Autopsy-Severed Survival (1989)

Horror Metal icons Autopsy were just getting started in 1989, regurgitating 3 decades worth of gore soaked drive-in movies into a palatable stew of death metal. What this band lacked in musical adeptness they made up with vibe, atmosphere, and bludgeoning, unsubtle riffery. This band sounded like they came from the sex basement of your perverted uncle's sex basement. They sounded as if they really were the homicidal mutants they bellowed about, and had developed a refined taste for human flesh. There was just something unpretentiously artful about this kind of bestiality. Hard to put a severed finger on exactly what it was; perhaps the muddy production, the weird bass thud. Was it intentional? Whatever. All I know is that this album is a death metal classic and is still terrifying 22 years later. Now I'm going to put a razorblade dildo in your rectum and savor your screams almost as much as I do this monstrosity.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Autopsy-Macabre Eternal (2011)

I'm not quite so sure about this one. To me, Autopsy, at their best, were all about scuzzy vibe and atmosphere. Their comeback album is serviceable death, good in it's own right, but something is missing. Old school Autopsy just had this dank, dark, yet strangely fun vibe. This is just dark and dank. Something about the low production values and somewhat sloppy playing that elevated (or lowered) the music, enhancing the doom inflected death riffage and thrash tendencies. But that is gone here. The production is much too clear, and that weirdo bass sound is also missing. It's kind of like some Hollywood remake of a grindhouse classic, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There may be more blood and guts, but the grit and tension is diminished. Not that it's terrible, far from it; the riffs are great and bulldozer heavy, and the band has never sounded tighter. There are some great moments but this clearly not the corpse fucking of old. Oh well. Some zombies are best left to rot.

Rating: 7 out of 10