Hymn to Your God

Indonesian death metal band Exhumation spent years perfecting their sound in the time leading up to debut album Hymn to Your God. The resultant seven songs are a pummeling set of grinding, remarkably precise drums, guitars that bounce back and forth between brutal riffing and spacy, echo-laden soloing, and gruff vocal growls. Though somewhat technical, the band never goes too far into proggy complexity, opting instead for powerful, evil waves of black-hearted sound in the tradition of Venom, Obituary, and other death metal figureheads. Things take an unexpected left turn on the title track, which features mellow tabla drums, waves of ambient guitar, and spooky female vocals in a moment far more subdued but no less evil than the rest of the album.