Autopsy, The Tomb Within
It wasn’t until I first heard Acts of the Unspeakable shortly after its release that I was first introduced to Autopsy. I wore the shit out of that cassette tape. The same went for my copies of Severed Survival and Mental Funeral that I promptly purchased after falling in love with the shorter, grind inspired repugnance they first shoved into my skull. I quickly fell in love with their slower, doomier brand of death metal, as well.
Then, in 1995, they broke up shortly after recording Shitfun, promising never reunite. That sucked royally.
But the impossible has happened. Autopsy has in fact, reunited and let lose with a quick, loving reminder of why I wore the shit out of my tapes back in the day.
To say that I am excited about finally getting this latest EP from the band would be an understatement. The Tomb Within isn’t a rehashing of material past. It isn’t a shallow grasp at past glory. The five songs on this EP are of course built off of that familiar Autopsy sound and honestly, how could it not be but it delivers on so much more. The grind is there. The doom is there. The snearing death metal is there. Everything you could want in new material from the band is there in spades.
The Tomb Within
The title track starts the EP off slowly with sick guitar reverb and noise that fades in from the distance, then Reifert unleashes a hellish scream from the deepest, darkest grave imaginable. It’s only then that we are rapidly reminded why these guys ruled. The pounding your skull takes for the next three and a half minutes is unrelenting. Pile-driving drums support crusty, tortured riffs and thick bass as the vocals are spit and growled with Reifert’s distinct delivery. This track is sick as fuck, complete with searing leads (starting 1:18), doomy dirges, crawling corpse rot pace changes and rapid fire blasts of destruction. “The Tomb Within” encompasses all that Autopsy have to offer and it’s just the first track.
My Corpse Shall Rise
“My Corpse Shall Rise” starts off with a Slayer-like riff that is distorted and decayed just enough to make it their own. It’s instantly memorable and leads to manic drum work, driving riffs that seem to have a mind of their own and sick vocals. There’s so much going on in this song, that it’s going to take a few listens to fully grasp it all. Holy hell, that was fun. I’m going back for more.
Seven Skulls
After the reverb has settled from the end of “My Corpse Shall Rise,” the guys get back to it with “Seven Skulls.” The opening few moments of the song contains some catchy guitar work, vicious growls and a slow moving, thick, rumbling rhythm. Overall, this track is much slower paced than the rest of the material on the song, but no less technical or furious. In fact, it’s so much more demented and evil sounding that it ends up becoming a really strong track in its own right.
Human Genocide
“Human Genocide” picks the pace back up quickly with rolling drums and driving guitar work. A series of tortured screams and shout bring in the vocals and the guys settle into a galloping groove. Zombies and reanimated corpses fill the room around you as this song progresses methodically like the march of said undead as they stalk you from all directions. The lead at 2:50 is flesh searingly sick.
Mutant Village
“Mutant Village” wraps up this reintroduction to one of my all-time favorite bands (I’ve done my best to keep my fan-boy drivel out of this review). The song starts off with some massive, doomy riffs that continue as the vocals come in. This is a dark, depressive sounding track that’s got a solid measure of malevolence and morbidity flowing through it. What better way to end the EP then with a song that crawls along like a reanimated body with the lower half of its torso in tattered remains. The pace is amped up nicely after the rumbling bass work at the four minute mark, leading into a short burst of catchy guitar work and steady drums before plunging into the dirge-like overall nature of the song once again. The song ends with a maddening vocal delivery and a sick bit of frenetic guitar work. Awesome!
~ ~ ~
Additional Notes:
n/a