Heavy Halloween maniacs! That’s right, the most metal holiday of the year is here and boy do we have a treat on our hands today. When Autopsy announced the release of their tenth studio album, Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts, I must admit I thought it was a trick (Get it? Trick or treat?). After all, it was just a little over a year ago that the death metal masters assaulted us with their last outing, Morbidity Triumphant: An album that made its way all the way up to #2 on our 2022 year end list. Could it possibly be true that Autopsy is back so soon? Indeed, it is.
To say these legends have been on a tear as of late is an understatement. Far from a collection of half-assed leftovers from the last writing/recording sessions, Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts is equal in quality to Morbidity Triumphant, if not even greater in certain areas. Yet again, the band has taken the sickest qualities of Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, only to bastardize and mutate them into something new, albeit familiar. In other words, while Autopsy aren’t going to settle for rehashing their past glory, you’re definitely not getting “Jazz Odyssey” either.
In true Autopsy tradition, the band unleashes pure maggot-riddled death, as heard from the opening blast that is “Rabid Funeral”. True to its title, “Rabid Funeral” is a punishing exercise in vile speed and vomit-inducing grooves, setting the stage for a bone-crushing affair. Cuts like “Throatsaw”, “Bones to the Wolves”, and “Death is the Answer” are cut from the same bloodied cloth as Severed Survival: Unholy outbursts of filth encrusted death/thrash. Despite their veteran status, Autopsy delivers these deadly attacks with the same energy and conviction as they did roughly 35 years ago.
Contrasting these gory neck-snappers are the obligatory behemoths of Mental Funeral era death/doom. Whether it be the devastating “Well of Entrails”, pulverizing “Lobotomizing Gods”, or the downright dismal closing “Coagulation”, guitarists Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles channel the heaviness of hell itself, a feat accomplished by very few in metal history (Iommi, Warrior, Cianide’s Scott Carroll…that might be it). Slow and heavy as these dirges are, their arrangements and delivery are full of zeal. File them under “death/doom done right”. Hell, even the outliers on this album, like the metalpunk melee that is “Toxic Death Fuk” or Sabotage era Sabbath stomp that is “Marrow Fiend”, get the job done.
As important as the songs and performances themselves is the production. I couldn’t finish this review without tipping my hat off to Scott Evans and Greg Wilkinson, the latter being Autopsy’s bassist as well, for capturing the atmosphere of yesteryear. In an age where so many classic death metal acts feel the need to modernize and overproduce their sound, creating a product that’s painfully stale, Autopsy gives us a breath of…well, not fresh air, but rather air that’s corrupted by the fumes of rotting corpses. After all, this IS death metal. Would you want it any other way? I wouldn’t.
10 out of 10
Label: Peaceville Records
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Death, Asphyx, Molder