Before I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.¹ The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt.

The AMG Iron Movers Collective is a man down this year, as the crush of Listurnalia duties prevented Steel Druhm from forging a third consecutive contribution. The four remaining protein ponies on staff (myself, Kenstrosity, Thus Spoke, and Holdeneye) dug deeper into our Codices of Suffering to bring you a list of sufficient girth. Here are the songs released in 2024 that dominated our respective workouts. The resulting playlist is appended to this article. Play it straight through or set it to shuffle; HMH is designed to work either way. From our oubliette to yours, may these battle-hardened tracks fuel your gains in the new year.

There is also an intruder this time around, as Dolphin Whisperer drops by semi-invited to share his favorite tracks suitable for The Things That Dolph Does. That playlist, suitable for blood pressure-reducing pursuits off all kinds, is compiled separately.

Ferox Snorts His Pre-Workout Powder :

“Drill the Skull” // Necrot (Lifeless Birth) – Kicking things off with one of the year’s premiere bangers. The implied subject song title is a staple of my workout playlists, because it sounds like someone’s giving me orders. (You) “Drill the Skull”! I will! I will drill the skull.

“God Slayer” // Vredehammer (God Slayer) – Stand tall. Stand proud. Stand strong. Wage war. Lots of implied subject goodness in this one. Vredehammer’s latest may have been a mild disappointment, but it did throw off the Workout Song o’the Year.

“Numidian Knowledge” // Necrowretch (Swords of Daijal) – Numidian communities cultivated cereals such as wheat and barley, and legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils. There’s nothing inherently sinister about that body of knowledge, but this Necrowretch ripper will make you feel like you just consummated a black bargain in exchange for one final rep.

“Into the Court of Yanluowang” // Ripped to Shreds (Sanshi) – The opener to this killer slab beats you up with five minutes of punk-inflected death metal before rewarding you with the Guitar Solo o’the Year.

“The Way of Decay” // Sentient Horror (In Service of the Dead) – Dropping in some 3.0 Swedeath in honor of Absent Geezer Steel Druhm. I personally thought he underrated the new one from Jersey’s Sentient Horror, which kicks off with this scabby statement of purpose.

“Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” // Spectral Wound (Songs of Blood and Mire) – Early Bathory remains a stalwart of the original Heavy Moves Heavy playlist. “A Fine Day to Die” is one of a dozen or so songs that have never rotated off the List in its twelve or so years of existence. Ferox Song o’the Year “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” succeeds bigly in carrying Quorthon’s torch into new battles.

“Hordes of the Horned God” // Hellbutcher (Hellbutcher) – The saliva-flecked excretions of Nifelheim and Impaled Nazarene have likewise graced the original Heavy Moves Heavy time and again. I wish there was a song called “Hellbutcher” on Hellbutcher’s Hellbutcher, but this supergroup led by Nifelheim’s front man answers the bell in every other way on their debut.

“Infernal Bust” // Demiser (Slave to the Scythe) – This song, near as I can tell, is about having it off with a demon. When you get swole, your opportunities to fuck demons, babadooks, and wendigos grow right along with your muscles–so this is included to goose you along.

“Wormridden Torso” // Stenched (Purulence Gushing from the Grave) – Adrian from Stenched has crafted a guitar tone most unpleasant and motivating. Finish your set so you’re closer to the end of the song and you can get it out of your earholes.

“Disattachment of a Prophylactic in the Brain” // Undeath (More Insane) – Here’s a jolt of caffeine to get you through the muddy middle of your workout. This track gambols madly about, slapping you in the face to wake you from your Stenched-coma.

“Second Demon” // Void Witch (Horripilating Presence) – The Void Witch sound fires on all cylinders here, and so will you as you listen to this track. The grunge-descended guitar solo toward the end of track is one of 2024’s great moments.

“Mammoth’s Hand” // The Black Dahlia Murder (Servitude) – This cut from the The Black Dahlia Murder’s worthy new effort gives me those classic Deflorate-era vibes. I listened to that album while doing my strength training for a martial arts tournament, and “Mammoth’s Hand” feels like it could slide in between “Black Valor” and “Necropolis.”

Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:

“Pain Enduring” // Replicant (Infinite Mortality) – They say “no pain, no gain.” Or at least they used to. Some assert this to be a debunked myth, but regardless, I live to feel the gainz. This absolute blunderbuss of groove and riff mastery by Replicant ensures progressive overload and personal bests from every movement. ²

“Xetinal Artifice” // Karst (Eclipsed Beneath Umbral Divine) – You know your workout is going to leave you a trembling puddle on the ground when your trainer walks you into the crustiest, rustiest facility imaginable. Thusly, Karst’s “Xetinal Artifice” leaves me a trembling puddle on the ground after a brutal session of crusty death metal riffs.

“Pure Adrenaline Hard-On” // Scumbag (Homicide Cult) – Some people rely on preworkout and supplements to energize them before a hard workout. I don’t need that. I have the hyper-effective hype machine that is Scumbag’s “Pure Adrenaline Hard-On.” Everything you need is right in the name!

“Sturmtrupp” // Kanonenfieber (Die Urkatastrophe) – One day per week (sometimes two if I’m feeling frisky), I engage in high-intensity or high-endurance cardio training. That means speed. That means form. That means rhythm. That means something to keep me motivated and focused. Nothing beats Kanonenfieber’s “Sturptrupp” for that exact regimen.

“Leviathan” // Keres (Homo Homini Lupus) – Sometimes the only way to get me through my workout is to find my inner animal and let it rampage through the last few sets. The earth-shattering stomp of Keres’ “Leviathan” is the perfect elixir to entice that inner beast into meatspace.

“Paths of Visceral Fears” // Noxis (Violence Inherent in the System) – Fear is the enemy of gainz. However, the only way past fear is through fear. That’s where Noxis’ “Paths of Visceral Fears” and its multitudinous motivating riffs come into play. How can you be scared of that crazy heavy lift when you’ve got Noxis spotting you?

“Devil in the Basement” // Unhallowed Deliverance (Of Spectres and Strife) – The sheer heft of this track alone makes all of my personal bests look like warmups. That gives me something to strive for! Between immense grooves, crushing riffs, and a relentless pace, Unhallowed Deliverance’s “Devil in the Basement” urges me to my peak form.

“Lust for the Severed Head” // Fit for an Autopsy (The Nothing That Is) – Deathcore is always a great source of meatheaded riffs. Fit for an Autopsy pull a rare card, however, with “Lust for the Severed Head.” Seamlessly blending muscular grooves with a technical prowess rarefied, “Lust for the Severed Head” inspires me to push that final rep past failure every time.

“Of Pillars and Trees” // Brodequin (Harbinger of Woe) – You’d think material like this would be too dense to serve gym hours well. However, Brodequin’s “Of Pillars and Trees” swaggers so confidently into the land of steel and sweat that one can’t help but follow it directly to the bench.

