-First pressing of 500 copies on 150 gram virgin vinyl.
-Made in the USA with lacquer cut and plated process. No DMM.
-3mm jacket with UV Gloss.
-12" double sided insert.
-Eastern Bloc Obscurities Series
EXHUMATOR comes from the mind of Bulgarian multi-instrumentalist The Piff (aka Ivaylo Jordanov). The project's country of origin was hostile to metal music at the time, with the prevailing Iron Curtain political climate essentially banning Western music from entering the Eastern Bloc. Metalheads of the era had to rely on dubbed tapes smuggled from the West, which were not in wide circulation. After trading a few Uriah Heep tapes for his first guitar, The Piff played in a number of bands in the nascent Sofia metal scene throughout the 80s. He soon learned to play the drums as well, inspired by a negative experience working with a particularly unreliable drummer. This mastery of several instruments would prove crucial to his later work as EXHUMATOR.
An early lineup featuring The Piff and guitarist Malkiya (aka Dobrin Filipov) chose the moniker DICTATOR in 1989. Their first performance was at a Bulgarian metal festival in February 1990, where the group was well-received as one of the first extreme metal acts from Bulgaria. Two demos were recorded (though, according to The Piff, the masters for these demos are lost). DICTATOR went through numerous lineup changes (including about eight different guitarists) before The Piff parted ways with the group at the end of 1991. EXHUMATOR was born in the wake of this decision.
For EXHUMATOR, The Piff handled drums, guitars, and vocals, bringing his former bandmate Malkiya to play bass. Blending a mix of classic 80s thrash/first-wave black metal with the death metal explosion of the time, EXHUMATOR's inaugural work evokes the early recordings of TORR, MASTER'S HAMMER, and early RUNNING WILD. The first two full-lengths were recorded during the same four-day marathon recording session in 1991, with the first featuring songs initially written in the late 80s as DICTATOR. Both records would not see release until 1993.
NWN! Productions has worked closely with the group on every detail of this release, including translating the lyrics from Bulgarian to English. The layout design of the LP is a faithful reproduction of the original cassette release. NWN! Productions is proud to release this classic document of Eastern European metal for the first time outside of Bulgaria.
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