Exhumed/Iron Reagan Split Review
Exhumed/Iron Reagan
Split Repress
Tankcrimes
2026
Death metal/gore metal and hardcore punk/crossover may appear as strange bedfellows to most, but if you think about it, the merging of the styles makes perfect sense. Rebellious and intense heavy music? Check. Not in the least bit mainstream? Yep. Influenced by one another and intent on shock, somewhat scathing lyrically and thematically? Check again. For these reasons, and in the spirit of every scene in heavy music supporting other bands regardless of genre, the Exhumed/Iron Reagan split brings us here today.
By now, you should be familiar with both bands, and this particular split. If you aren’t, Exhumed play grindcore-leaning old-school death metal, and Iron Reagan sound like the best parts of Minor Threat, D.R.I., and Municipal Waste. This melding of misanthropy was originally released in 2014 as part of the Tankcrimes Split 12" Series and has been out of print for over a decade. The good folks at Tankcrimes have seen fit to repress it for 2026 (on limited-edition blood cloud vinyl, no less), and it's a fire-breathing thrill ride with tracks by both bands exclusive to this very EP.
In the spirit of DIY punk rock and hardcore, and the salad days of OSDM, both bands get to their points very quickly here, with no song lasting more than two and a half minutes. Exhumed’s raw, yet just-polished-enough, blast-beating, churning, low-tuned chugging MO kicks us off with the d-beat-influenced “Grave Walker” before falling headlong into an outro that is a million miles an hour with some very shreddy leads. “Dead to the World” follows and is another bloody slab of thrash-minded death, replete with high screams, low gutturals, and more proficient lead work. They then rip through two covers: D.C. straight-edge punk royalty Minor Threat’s “Seeing Red” (hearing this with blast beats and sewage-covered guitars is utterly brutal) and Negative Approach’s “Ready to Fight,” which is handled just as aggressively as the song title suggests, with a call-and-response chorus that makes you want to put a brick through a window.
Next up, we have Virginia's Iron Reagan, who have in their ranks Municipal Waste vocalist Tony Foresta, so the thrashy similarities are there, but IR deal more with the crossover side of things in that it's thrash played by dudes who came up on old hardcore and punk records. They rip and tear through four original songs in less than four and a half minutes. The highlights here being the affirming “Life Beater” and the whoa-oh-oh-sprinkled “Gave Up on Giving a Fuck.” “Mini Lights” is pure ’80s thrash, which sounds like a Waste outtake, honestly, and I'm perfectly OK with that. The gang shouts, triplet-picked guitars, and frenetic pace give way to the closer “Holy Water Makes Me Wet,” and its lightning-fast Cryptic Slaughter-meets-S.O.D. vibes are all concluded in a blistering 55 seconds.
There you have it. Two bands at the top of their game bringing the mosh with tracks that are hardly throwaway (as sometimes splits tend to have B-sides or demos, etc.) or phoned in. What Exhumed and Iron Reagan are doing best here is proving why this was so sought after in its original form. Kudos to them and Tankcrimes for bringing back this quality platter for all those who missed it the first time and for us old heads who enjoy both sides of the fence. Circle pit with a chainsaw, pogo while headbanging? Both are perfectly acceptable here…
RIYL - Carcass, Death, Autopsy, Repulsion, DRI, Municipal Waste, D.I., Suicidal Tendencies
~TB