“In Your Guts” // Glassbone (Deaf to Suffering) – Slam is probably the best vehicle for pacing and focus in the weight room. Nothing gives me a better metronome to maximize my breathing, and perfect my form. The insanely gritty, nasty, hardcore-twisted ways of Glassbone’s “In Your Guts” ensures that I don’t deviate from the ideal path to GAINZ.

“Mucus, Phlegm and Bile” // Stenched (Prurulence Gushing from the Coffin) – When you’re lifting heavy, the more viscous and vile the tunes, the greater the gainz. Enter Stenched’s “Mucus, Phlegm and Bile.” Boasting marvellously heavy tones and spans of d-beat expulsions perfect for high intensity training, Stenched will help you shatter your PRs every time.

“Plant-Based Anatomy” // Flaaghra (Plant-Based Anatomy) – In my lifelong journey towards tree-trunk legs, it pays to have tunes that embody the stalwart strength of the mighty sequoia to keep me motivated. And so, when leg day #2 comes around in my weekly routine, I jam “Plant-Based Anatomy,” Flaaghra’s brutal slam stomping set at a perfect pace for brutal leg routines.

Holdeneye Practices Radical Body Acceptance:

“Brotherhood of Sleep” // Aborted (Vault of Horrors) – Nothing, I repeat nothing, is more important to long-term gainz development than sleep. I don’t know what this universe-crushing song is actually about, but I like to imagine it promoting a fraternity of people who value getting to bed at a decent hour.

“We Slither” // Unhallowed Deliverance (Of Spectres and Strife) – The proper tunage is essential if you’re going to transform your garter snake arms into pythons, and this particular track never fails to engorge each and every one of my serpentine members.

“Berserkir” // Brothers of Metal (Fimbulvinter) – Ah, the obligatory inclusion of a song about Vikings going ape-shit. Songs about raging Norsepeople always add +1 to my Strength saving throws, and this one has had me on a roll lately.

“Fall of the Leaf” // Brodequin (Harbinger of Woe) – Don’t forget to grow those glutes! The cover model on Harbinger of Fate is demonstrating just how brutal the abductor machine can be (notice the ropes for added resistance!), but having a superior posterior is always worth the effort.

“Shadows of the Brightest Night” // Necrophobic (In the Twilight Grey) – Groove is the secret to just about every great gym song, and this might be Necrophobic’s grooviest tune yet. Its shadows have been brightening the darkest corners of my garage gym all year long.

“La Chiave Del Mio Amor” // Keygen Church (Nel Name Del Codice) – Organ music sets my organ juices to flowing, and lifting to this Bachian banger always leaves my body feeling Baroque-en in the best way possible.

“The Temple Fires” // Pneuma Hagion (From Beyond) – I’d like to think that I treat my body like a temple, but I routinely offer more calories unto my inner altar than its fires can consume. Perma-bulking isn’t a choice, it’s a lifestyle!

“Weaponized Loss” // Vitriol (Suffer & Become) – But, if I am ever going to end my perma-bulk, it will take an enormous amount of motivation, and this militant beatdown might be just what I need to brave the no man’s land that is caloric deficit.

“Monsterslayer” // Nemedian Chronicles (The Savage Sword) – There’s not a person on Earth who hasn’t imagined themselves to be Conan the Barbarian while attempting to build thick muscles and sinews in the gym, and this little tune recounts the Cimmerian’s physical attributes while laying down a magnificent, martial metal march. I can’t tell if this song makes me feel more like a monster or a monster slayer, but either way, I win.

“I Am the Path” // Hell:on (Shaman) – Fitness is a multi-faceted discipline, and we each have our own strengths and stumbling blocks. It might take help from a trainer, a medical doctor, a psychological professional, a training partner, or a support group, but remember that you are the path to your own health, and there is no shame in taking steps to get the help you need to be successful. You are worth it!

“Shadow of Evil” // Oxygen Destroyer (Guardian of the Universe) – As I walk around my garage gym between sets while nursing an enormous pump, I like to picture myself as a gigantic monster, laying waste to all that is in my path. Lord Kaiju and Co. lay down a performance here that makes me feel downright radioactive.

“Sword of a Thousand Truths” // Ironflame (Kingdom Torn Asunder) – This isn’t the first plodding Ironflame chugfest to grace one of my Heavy Moves Heavy playlists, and I sure hope it’s not the last. Bonus points for the #glutegoals on the cover.

Thus Spoke and the Smiting of the Half-Depth Heretics:

“Dragon” // Exocrine (Legend) – The lead melody in this just does something to me—the way it fades in at the beginning, the way it comes back, the way it plays off the speedy, techy goodness of the rest of the track. Yes.

“A Body for a Body” // To the Grave, Connor Dickson, Siantell Johns (Everyone’s A Murderer) – Forced to choose on a record I could have filled this list with, this one came out on top. Furious, groovy, face-meltingly heavy, irresistible; “A body for a body for a body, MOTHERFUCKKERRR!”

“Suffocate (feat. Poppy)” // Knocked Loose, Poppy (You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To) – Everything about this is just perfect in the gym. Disagree? “SHUT YOUR LYING MOUTH!” Thank you, Poppy.

“Solus” // Devenial Verdict (Blessing of Despair) – One of my favourite songs of the year in general, this one got me through many, many sets. Just, like, on repeat. Particularly the last part. Ugh.

“Beneath Ashen Skies” // Vale of Pnath (Between the World’s of Life and Death) – I discovered in the latter half of the year that I severely underrated this album, because I realised I’d been sticking it on again and again in the gym, automatically, and it was working brilliantly. The little dancy circular melodies in this are *chef’s kiss*.

“Der Maulwurf” // Kanonenfieber (Die Urkatastrophe) – Works equally well for voluntarily moving heavy shit as it does for digging trenches. With its steady rhythm and big anthemic chorus in your ears, nothing can stand in your way.

“Shiver” // Teeth (The Will of Hate) – Already having the ideal underlying tempo, sounding so insidiously mean and creepy takes this song beyond a stomp and into anabolic territory. Also, fantastic name.

“Voidwomb” // Glacial Tomb (Lightless Expanse) – Kind of slow and menacing (a good thing) for the majority, its slide into the best and agonisingly shortest guitar solo of the year is a pure jolt of adrenaline. Another one that gets put on repeat.

“Matricide 8.21” // Fleshgod Apocalypse (Opera) – Yeah, I know, ‘what the fuck(?!),’ I’m not even a fan of these guys, but seriously, this thing is motivating as hell. Just give it a chance.

“To See Death Just Once // Ulcerate (Cutting the Throat of God) – Not exactly what you’d traditionally expect to see on one of these, but I love it so much I don’t care. And the same applies while actually in the gym: if you lift to what you love, things will (usually) go well.

“Twelve Moons in Hell” // Spectral Wound (Songs of Blood and Mire) – Long and short: this is just a banger. The day I realised that new-second-wave black metal was great for lifting was a good day and I’d like to share this with you.

