ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY — Before the Throne of Infection (review)

ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY — Before the Throne of Infection album cover

Album · 2008 · Deathcore

2/5 · 2010-03-28
DeathOfSeasons

Annotations of an Autopsy are a perfect example of why Deathcore isn't taken seriously by the majority of the Metal community. Annotations of an Autopsy come across as a parody of the Deathcore scene as a whole. Breakdowns? Check. Pig squeals? Check. Downtuned riffing? Of course. Well I guess it's a positive that they don't make use of ridiculously try-hard "shocking" lyrics. Oh wait, they do that too:

"Your soul is dead Sew my cock in your cunt So we're eternally fucking"

However I guess I should actually review the album. Before the Throne of Infection starts off with a decent instrumental, Rise of the Leviathan. In fact, it's actually pretty creepy and despite the brief chugging towards the end of the track it sets a decent atmosphere, only for it all to be discarded as the song comes to a sudden stop and the album proper starts. from Keeper of the Plaguelands onwards you have an onslaught of bland, "brutal" Deathcore (with the exception of the useless instrumental The Childsnatcher which appears at the middle point of the album for no real purpose). While Keeper of the Plaguelands starts off well with some Behemoth-lite riffing it's not long before you're greeted with some poorly done death growls. It sounds as if Steve Regan can't decide whether to growl or pig squeal, so he settles for a poorly done hybrid, only then deciding to settle with pig squeals for the closing breakdown.

Now once you're done with the first few tracks you'll notice something: The same description I gave above could be used to describe every single song here. With the exception of the two instrumentals you can be sure the next track will contain riffs knocked off from Behemoth, a massive amount of chugging, gang vocals for thirty seconds a few breakdowns. The only change in formula is that one track might start with the breakdown (Prosthetic Erection) where as the other will wait to the end of the track to bring in the breakdown (Keeper of the Plaguelands).

So with all of my problems with the album you might think that this album is completely terrible. Well it isn't. The drumming is decent, with constant blasting and some nice groove being used every now and then. There are some quality riffs (see Before the Throne of Infection) and the production isn't as overly loud as most Deathcore releases. However, that doesn't save the album from being nothing more than a half assed breakdown infested Pierced From Within minus the technicality and brutality.

My advice to Annotations of an Autopsy? Fire your vocalist, drop the breakdowns and then maybe, just maybe, you might qualify as a perfectly average Death Metal band. Until then you're going to be nothing other than a band that tries way too hard to be as heavy as your idols.

Download: Either of the instrumentals

For fans of: Suicide Silence, All Shall Perish

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)