Indonesia is evidently home to a very active, vibrant heavy metal scene. However, because it is a financial near-impossibility for these bands to tour North America, you don’t have them showing up on “live ritual/assault” announcements, and record labels tend to give less than half a hoot as a result. Sure, the streaming age makes things easier, but gaining exposure in the Western world remains tough.
So when a label swiped up the nearly two year old debut from Exhumation and slated it for international release, curiosity set in. Perhaps Hymn to Your God would provide insight into what makes the Indonesian scene click in its reported ways. Or perhaps it would just sound Polish. Door number two, folks.
Thankfully, Exhumation’s take on their far-to-the-northwest influences is more than respectable, and often quite the relentlessly violent death metal romp. Once opener “All Seeing Eye” eschews its moody intro, an Azarathian level of intensity takes hold, in no small thanks to the almost symbiotic relationship between the riffs and those punchy blast beats. (Drummer Agung Kushartanto is quite the machine.) There’s also a touch of Vader present, both in the near constant and forceful momentum and in how vocalist Punto sounds more than a little like Piotr Wiwczarek (or like a less drunk Paul Speckmann). In fact, the only notable “regional” similarity is in how many of the minor key melodies give off a bit of a Rudra feel. Toss in some well-timed soloing and a general disregard (disgust) for dynamics, and Exhumation is in business.
In business, but limited. Exhumation handles their one trick very well, but by just the fourth song, the riffs and progressions begin to feel awfully similar. Luckily, there is only about 25 minutes of real material here, as the final two tracks are made up of an odd “outro” piece and a cover, but without some injection of variety or dynamics, really grasping the attention of a listener will prove difficult over a longer run time.
The lack of any real variety on Hymn to Your God will undoubtedly give it less staying power than a lot of Exhumation’s peers, and it goes without saying that it comes far short of an album like Blasphemers’ Maledictions. That being said, these boys pack quite a wallop, so look out if they take the next step and decide to really channel their inner rampage.