“Concrete Crypt” // Resin Tomb (Cerebral Purgatory) – A concrete crypt is now what I’m definitely going to call the thing where you totally bin yourself by going a bit too hard on one lift—”I’m in the concrete crypt now.” Ok obviously, I’m absolutely not going to do that, but it is some great alliteration, and a stomp to boot.

Dolph is… fucking meditating? Who let this piece in???

“Rose” // Kashiwa Daisuke (TITAN) – As the engorged fibers feel the tickle of contraction scamper in backflow,³ glitching, bass-loaded synth throbs arrive massage the ears and spread a parasympathetic wave up the spine. From root we rise, in pulse we are grounded. In our growing safety we inhale the chiming of dancing piano above it all. Allow Kashiwa Daisuke’s vibrancy help to shake away the growing lactic waste in your weary body.

“Floating” // Maria Chiara Argirò (Closer) – Moving from a place of rest to a place of gentle movement, a heartbeat steady kick thumps against an ethereal call to the flow of water. Though cool to the touch and electronic in construction, an analog warmth and hum bustles under the surface erupting in a solo trumpet’s cry. Sing with it, reach your arms high. Your voice has power.

“衍生 Capture and Elongate (Serenity)” // OU (蘇醒 II: Frailty) – Your power in calm grows—and with growth we seek order. But order is hard to find in the shifting rhythms of OU’s poly-play. Follow the voice, maybe with your own. Feel it resonate in your chest as you again find deeper inhales in the space of serenity, powerful exhales in its crashing volume swells.

“WHO KNOWS ?” // toe (NOW I SEE THE LIGHT) – The kindling of your gentleness catches fire—a brilliant light—as toe serves increasingly bright guitar patterns and fragile vocal harmonies to sweep your worries away. It can be uneasy standing proudly beside beauty like this. Embrace it. You are worthy. Spread your arms wide and expand alongside airy post rock crescendos.

“あなたのそばで (Beside You)” // Yunowa (Phantom) – Every light exists with a shadow. Yunowa has a shadow too, a dream like a sinking ship. But struggle, heartache—acceptance of and living through—these are all part of life. Rub your hands together. Place one hand over your heart, and the other over that hand. Close your eyes and rest your shoulders as a languished guitar solo screams catharsis.

“Raat Ki Rani” // Arooj Aftab (Night Reign) – A heart that has wanted and waited will bloom like raat ki rani, the jasmine of the night. Only in the hiding sun can you filled your lungs with its wonder. Breathe deeply as Arooj Aftab’s sultry, modulated croon carries you like a hidden fragrance with gentleness of a healing love.

“Eg Veit I Himmelrik Ei Borg” // Sylvaine (Eg Er Framand) The night remains ominous despite its treasures. But the dark cannot exist without the light. Let Sylvaine’s ode to the comfort of this duality, her siren salutation against plaintive guitar lines and horn-call synths, find the peace of the moment. Reach your chin high with relaxed shoulders to feel it’s spacious and resonant vibrations travel from ear to mind.

“Reflections of God” // Jaubi (A Sound Heart) – Stepping away from darkness requires travel still through more darkness, a journey which requires devotion. Jaubi expresses their devotion, an assurance that the now leads to a better place, through relentless piano harmonies, sighing sarangi calls, and a continual march toward resolution. Visualizing the destination will slowly reveal its path. You must walk it. Keep breathing.

“We Can’t See It, but It’s There” // Pat Metheny (Moondial) For as long as Pat Metheny has been questing in delicate guitar harmony, he has not yet either reached the end. I know it’s there. You know it’s there. He knows it’s there. One day, waiting for all of us, it’s there. But in these minutes we spend with Mr. Metheny, in these minutes you spend in repetitious quests for solace, the answer remains there. Somewhere. With practice, a trialed body and mind, we’ll find it. Keep searching.

“Hytta” // Kalandra (A Frame of Mind) – All roads lead us home. “Hytta” is not just a home but a state, a vision of comfort, of opening doors, of settling dishes, of chirping birds—a stream trickles in the distance. “Hytta” is the destination revealed through the honing of physical faculties and the unifying of your wandering thoughts. Today you are here. Your sculpted being, your gentle breath, you’ve unlocked the gates. Enjoy it in this moment because you may not be here tomorrow. And that’s ok.⁴

The post Heavy Moves Heavy 2024 – AMG’s Ultimate Workout Playlist appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Angry Metal Guy’s Guide to Not Sucking Anymore is a manual for surviving n00bdom and a window into the mind of our founder. In seventy-nine pages of psychologically revealing prose, this actual book whipped my class into form by teaching us to structure our reviews with one or maaybe two paragraphs describing a band’s sound. How could you ever pull that off with Tamás Kátai’s prolific Thy Catafalque? ”Piros Koksi, Fekete Ej,” the opening track of new album XII, kicks off with a rock riff that evokes New Order before segueing into a long section capturing Primordial’s sweep and grandeur. Heavy sections and parts where a woman sings “nah-nah-nah” fight their way in, before it resolves into an acoustic outro. That’s one song! Thy Catafalque has been attempting the musical equivalent of free solo climbs for two decades. They should have plummeted to earth years ago, but Kátai and his rotating band of collaborators reach the summit every time. Can they do it again, or is XII the “splat” that awaits every glory hound?

XII finds Thy Catafalque retreating from the heaviness of last year’s excellent Alföld. The metal sections dominate here and there, but Kátai’s wandering muse often takes up with folk and prog. Classical and acoustic instruments add warmth and a sense of nostalgia. Over twenty musicians contribute to XII, including singers and frequent collaborators Attila Bakos and Martina Veronika Horväth. The album ends with soothing bird tweets. It’s a lot–and for the first time ever, Kátai brings in an outside producer in Gábor Vári to help him wrestle it all to the deck. They mostly pull it off. XII is less cohesive and urgent than Thy Catafalque’s best work, but there are thrilling highs along the way.

XII plays like a journey, one where lots of things go as hoped but there are missed connections and maybe a pickpocketing or two along the way. Those who prize atmosphere will find wispy sections to get lost in. Songs like “Villagnak Vilaga,” the aforementioned “Piros Koksi, Fekete Ej” and the duet “Lydiához” conjure a sense of place and a mood of reflection. “Vakond” opens with a whistled passage before engaging playfully with the folk traditions of Kátai’s native Hungary. That nostalgic vibe is not all about the gauzy and gorgeous, despite that sun-drenched cover. “Vakond” segues into a synths-dominated section that feels like it’s evoking Kátai’s memories of some long-shuttered Budapest nightclub. Banger “Vasgyár” is an ode to the rotting ironworks that once fueled Hungary’s economy and still haunt its landscapes. If you give XII some time and attention, you’ll come away feeling like you just took a vacation in Tamás Kátai’s memory palace.

