Album
Type : Full
Length
Date
Released : 24/6/2013
Label
: Peaceville
Records
The
Headless Ritual, album track listing :
1.
Slaugher At Beast House
2. Mangled Far Below
3. She Is A Funeral
4. Coffin Crawlers
5. When Hammer Meets Bone
6. Thorns And Ashes
7. Arch Cadaver
8. Flesh Turns To Dust
9. Running From The Goathead
10. The Headless Ritual
2. Mangled Far Below
3. She Is A Funeral
4. Coffin Crawlers
5. When Hammer Meets Bone
6. Thorns And Ashes
7. Arch Cadaver
8. Flesh Turns To Dust
9. Running From The Goathead
10. The Headless Ritual
The
Band :
Chris
Reifert - Vocals, Drums
Eric
Cutler - Vocals, Guitars
Danny
Coralles - Guitars
Joe
Allen - Bass
Review
:
To
put things into perspective, Autopsy are Cannibal Corpse-influencing
demons with barbed-wire hard-ons and doom-ridden grins. They’re
death metal nobility, folks, and their brand new album ‘The
Headless Ritual’ has just recently dropped into my Dropbox. And,
like the greedy little death/doom metal piggy I am, I couldn’t wait
to review the hell out of this.
Opening
track ‘Slaughter at Beast House’ aurally tears its way inside
your skull, stomps on your synapses and razors at your retinas from
the inside. Everything about this track – from its doomy yet
grinding guitars to its hammering drums – is the epitome of death
metal at its most diabolical… and this is only the first track, you
say? Lovely.
The
shredding terror that is ‘Mangled Far Below’ comes in with a riff
so massive and grinding it practically tore off my eyebrows when I
heard it the first time. Danny
Coralles and Eric Cutler really bring the guitar attacks on this
track: so much so that it is advised you wear chainmail and carry an
axe. You know, just in case.
Then
comes the epic. At over seven minutes long, ‘She is a Funeral’
starts off magnificently, continues gloriously then ends beautifully.
The guitar riffs are just so beastly they practically bite your ears
off, plus the vocals are just sheer sonic bliss. And when the solos
hit… man, just close your eyes and visit death metal nirvana.
Seriously, this song is just perverse in how perfect a death metal
anthem it is. Check it out right now!
The
twin snake guitars slither up with venomous riffery for ‘Coffin
Crawlers’, an alliterative beast with sharp claws that sink
straight into your flesh. Then when the blood begins to pour,
drummer/vocalist Chris Reifert and bassist Joe Allen bring in the
grinding anger and slowly tear the meat from your bones. When it
ends, horrid, guttural groans emanate from your speakers, which put
me instantly on edge. Then ‘When Hammer Meets Bone’ pounds in
properly and we’re back into familiar death metal territory. It’s
a furious, whirling pit of metal, with wicked solos and death-defying
drum blasts, which turn on a dime into a doom-drenched cadaver,
shuffling at you with yellow, unseeing eyes.
‘Thorns
and Ashes’ is a short and sharp shard of metal, bristling with
restless anger bubbling, but not quite bursting from, beneath the
surface. Then we have ‘Arch Cadaver’, another masterwork from
Autopsy, running the whole gamut from doom to classic to out-and-out
death metal and back again. It pounds like a hammer; it slices like
a butcher’s knife: their roots may be back in the old-school, but
this feels defiantly and vibrantly fresh, as though they have been
reborn.
‘Flesh
Turns to Dust’ continues the magnificent groundwork laid by its
brother tracks and builds upon it with doom, grind, and a mortar of
molten metal. Each note played feels like a tolling bell, gathering
all the faithful to the church of Autopsy. And when the solos
explode, the flock is justly rewarded. The doom gives way to thrash
with ‘Running from the Goathead’, which is just a mauling,
charging rampage of a track: if you played it in front of a forest, I
have no doubt trees would get uprooted.
Our
final song is the title track of the album, and ‘The Headless
Ritual’ is a fearsome, energetic instrumental outro, with delicious
barbed hooks to keep you listening right to the bitter end. Autopsy
have been around just over a quarter of a century, and have inspired
some major death metal bands in their life (Cannibal Corpse, Deicide,
Entombed are but three I can think of off the top of my head), but
this brand new album shows there is amazing life in Autopsy. Get off
your slab and get ‘The Headless Ritual’ into your life. Testify.
Words
by :
Chris Markwell
For
more information :
