UMUR "Excisions of Exorcisms" is the 5th full-length studio album by US, Tampa, Florida based death metal act Diabolic. The album was released through Deathgasm Records in April 2010. It´s the successor to "Infinity Through Purification" from 2003. So it´s been seven years between the two album releases, but quite a lot has happened in those years.

Diabolic started out pretty promising near the end of the last millennium, and released three very solid Morbid Angel influenced death metal albums, before lineup and label problems meant that three members of the band left to form Unholy Ghost (and released the "Torrential Reign" album in 2004), while sole remaining member guitarist Brian Malone continued Diabolic with a new lineup and released the fourth Diabolic album "Infinity Through Purification" in 2003. Malone opted to discontinue Diabolic in 2004 though, and as Unholy Ghost also disbanded a year later in 2005, drummer Aantar Coates and guitarist Kelly McLauchlin saw a chance to revive the Diabolic name. They released the "Possessed by Death" EP in 2006 and the "Chaos in Hell" EP in 2007. The two EPs feature two relatively different lineups and "Excisions of Exorcisms" again features a new Diabolic lineup. On this album there are two original members of the band in drummer Aantar Coates and lead vocalist/bassist Paul Ouellette, and lead guitarist Kelly McLauchlin (who the former two had played with in Unholy Ghost), makes a return to Diabolic (he had shortly been a member of Diabolic in 2006). The lineup is completed by lead guitarist Jeff Parrish (who Coates had worked with on the shortlived Blastmasters projekt).

So far...so good. It´s nothing new with lineup changes on a new Diabolic release, and in the past they have always been able to release quality death metal releases and stylistically the material on "Excisions of Exorcisms" pretty much continue down the same technically well played and predominantly fast-paced death metal style of most of the band´s preceding releases. To my ears it sounds a bit like they´ve forgotten to write memorable songs through and not much stands out here. The music is competently played, and the album features a professional sounding production job (although it seriously lacks dynamics), but the spark and the memorable hooks are missing. So "Excisions of Exorcisms" is a slightly disappointing return for Diabolic, but it´s not a bad release by any means. Compared to their first three albums and even the slightly different sounding "Infinity Through Purification (2003)", this one is the least interesting. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still deserved though.