You will not come away from XII with a melted face. If you want to get Wormed or Replicant-ed, have your passport stamped elsewhere–XII is just not that committed to being a metal album. The heavy songs and passages that do pop up are cathartic and fun. “Mindenevo” drops the first harsh vocals into the mix, and it roars and stomps before it falls completely silent for a while and then does a dungeon synth kind of thing. That track segues into the killer “Vasgyár.” The two songs, taken together, are my favorite section of the album–but I can be a knuckle-dragger like that. “Alahullas” engages with Thy Catafalque’s black metal roots to stirring effect. Still and all, you’re not booking passage on 70000 Tons of Metal here. The metal songs are day trips that enliven a calmer journey than adrenaline junkies might be seeking.

Angry Metal Guy’s Guide to Not Sucking Anymore teaches us to conclude with a summary that finds pathos, if timid and underfed n00bs can scrape some up in our hearts.¹ With XII, Tamás Kátai has followed his muse (he always does) into some very personal places (that’s where it always goes). I appreciate his restless spirit and I was mostly happy to take the trip with him. There are some unfortunate hiccups–closer “A Gyonyuro Almok Ezutan Jonnek,” with its handclaps and cloying attempts to rouse, is a lowlight in Thy Catafalque’s catalog. It’ll take some time for XII to find its place in the band’s incredible discography, But a few dips in quality and focus, combined with the smaller portions of metal doled out, mean that I’ll remember other journeys with the band more fondly than I will XII.

Rating: Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: thycatafalque.bandcamp.com| thy-catafalque.hu
Releases Worldwide: November 15, 2024

The post Thy Catafalque – XII: A gyönyörū álmok ezután jönnek Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Carnosus bills Wormtales as a “prequel” to Visions of Infinihility. The affectation makes sense, since Wormtales plays like a step on the way to the triumph that was its predecessor. The ingredients are the same: a bedrock layer of thrash-derived riffing in the vein of Revocation, atop which melodies skitter and twist. The new album forgoes some of the technical brio of VoI and leans hard into band’s affinity for melodeath and thrash. It’s darker, meaner, and less immediately appealing. Still, the act’s strengths remain intact. Here you’ll find dazzling and ever-evolving guitar solos that cast shimmering reflections on the songs they adorn. Jonatan Karasiak remains the most distinctive vocalist in extreme metal. This is a record that draws you in over time instead of kicking your doors down–but with repeated listens, Wormtales writhes out of the shadows and demands to be appreciated on its own terms.

The Carnosus of Wormtales plays with a nasty edge that’s missing from their previous work. There’s a new level of intensity to tracks like”Harbinger of Woundism,” and “Cosmoclaustrum.” The poison guitar tone on “Paradoxical Impulse” and “Within Throat, Within Heart” descends from so-called cavern-core acts like Chthe’ilist or Grave Miasma, even as the band keeps the tempo cranking. The solos of Rickard Persson and Markus Jokela Nyström intersect with the compositions in inventive and satisfying ways. You might prefer the scampering madlads of the act’s earlier work–it’s definitely what fans of Carnosus are used to, and it doesn’t help Wormtales that its ten songs are the least memorable set the band has dropped. Nothing jumps out as a future playlist staple here. This one’s all about breaking teeth and gouging eyeballs, and then relieving your pain with flashes of melody and skill.

Wormtales reveals Carnosus to be a band determined to interrogate their own shtick instead of just repeating what worked before. They are still operating the same contraption here, they just pull the levers in a new order and solder different wires together to make new connections. You can see this urge to tinker when they flirt with death-doom on closer “Solace in Soil,” or when vocalist Karasiak reaches into his Bag of Infinite Tricks to drop a slam-influenced squeal into “Within Throat, Within Heart.” You can see it in the improved production that drenches the long player in a distorted low end. Carnosus’s restless spirit should bode well for their longevity, even if the version of their sound that emerges on Wormtales can’t quite scale the same heights they did before.

It’s hard to be the younger sibling of the valedictorian, just as I’m sure it’s hard to follow a tour de force like Visions of Infinihility. Carnosus got on with it, releasing Wormtales eighteen months after its esteemed older brother. The new album might be an operating system that lacks a killer app in the form of an undeniable song–but it’s still a forceful and coherent statement that I suspect will stand the test of time. If you were aboard the delirious party express that was VoI, give this one a chance to take you on a journey of its own.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: carnosus.bandcamp.com | carnosus.com
Releases Worldwide: October 18, 2024

The post Carnosus – Wormtales Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

There is nothing like the opener of a High on Fire record! From “Fury Whip” to “Snakes for the Divine” to “Serums of Liao” to “The Black Plot,” these Oakland lifers never fail to land the first punch. They’re so excellent coming off the starting blocks that I curate a Spotify playlist called “Fuck Yeah First Song on Every High on Fire Album.”² So Cometh the Storm kickoff “Lambsbread” must be killer, right? Let’s fucking go!

… “Lambsbread,” it turns out, is just okay. Pretty good, maybe? It’s vicious and energetic. The band debuts some new MENA-inflected chord progressions and lead lines midway through, but what could have been a creative shot in the arm fails to convince. The new elements can’t quite mesh with High on Fire’s established sound; they seem only to say “look, I learned these scales!” The song never feels fully fleshed out–but surely High on Fire’s instincts for quality will kick in soon… ?

Unfortunately, “Lambsbread” is a harbinger of sustained ill tidings. The album’s plenty heavy, with Kurt Ballou returning to produce and Coady Willis from Melvins stepping in to replace the mighty Des Kensel on drums. The rejiggered trio hasn’t lost their aggression, but the Riff Gods seem to have forsaken axeman and living embodiment of all things metal, Matt Pike. That sounds borderline sacrilegious, but big patches of Cometh the Storm substitute energy for dynamic songwriting. The album blazes past without delivering many moments that stick. Even standout tracks like “Burning Down” and “Cometh the Storm,” while fun enough, are still well off HoF’s standard. “Karanik Yol” goes the way of all instrumental interludes, with bassist Jeff Matz’s turn on the Turkish saz unable to mask the track’s inessential core.

“Aimless” is the last word to describe a typical High on Fire outing, but it applies to too much of Cometh the Storm. On the best tracks in the band’s vast catalog, the seismic rhythm section builds a foundation for Matt Pike’s guitar heroics. The songs go places, pummeling through changes without leaning too heavily on one riff or chord progression. Even Snakes for the Divine’s title track has the good sense to withhold its all-time classic riff to build anticipation for the next time it drops. That variety is often missing here. Tracks like “Sol’s Golden Curse” and closer “Darker Fleece” hook into one idea and then jam on it at length. The band’s attitude never flags, it’s just not enough to carry them through an hour of music.

