AUTOPSY — Macabre Eternal (review)

Album · 2011 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2011-08-14
UMUR

"Macabre Eternal" is the 5th full-length studio album by US death metal act Autopsy. "Macabre Eternal" was released through Peaceville Records in May 2011. It´s the first album release by the band since "Shitfun" from 1995. "Shitfun" saw Autopsy go out on a punked death metal note. A musical direction guitarist Danny Coralles and lead vocalist/drummer Chris Reifert would further explore with their Abscess project. Despite releasing several studio albums and other minor releases Abscess has never reached the success that Autopsy had in the early nineties, and they´ve remained an underground act that is probably unknown to most. Autopsy officially reunited in July 2009, but they had already briefly reunited in September 2008 to record two new tracks, which were to appear on the re-release edition of their 1989 debut full-length studio album "Severed Survival". Maybe as a consequence of the reunited Autopsy and the focus on that band, Abscess folded in June 2010.

Autopsy are one of the pioneers of the filthy, raw and gore themed US death metal genre along side acts like Deceased and Necrophagia, so a comeback album after 16 years (they did release "The Tomb Within" EP in 2010 though) is not a small deal in death metal circles.

...and fans of the band probably won´t be disappointed by the result. "Macabre Eternal" is every bit as vile, gory and filthy as the early releases by the band. Autopsy still has a dark and organic sound, that sits far from the clinical productions that grace many contemporary releases. The band also add an organic touch to their playing, so you are never in doubt that it´s actually humans playing the parts. Chris Reifert´s drumming is as always one of the assets of the band´s sound. He is no technical wizard, but he understands what makes the songs on the album move forward in the most effective way. His vocal delivery is varied and powerful ranging from deep growls, to desperate, insane sounding ditto (apparently guitarist Eric Cutler sings on a couple of tracks too, but you could have fooled me). If you stand too close to him there´s a chance you´ll be able to smell rotten flesh on his breath. The lyrics are vile and gory as usual, which is obvious when you read songtitles like "Dirty Gore Whore", "Born Undead", "Bludgeoned and Brained" and "Sadistic Gratification".

The punk infuced death metal years with Abscess and the "Shitfun (1995)" album haven´t gone completely unnoticed, and while most of tracks on the album are slow- to mid paced death metal with some filthy doomy touches (there are faster paced parts on the album too but no blasting), the punk influence is still there. This time it´s better incorporated into the band´s sound than ever, but it doesn´t always work wonders with the simple punk elements.

If you ask me 12 tracks distributed over 65:27 minutes are couple of tracks too much for a death metal release like this one. Granted the 11:33 minutes long doomy highlight of the album "Sadistic Gratification" does take up quite a few minutes of the playing time, but with more focus on fewer tracks I think the album would have been a little more intense. There are moments of monotony that could have been prevented.

With that said "Macabre Eternal" is still a very good comeback album by Autopsy. The filthy doomy death metal sound, the morbid sounding lead and harmony guitars, the brutal and insane sounding growls, the punk elements and the gory and vile lyrics. It´s all there. Autopsy are in the fortunate position that they don´t need to reinvent the wheel or push boundaries with this album to satisfy their fans. They been there and done that. I think Autopsy have done just what they should with this album and that´s meet the expectations of their fans. Bearing that in mind "Macabre Eternal" is an almost 100% succesful album that deserves a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.