I sometimes find it difficult to think of what to say when I hear an album.  Not because it is terrible, that my brain simply shuts down into a temporary coma like state, or because it is so mind blowingly amazing that my cerebrum tears its way out of my face and runs off into the sunset in screaming hysterics. No, I find myself at this stage sometimes because I hear an album that is just good. No wild analogies, no spurious metaphors and barely any unrelated stories seem to enter my mind to describe the music without just falling into the predictable pattern of describing various things hitting me in the face at high speeds. "Beyond The Depths Of Hate" is starting to fall into this category for me. EXOTO are old heads of Death Metal and were smearing claret and faeces on the walls of venues across the world over 20 years ago, having started when I was still eating my bogeys and wondering why I wasn't allowed to take sweets from the nice old man that lived down the road. They have aged exceptionally well and you simply cannot tell the difference between songs written 20 years ago and the new material. This is pretty impressive really as most bands will go through that nonsense that most call "maturing" their sound or "growing" their style. Fuck that, if you're going to be playing Death Metal then just do it hard and do it more.

So it is that they have released this album, it is a reissue of the first two studio albums they released with a bunch of new tracks thrown in for good measure. There is something borderline sexual about reading an albums track list and realising that there are almost twenty songs to gobble up. The album itself plays organically and you could barely tell that it is some kind of weird Frankenstein's monster thrown together with bits of old corpses. They have clearly paid a good amount of attention to the song structure and where to place each of the new songs, which is nice. The production and overall sound quality of thee album is brilliant. This is really where most reissues fall down as bands get too caught up in maintaining the original sound and this just ends up making it sound like a sack of testicles compared to most modern releases. The update in mastering has allowed so many unheard bits of songs to stand out and really gives you an appreciation for little bits of instrumental work you might not have noticed otherwise.

This is definitely an album for the old guard and will more than likely win the hearts and soulless minds of the newer generations of Death Metal fans. It's not revolutionary and it's certainly not going to change your life but if you like the feeling of a burlap sack filled with ball bearings hitting you in the face t 88mph then this is going to be right up your blood-stained alley.<