I came here to praise High on Fire, not to bury them. Events intervened, but even the band’s first dalliance with AMG’s Law of Diminishing Recordings is only going to sink so far. Pike, Matz, and now Willis are too gifted and too certain of their mission to drop an outright dud. High on Fire has pounded a lot of joy into me over the years, so it gives me no pleasure to declare them off their peak. But with Cometh the Storm following the less-than-stellar Electric Messiah, the venerable trio’s output is properly trending downward.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: Not Applicable | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: MNRK Heavy
Websites: highonfire.bandcamp.com |instagram.com/highonfireband
Releases Worldwide: April 19, 2024

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That which challenged us yesterday becomes today’s canon. B. Dean seems to understand that the collective metal audience has long since digested the off-kilter innovations of Demilich’s Nespithe. Fathomless Ritual breaks no new ground here, content rather to deliver a fleet and exhilarating tour of what are now the tropes of a certain subsect of Olde-School Death. B. Dean’s penchant for groove asserts itself early on tracks like “Exiled to the Lower Catacombs” and “Gorge of the Nameless.” Hymns for the Lesser Gods boasts enough variety to keep things entertaining throughout its forty-minute span. A winding lead guitar line that doubles the central riff invigorates “Grafted to the Chambers of Mirth;” the amazingly titled “Wielding the Bone Wand” boasts ever-transmuting riffs and is the best song on the set. Dean’s vocals, which live somewhere between a burp and a growl, are mostly just background noise, and he could have used another ear to handle the undistinguished production. Still and all, fans of the genre should happily burp along to these Hymns.

B. Dean’s other projects (Pukewraith, Fumes, etc.) have yet to rawdog my earholes, but he acquits himself well as a songwriter. The album roars out of the gate, builds momentum with the aforementioned right-left combo of “Exiled to the Lower Catacombs” and “Gorge of the Nameless,” and never relinquishes its grip. The longer pieces here (“Gifts for Aranaku” and “Grafted to the Chambers of Mirth”) sometimes feel like Fathomless Ritual is running the same playbook to diminished effect, but the songs are packed with enough variety to keep things generally spry. Hymns for the Lesser Gods’ rollicking run-through genre tropes recalls the reliably infectious Cryptworm. Little here to tax or challenge, but hints of a guiding vision do pop up and there’s plenty to keep your knuckles dragging along for forty minutes.

Hymns for the Lesser Gods sets its own ceiling, then does a decent job hovering near the apex of its ambitions. B. Dean’s mixing and mastering is a consistent drag on his own songwriting. It’s not disastrous, but there’s a nagging sense that these songs could be showcased more effectively. My ear had to root around in the mix to find the riffs. This sort of murk used to be part of the fun of committing yourself to metal fandom. Fortunately, technology has brought us a long way, and Fathomless Ritual’s production is not to modern standards. The vocals share in the shortfall. Here as elsewhere, B. Dean owes an obvious debt to Antti Boman of Demilich. But where he energizes the music with some new ideas, Dean’s gutturals land as perfunctory.

The one-man act obviously affords a creator the opportunity to port their musical vision right into your ears. Fathomless Ritual knows what it’s going for, and they deliver an enjoyable debut that I’ll spin again. Hopefully, B. Dean will find someone to challenge him in the right ways on future efforts. Until then, Hymns for the Lesser Gods is a solid slab of death metal that’s unlikely to engage you much past the length of its run-time.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: fathomlessritual.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/fathomlessritual
Releases Worldwide: March 1, 2024

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Before I was press-ganged into the Skull Pit, I, Ferox, began curating an exercise playlist named Heavy Moves Heavy. For nearly a decade, I alone reaped the benefits of this creation–many were the hours spent preening aboard my Squat Yacht, mixing oils so that I could marvel at the glistening gainz unlocked by the List. My indentured servitude is your good fortune, because a new and improved version of the Heavy Moves Heavy playlist is now available to all readers of AMG in good standing.¹ The lifters among us have spent countless hours in the Exercise Oubliette testing these songs for tensile strength and ideological purity. Enjoy–but don’t listen if you are being screened for PEDs in the near future. This music will cause your free testosterone levels to skyrocket even as it adds length and sheen to your back pelt.

Only a blind master of epic poetry could capture the feats of strength performed by the lifters of AMG in 2023. We did have a bard wandering around the Hall, but no one has seen him since the last n00b uprising was put down. Suffice it to say that 2023 saw the List spur our Fearsome Five on to ever-more-epic achievements. These are the songs that got us there.

Whose contributions are best? What omissions expose us as dilettantes? Add your comments and song suggestions below. The song suggestions will be subjected to a remorseless testing process we call The Winnowing, and those that survive will be added to the master list. The comments will of course be ignored.

To the list!

Kenstrosity Bursts Through His Own Workout Gear:

“Askoma (Sorethroat)” // Massen (Gentle Brutality) – I am a psychopathic gym goer. If I can’t listen to huge grooves, massively thick guitars and meaty growls, I want to pump iron in silence. Thankfully, Massen refuse to let me work out without a soundtrack brimming with those exact parameters, and thereby allows me to break PRs on the reg.

“Catapulted into Hyperspace” // Nothingness (Supraliminal) – An unbelievably hooky death metal monster, “Catapulted into Hyperspace” has been my iron giant for almost a full year. The incredible momentum with which this song pushes my body should destroy me. Yet, the crazy swagger held in these riffs enlivens my nerves and oxygenates my blood like nothing else.

“Clockwork God” // Tardigrade Inferno (Burn the Circus) – Have you seen the physique of your average circus acrobat? Those fuckers are seriously jacked and shredded, yet lithe and agile. Hence, when the chunky chugs of “Clockwork God” enter my earballs, I can see my future, and it shows me at peak physical condition. All thanks to a vengeful little water bear.

“Destined to be Killed” // Phlebotomized (Clouds of Confusion) – Phlebotomized may be one of the weirder death metal bands to feature on this list, but “Destined to be Killed” is nothing short of a ripper. Great for those high-intensity intervals, the blistering blasts and tempered marches held here make for a great workout banger.

“Elysiism” // Wormhole (Almost Human) – Form is everything. Form is the only path to heavy. Once you get there, you’ll want a companion that understands what heavy means. Slam is that companion, and “Elysiism” contains one of the best set of slamming riffs of the year, hands down. Get it in you and watch your gainz balloon past your wildest expectations!

“Lift the Blindfold” // Crypta (Shades of Sorrow) – Sometimes you really just need something classic and thrashy to get the blood hot and the muscles flexing. Crypta understood the assignment with “Lift the Blindfold,” a clinic in shredding riffs and thrashy energy sure to get you movin’ and groovin’ with gusto.

“Liquified Mind” // Outer Heaven (Infinite Psychic Depths) – The bar is pressing into my traps. I’m deep in this squat and failure is approaching fast. There’s nothing I can do, I’m not going to make it back to start position. “Liquified Mind” starts playing and all of a sudden, I’ve pumped out three more reps as if I’m on autopilot. Such is the power of filthy, grooving, massive death metal.

“Ode to the Meatsaw” // Vomitory (All Heads are Gonna Roll) – Nothing beats an arena banger, an anthemic, fist-pumping slab of chunky death for the gym. That’s where Vomitory’s “Ode to the Meatsaw” shines in full glory, carving up bodies with a meatsaw as I sculpt mine with dumbbells. What more could a gym rat like me ask for?

