Originally released in 2000 on CD by the late / great Emetic Records, Several Severed Heads was EXPLODING ZOMBIES' second full-length, following 1996's Devour the Village debut – and, undoubtedly, the band's breakthrough record. Completely encapsulating the time period, when American death metal was reasserting itself for the worldwide brutality stakes, Several Severed Heads was a concise & quick-hitting slab of unremitting brutality. For sure, the record exhibited many / most of brutal death metal's contemporaneous traits, almost to a slavish degree; however, it's how EXPLODING ZOMBIES configured those traits into something so devastating and, 25 years later, timeless. Gurgling, discordant bass; full-throated, no-cupped vocals coming from every direction; scattered, restless blastbeating; chunky, disgusting riffing even when wandering up the fretboard; and almost comically ignorant breakdowns to CRUSH all canoes within a ten-mile radius: Several Severed Heads is a masterclass in authentic, committed-to-the-cause BRUTALITY.
