The last couple of days has involved a lot of research and data entry, which means I've been busy exploring the early half of the discography of Autopsy: Severed Survival, Mental Funeral, Acts of the Unspeakable, and Shitfun.
Severed Survival
The album cover is by Kent Mathieu, based on the scene in Hellraiser where chains rip a man apart. Autopsy members apparently used to hang out and smoke weed with him while he painted, and they wore out a VHS tape of the movie while getting him to paint this cover. Mathieu went on to do the artwork for Autopsy's third album too.
Of course, it was considered too graphic and banned in Germany. As a result, Kev Walker came in to do an alternate cover apparently based on a limited description of a drawing some 13 year old kid had done. I actually kinda prefer the artwork of the alternate cover...
Cool, huh?
As for the album, this is very reminiscent of Death, which makes sense considering drummer and vocalist Chris Reifert had actually been the drummer for Death's debut album Scream Bloody Gore. I've read that Slayer was also a big influence on Autopsy's song writing, but tracks like Disembowel, Ridden with Disease, and the hidden track Stillborn sound like they would have fit right in with some of Death's earliest hits, albeit with less of Chuck Shuldiner's social commentary.
That's not a knock on Shuldiner, dude. Death and Autopsy are both awesome for their own reasons. And without the violent (and kinda goofy) nature of lyrics like what we got here, we might never have heard the audio slasher film that is basically Cannibal Corpse.
Mental Funeral
Ahh, Mental Funeral, for when you want to slow down. Kev Walker came back to do this piece, and apparently the band hated it at first but warmed to the image over time. It's their fault; they apparently gave him a vague one-sentence description of what you see when you die on an acid trip.
Seriously though, Mental Funeral is why Autopsy is considered a Death-Doom band. They keep the horror attitude but slow it down for titles like In the Grip of Winter and Dead. The Swedes love this one apparently. I admit, this one is a lot moodier and at times almost feels...minimalist in a way, so I don't instantly connect to it the way I do with the faster, thrashier Severed Survival. But man, when you want it, it's good.
Acts of the Unspeakable
Acts of the Unspeakable features yet another shift, with way more punk-style songs under a minute in length. Put it like this, there are 18 tracks, and it's only slightly over 35 minutes long. Again, I feel like this is minimalist when compared to earlier days, like Mental Funeral but with the songs ending a lot quicker, yet tracks like Necrocannibalistic Vomitorium border on the ridiculous in their subject matter. I say border, because we're not yet at the fourth album... Truth is, this basically becomes background music whenever I listen to it. Autopsy loses me here.
Shitfun
And then Shitfun happens. It's considered Pornogrind-esque, which is the weird microgenre for grindcore with sexual themes...or something like that. To me, it sounds like Autopsy got way too drunk listening to Dying Fetus albums and thinking what it would be like if they had a love child with Napalm Death. Songs are off the wall, rapid fire, and goofy. The band was basically breaking up at this point, and it's such a departure from the earliest albums that it doesn't feel like Autopsy anymore, because it basically wasn't. It was becoming Abscess, which was one of Chris Reifert and guitarist Danny Coralles' side projects. If you like Abscess, you'll probably like this album. Reifert has even admitted he feels gross listening to this one.
Also, that's a big Tootsie Roll, you sicko.
Autopsy did come back years later and start release albums again in 2011. No, I'm not gonna talk about it.