“Symphony of a Dying Star” // Mental Cruelty (Zweilicht) – Versatility is a virtue. Variety is key to an adaptable body. So, when I want to swap between high-intensity cardio, intervals, or just pick up a heavy thing and put it back down again, the powerful genre-swapping talents of Mental Cruelty’s “Symphony of a Dying Star” serve me brilliantly.

“Tormenting Fungal Infestation” // Vomitheist (NekroFuneral) – I love a mid-tempo banger to fuel my weightlifting hour, and there’s no better fodder for that than Vomitheist’s “Tormenting Fungal Infestation.” Ideal for any gym session where metered, disciplined breaths are essential to an effective movement, this song will keep you in the pocket all day long.

Ferox vs. The Curlers in the Squat Rack:

“In But Not Of” // Afterbirth (In But Not Of) – The shotgun marriage of post-metal crescendoes and a climactic brutal death freakout makes for the (Workout) Song O’ The Year. The end of this song will leave you well and truly berzerkified and ready to do less than prudent things to yourself.

“Breath of Satan” // Svartkonst (May the Night Fall) – Stop fucking around and focus. “Breath of Satan” is a fleeting blast of blistering intensity that’s guaranteed to help you accomplish ONE THING before the rest of the List does its work.

“Castle of Grief” // Carnosus (Visions of Infinihility) – Carnosus’s tech death onslaught is spry and engaging enough to keep you distracted from the suffering that is only now commencing. The saucy rolled tongue flourish midway through is a reliable font of joy in troubled times.

“Manuscripts of Madness” // Xoth (Exogalactic) – Certain dullards crossed their arms at Xoth’s latest, but do they even lift? This track infuses melodeath into the band’s pan-genre stew, and its sing-along chorus is just the thing to keep you tumescent during the early-mid workout blues.

“Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags” // Hellripper (Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags) – Here’s a black thrash epic to lose yourself in while you can still recognize the concept of “fun.” It’s gonna hurt from here on out, so you might as well make the most of this track.

“Throatsaw” // Autopsy (Ashes, Organs, Blood, and Crypts) – Only “Throatsaw” is real. This List could be “Throatsaw” repeated fifty times and still be equally effective.

“Mother of Ghouls” // Nexorum (Tongue of Thorns) – “Too many riffs,” sniffed a dainty staffer about Nexorum’s debut album. God help that timid soul if he’s ever exposed to this track from the band’s follow-up, which showcases riffs on riffs AND the Guitar Solo O’ The Year (Slayer-Inspired Division).

“Bastard Creature” // Angerot (The Profound Recreant) – A bit o’ bombast to help you puff your chest out for the endgame. “Rejoice in the birth of the bastard creature!” Angerot is talking about you, in whatever new form you take after finishing this workout.

“Pitch Black Resolve/Nickel Grass Mosaic” // Gridlink (Coronet Jupiter) – Here’s a grind double shot to keep you moving after your brain quits on you.² This slice of tuneful madness sets a relentless marching pace and will not hesitate to holler at you until the thing is done.

“Throne ov the Morning Star” // Plaguewielder (Hot Graves) – Pick up something heavy and walk across the gym with it before softness sets in. You need an iron grip to get through life unscathed by the handshakes of farmers. Grip strength blowouts are the one trve way to finish any workout and this track will help you attain those Meathooks Ov Doom.

Thus Spoke and the Smiting of the Half-Depth Heretics:

“Join me in Armageddon” // Thy Art is Murder (Godlike) – Say whatever you’re going to say about TAiM, this is exactly the kind of anthemic banger you need when you’re chucking heavy stuff about. So what are you waiting for? Come and join me in armageddon the gym.

“Enlighten Through Agony” // Dying Fetus (Make Them Beg for Death) – Fun fact: I’d never listened to Dying Fetus before this year—DON’T COME FOR ME PLEASE OK, I’M WORKING ON IT. The rhythm on this thing, the brutality, the incredibly appropriate title. Time to get enlightened.

“Leper by the Grace of God” // God Disease (Apocalyptic Doom) – Dark, brutal, and dragging. This is the resting-bitch-face workout accompaniment you absolutely cannot do without on a playlist like this. Plus, it has an awesome, haunting solo that I personally find very motivating.

“Serrated Jaws” // Grand Cadaver (Deities of Deathlike Sleep) – Tell me these aren’t the perfect lyrics for lifting: “Go for the kill//Tighten the grip//Stare into the eyes of fear.” Yeah, I didn’t think so. The real ones get their spot from the music like this.

“Manhunt” // To the Grave (Director’s Cuts) – I would stick the whole album here if I could, but this one gets the most plays. Pure menace and rage. And the way those “TRUST MEEE…“’s are delivered…chills. And gains.

“Taufbefehl” // Nightmarer (Deformity Adrift) – Having a title I can barely pronounce correctly doesn’t stop me from wanting to belt it out every time I hear it alongside those glorious concrete-head-smashing chord-and-beat combos each chorus. Stone-cold banger and perfect for lifting.

“Mortal Shells” // Mental Cruelty (Zweilicht) – Oh my word, that descending minor melody surge that is the chorus of this song, blastbeats coming in, symphonics soaring, “THIS EEARRTH FORRRSAAKES MEE” makes me feel fucking invincible. And it will make you feel invincible too.

“The Insignificants” // Cattle Decapitation (Terrasite) – It’s angry, it’s nihilistic, its rhythms are on point. And it ends with an utterly bleak and brilliant sung/screamed refrain that is just the right balance between brooding and motivating. Weird but it works.

“Catastrophize” // Humanity’s Last Breath (Ashen) – “Ugh why is there so much deathcore on this playlist, Thus?” “Shut up,” I say, as I put another plate on the pendulum squat for you, “this one’s going to help.” It just beat album neighbor “Death Spiral” to make it here and you’re gonna feel its worth.

“Hammer from the Howling Void” // Sulphur Aeon (Seven Crowns and Seven Seals) – This song is just kind of epic. Its driving urgent melodies, group shouts and wails, and grand scale are like a shield of armor. It’s also possessed of a chorus with that ideal lifting tempo. You are the hammer from the howling void. Embrace it.

Holdeneye Practices Radical Body Acceptance:

“Unholy Hell” // Mystic Prophecy (Hellriot) – Mystic Prophecy has been delivering the beef for over twenty years, and this year’s album was especially beefy. “Unholy Hell” is a plodding groove-fest that makes me feel like I’m taking a 40 oz tomahawk steak to the face and swallowing it whole. Thank you, sir, may I have another?

“War Remains” // Enforced (War Remains) – Few bands can bring forth my deeply repressed primal rage like Enforced. “War Remains” has a snarling groove that just won’t quit, and I’ve been using it as a performance-enhancing sound-substance all year.

