world seem to be kinda eager and curious to dig up the ancient graveyards of old-school Finnish death metal, wanting to bring the bones back to the daylight again, which is nothing but very cool. Putrid´s bones have been relatively beautifully revealed now on this RE-EXHUMATION collection, and I am already positive it´s gonna be sort of a mandatory purchase for everyone of you who used to love the past times of early Finnish death metal scene. My only tiny complaint regarding this collection is that they should have put more effort to make decent liner notes for this release, telling more about the history of the band and other Putrid/God Forsaken related things back from the days. Still, it´s a good thing to have this out even without those decent liner notes though.