Gruesome

Gruesome, an old-school metal band, crafts a potent mix of hardcore, thrash, and death metal that channels the spirit of legendary outfits such as Florida’s Death and California’s Slayer. The group was assembled by Exhumed guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey and ex-Malevolent Creation drummer Gus Rios once the pair crossed paths during the 2012 “Death to All” Death reunion tour. Drawing on their mutual admiration for Death’s earliest recordings and the broader late-’80s/early-’90s death-metal aesthetic, Harvey and Rios started composing material. Harvey handled vocal writing and tracking from his California base while Florida-based Rios recruited Possessed guitarist Daniel Gonzalez and Derkéta bassist Robin Mazen to perform the instrumental parts. The band issued its first full-length album, Savage Land, through Relapse Records in 2015. Their next release, the 2016 Dimensions of Horror EP, served as a direct tribute to Death’s landmark Scream Bloody Gore. A more progressive follow-up, the Sound of Perseverance EP, surfaced in March 2017, with the band’s second full-length album, Twisted Prayers, arriving the subsequent year in 2018.