“Blood Blind” // Cannibal Corpse (Chaos Horrific) – While “Blood Blind” may not be my favorite CC gym song ever, it’s damn close. Corpsegrinder’s vocal build-up over the the chugging riff that leads up to the song’s “chorus” makes me see more red than any Cannibal Corpse album cover can hope to muster.

“Academia” // Finality (Technocracy) – One of the most ferocious album-openers I heard all year, “Academia” has been helping me dominate gym class ever since its release. Intensely melodic and powerfully groovy, this power/thrash barnburner will give you a doctorate in gainz.

“Best Served Cold” // Frozen Soul (Glacial Domination) – Current research shows that cold exposure can inhibit muscle growth and strength gain, but I’ve found that Frozen Soul has the opposite effect. Not only does “Best Served Cold” contain enough groove to fuel an entire workout, it also reminds you how to best enjoy your protein shake to refuel after.

“Mountain of Power” // All for Metal (Legends) – Do I really need to say anything about this one? It’s a song about a mountainous man of enormous strength with spoken word parts performed by a mountainous man of enormous strength. This is pure Holdeneye-bait.

“Tithe (The Money Song)” // By Fire and Sword (Glory)- When you’re trying to give 110% in the gym, sometimes that last 10% can be hard to come by. “Tithe” mentions building up kingdoms with our sweat and tells us to ‘remember that the pain is brief.’ With that kind of motivation, how can we not blow right past our preconceived limitations?

“Confined” // Disguised Malignance (Entering the Gateways) – I couldn’t let Steel corner the market on grimy old-school death metal, so I offer you “Confined,” one of the grooviest tracks of the year. If you’re like me, you’ll have a tough time keeping your arms confined within your sleeves after listening to this one.

“Power Surge” // Cruel Force (Dawn of the Axe) – No Heavy Moves Heavy playlist would be complete without some old-timey metal sounds, and “Power Surge” delivers its ancient payload with lethal precision. I dare you not to feel a surge in power as the intro gives way to the speedy main riff.

“Sword of Mars” // Warcrab (The Howling Silence) – “Sword of Mars” uses burly Bolt Thrower tremolos with hate-filled sludgy hardcore vocals to transform its listeners into statues of blade-wielding Greek (or Roman) gods. Queue this one up and experience divine results.

Steel Druhm Feeds the Floor to Posers:

“Slimebreeder” // Rotpit (Let There Be Rot) – No-nonsense, stupid heavy OSDM for no-nonsense stupid heavy gym days, Rotpit has the goods and the slime you need for the gainz and the pain. Feed this slime directly into your leg day. Not FDA approved.

“Cerebral Ingestion” // Carnal Tomb (Embalmed in Decay) – Mid-tempo caveman grooves heavy enough to pulp a power rack and with enough forward momentum to power you through any kind of exercise rigor. Just the right levels of ugly, brutal and gross,

“Vortex of Blood” // Grand Cadaver (Deities of Deathlike Sleep) – D-beating Swedeath goes grandly in the gym and Grand Cadaver drags a big stinking corpse into the room with this one. Entombed and Dismember-isms run like an everflowing stream directly into your veins and make you a better version of your crappy self.

“Cremator” // Dripping Decay (Festering Grotesquieries) – Short, sharp, shocking and so good at getting you all geeked up for that next big lift. This is Slaughter-core all day and that means thrashing, nasty heaviness in your face. You need this 2-minute adrenaline injection.

“Nemesis” // Serpent Corpse (Blood Sabbath) – When you fortify classic OSDM with massive, bone-crunching riffs and a scuzzy sound profile, it brings forth your worst angels. “Nemesis” borrows from Autopsy but goes nuclear with it and the results are tailor-made for gym idiots.

“Decrowned” // Vomitory (All Heads Are Gonna Roll) – Vomitory have been cranking out gym-friendly animalistic death forever, and “Decrowned” is a great example of their knuckle-dragging art. That fat chug at 1:55 will loosen your molars and make you feel things. Vomit: it’s not just for breakfast anymore.

“The Surgeon” // Overkill (Scorched) – A non-death metal song?? Hell yes, because Overkill is all about fists, broken bottles, and rusty shanks. 100% NJ attitude in one 5-minute dose. If that doesn’t get you in a focused place, no amount of preworkout will help your sorry ass.

“Planetary Obliteration” // Re-Buried (Repulsive Nature) – On the ragged edge of OSDM and slam lies this sick twist of a bastard. Feel the muscles in your arms and legs contort and start to fracture your skeletal system as the primal beatdowns blast your feeble mind. It’s obnoxious, brutish, and sounds like deadlifts gone very wrong.

“Me the Nothing” // Metal Church (Congregation of Annihilation) – An atypically heavy, grinding, vicious cut from the elder statesmen in Metal Church. There is simply no way to blast this and not feel the aggression surging in your blood. The insane vocals at chorus time will make you grind your teeth and hunger for weight.

“Who Told Me” // Prong (State of Emergency) – Prong supplied many songs to the Lift Lists ov Steel over the years, and “Who Told Me” is the latest nugget of New York-style hostility to get up in your face and make you want to brawl Jersey Shore idiots. Poke somebody in the chest after a personal best.

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I wouldn’t guess that these fellows are familiar with the Large Hadron Collider–but if you put yourself between Repugnant and its point of impact, this slab will reduce you to particles. Like the Hadron Collider, this album, if misapplied, threatens to bring about doomsday scenarios. Repugnant doubles down on what made Human Deviance Galore so alarming. The band already crammed as much chonky aggression as they could into their music, so here Necroticgorebeast ekes out ways to expand their filthy domain by a few microns. The ingredients are the same, and the subject matter is no less reprehensible. Among the topics presented for consideration are “Consensual Castration” and “Gouged Eye Copulation.” The album raises/lowers the bar with its never-ending intensity. The strategy mostly succeeds–Repugnant, while less playful than its predecessors, is still a blast of nasty fun. You’d best hide this thing under the bed, because there will be consequences if mom and dad find it.

I don’t mean to insult Necroticgorebeast, but a certain intelligence stalks these ten tracks. Would it have been better applied elsewhere? Without question, but that’s between these gentlemen and their mental health provider. Repugnant keeps tightening the screws over its first four expulsions. The menace of “Repugnant” gives way to the bigly stöopid stomp of “Unsedated Face Removal.” Matt McGachy of Cryptopsy drops by for tea and a guest vocal spot on “Consensual Castration,” before “Self-Inflicted Cerebral Edema” obliterates everything in its path. Relief comes in the form of “Gouged Eye Copulation.” The pinch harmonics and relative restraint of that track initiate a pivot into a more dynamic second half. Don’t misread me–we are still subject to transgressions like “Masturbated to Death” and “Nail Clipper Circumcision.” The back half of Repugnant just toys with the throttle, which allows Necroticgorebeast to keep you engaged over these thirty-one minutes.

