Exhumed is one of my favorite death metal bands, and I don't just say that because one of the band members vomits on stage during live performances. Exhumed is not some wimpy Gothenberg band, awash in clean vocals, keyboards, and a shimmering Bon Jovi-like production in a play for mainstream acceptance. Instead, the band delivers up raw, brutal death metal that recalls the glory days of bands like Carcass and Autopsy. The band has been extremely prolific over the past decade or so, and while their full-length albums are easy enough to find, they have a great deal of material that's not too easy to get a hold of. Until now.

Platters of Splatter is billed as "A Cyclopedic Symposium of Execrable Errata and Abhorrent Apocrpha". Or, put simply, this is a collection of Exhumed's numerous non-album releases. And what a collection it is. The compilation contains the songs from the In the Name of Gore split CD with Hemdale, tracks from the bands' numerous other split release with bands like Nyctophobic and Santiy's Dawn, and the band's early demo tapes Horrific Explusion of Gore, Grotesque Putrified Brains, and Dissecting the Caseated Omentum. There are a total of 56 songs, with very few duplicates. And honestly, who's going to complain about about having multiple versions of "Carneous Corneal Carbonization", "Vagitarian , or "Oozing Rectal Feast"? Certainly not me. To top it all off, you get the band's covers of songs from King Diamond, Sarcofago, Impetigo, Carcass, and Possessed. When it's all said and done, the listener is treated to over 2 ½ hours of truly excellent death metal.

Although it's not on sale on Amazon, the truly obsessed can try eBay for the special three-disc version of Platters of Splatter. It contains some unreleased versions of songs, a live radio session, and a cover of Venom's "Schizo" as well as an amusing cover of Madonna's "Material Girl" recorded on a karaoke machine at Six Flags. The third disc isn't quite as strong as the first two, but it's still a nice treat for the die-hard Exhumed fan.

Exhumed has pretty much hit a career high with their latest full-length album Anatomy is Destiny, so the material found on Platters of Splatter isn't the band at their absolute best. But it comes damn close. I would say it's worth buying simply for the tracks from In the Name of Gore, but there's so much high quality material here that you really can't go wrong. If you're a fan of death metal, then you simply must own this collection