UMUR
"Critical Madness" is the second demo release by US, California based death metal act Autopsy. The demo was independently released in July 1988. It´s the successor to "1987 demo" from December 1987 and there´s been a couple of lineup changes since the first demo as bassist Eric Eigard has been replaced by Ken Sorvari and Danny Coralles has been added as a second guitarist making Autopsy a quartet on "Critical Madness".
The demo features three tracks and a total playing time of 12:42 minutes. All tracks would be re-recorded and included on Autopsy´s debut full-length studio album "Severed Survival" (April 1989, Peaceville Records). The demo versions of the songs were later made available on the 2000 "Ridden with Disease" (Necroharmonic Productions) compilation album and the 2010 "Awakened by Gore" (Nuclear War Now! Productions) compilation album.
Stylistically the material continues in the same old school death metal style initiated on "1987 demo", but this time a bit more brutal and doomy and less thrash metal oriented. "Ridden With Disease" is a real peach, but "Charred Remains" and "Critical Madness" are also high quality old school death metal tracks. Drummer/lead vocalist Chris Reifert´s vocals have become slightly deeper growling, although they still have a higher pitched screaming quality to them, which makes him sound deranged and the whole demo has a nasty vile atmosphere to it, that only some of the earliest death metal releases were able to deliver. The raw and brutal sounding production job further enhances that feeling, and it´s definitely one of the best sound productions on a mid/late-80s extreme metal demo that I have ever encountered. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.