From its cover art to some of its subject matter, Repugnant aims to be more grounded than Necroticgorebeast’s prior albums. There’s an occasional sense of real-world horror here that, for me, takes away some of the fun. I personally can’t abide any glorification of serial killers. These dullard incels are the furthest thing from criminal masterminds, and they deserve neither attention nor cute little ooga-booga nicknames. So kicking Repugnant off with a long, would-be scary quote from one of these dipshits is the wrong way to invite Ferox out for a play date! Fortunately, the album gets that out of its system quickly so I can stop clutching my pearls and join in for some “Frozen Feces Evisceration.”

I’ve written elsewhere about the Great Slam-aissance of 2023. Necroticgorebeast is very much a non-participant; if you tried to invite these reprobates to the festivities, they’d probably return the envelope caked in their own shit. Wormhole and Afterbirth chart new destinations for brutal death metal, while Necroticgorebeast are content to fly the flag for the genre in its pure, undomesticated form. So here’s one for the shop kids and those whose future lies in the custodial arts. Repugnant doesn’t quite “rise” to the “heights” of Ngb’s previous albums, but it has its place as an undiluted and unapologetic draught of the rough stuff.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 319 kbps mp3¹
Label: Comatose Music
Websites: necroticgorebeast.com| necroticgorebeast.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Necroticgorebeast
Releases Worldwide: November 3rd, 2023

The post Necroticgorebeast – Repugnant Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

The Xoth of Exogalactic is the same outfit that won legions of converts. Killer second track “Manuscripts of Madness” does lean hard into a Black Dahlia influence, but the overall sound and vibe here will feel familiar. The dueling guitars of Tyler Splurgis and Woody Adler drive the songs, ingesting influences like Pac-Man does dots and weaving everything into a fluid argument for a Unified Theory of Metal. Their lead lines kick into melodic overdrive during the choruses, when it often feels like the guitars are trying to sing along with the vocals. The probing bass dabs splotches of low end in interesting places. If you know Xoth, there are no surprises here—but if you know Xoth, you’re probably hungry for more Xoth. That’s exactly what Exogalactic gives you: eight new tracks of the quartet’s now-signature sound, sprinkled onto your synapses over a brisk and exhilarating thirty-nine minutes. Xoth’s latest offers tight songwriting enhanced by accessible instrumental wizardry; Exogalactic, like its predecessors, is a journey most metal fans will be eager to take.

Across two albums and one EP, Xoth has never released a bad song. That streak continues on Exogalactic. “Reptilian Bloodsport” kicks the album off with a riff that sounds like an emergency signal from a deep space beacon. The song itself manages to be heavy and sugary sweet all at once—it’s a banger, as are the seven tracks that follow. “Manuscripts of Madness” would be at home next to Nocturnal’s “What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse” on a playlist. Later, “Saga of the Blade” dabbles in fantasy iconography a la Exmortus or High Command. There’s not much variety from song to song, and Xoth’s trademark lead guitar tone drenches everything from stem to stern. That threatens to fatigue your ears, but fortunately the band has the good sense to keep the runtime short. When anthemic closer “Map to the Stars, Monument to the Ancients” riffs its last, you’re left wanting more—a dilemma best solved by hitting “play” on another run through Exogalactic.

Even though it’s a brand-new album, Exogalactic has already accumulated baggage. The initial promo was a disappointment. The strength of the songs shone through in many spots, but everything felt wan and slight. Xoth noticed, too, and the band took the unprecedented step of sending a remastered version of the album to us a week before its release. The new take by Jason Williams at Riffsthatrule is an immense improvement, supercharging the material and allowing Exogalactic to shine. Kudos to the band for diagnosing the problem and scrambling to turn a weakness into a strength.

In my short time with Exogalactic, the album conjured a few different scores. There’s the glum 3.0 that I would have assigned the original master. I toyed with a 3.5, meant here to denote good work that fails to expand the band’s horizons. In the end, though, Xoth finds their level. They don’t deserve to be dinged for consistency. It took a last-minute save for Exogalactic to arrive at greatness, but it got there all the same. Xoth delivers another joyful winner, uniting the metal-verse once again with a vital contribution to their growing legacy.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dawnbreed Records
Websites: beholdxoth.com | xoth.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/beholdxoth
Releases Worldwide: November 3rd, 2023

The post Xoth – Exogalactic Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and nOObs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if two three aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slavering masses their personal rankings of that discography and what if the rest of the personality used

During Week One of Project Rank Autopsy, the Rankers exposed themselves to higher-than-safe levels of scabby gore-themed death metal. The three subjects (S.D., D.A.N.G., and F..) volunteered for testing out of love for this California-based extreme metal institution. Certain test subjects discovered the band during its initial, massively influential run, while others came back into the metal fold just as the outfit was launching a 2011 comeback that is now longer and more productive than Autopsy’s original incarnation. All three subjects reported changes in mood during the first week of exposure. Subject D.A.N.G. describes yelling at his furniture; Subject S.D. self-diagnosed an increase in his already considerable levels of irritability. For F., the world began slowly to arrange itself into potential Autopsy song titles: “The Self-Scalping Protocol,” “Just the Tip (of the Stiletto),” etc.

The experiment began to break down in Week Two. Subject D.A.N.G. reports lost chunks of time and waking up outside the cadaver room of our medical school with a duffel bag full of “something frozen.” Subject F. flung his own head at the concrete floor of his office, while the graduate students tasked with monitoring S.D. abruptly quit after he whispered the names of their children to them. The test subjects were offered the chance to leave the experiment, but all stayed on out of respect for Autopsy’s body of work. The band is set to release ninth full-length Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts on October 27, and, in separate interviews, the subjects used identical wording to proclaim the importance of continuing the experiment “so the world is spread open for what’s coming.”

It is now Week Three. The remaining graduate students died during an arcane rite turned orgy-gone-wrong. The subjects escaped in the ensuing chaos and are now at large. They left behind the below manifesto, which we are reprinting in the hope it will slake their growing bloodthirst. May God save us all from what Autopsy hath wrought..

– Ferox

Steel Druhm

Autopsy may not have been the first to drop a death metal album on the masses, but founding madman Chris Reifert played drums on what’s widely regarded as the genre’s birthing—Death’s Scream Bloody Gore. Soon after that he separated to launch his own abomination on the world and it’s his early work with Autopsy that helped define the sound for both death metal and death-doom. With partners in crime guitarists Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler in tow, Autopsy carved a bloody hole in heavy metal history and filled it with the most repellant, disgusting of sounds. Pioneers and innovators who rarely get the credit they deserve, their lo-fi, scum-chum sound launched hordes of imitators. Submerging oneself in their entire sleaze-enrobed catalog for extended listening sessions is akin to falling into an overflowing cesspool, and every bit as unhealthy. I did all this for YOU! Are you not entertained?? I’ll see you on the other side after I’m steam-cleaned and re-fluffed properly. *gagging noises*

The Ranking:

#8. Shitfun (1995). Yep, this one is tough to swallow. By the time this odious piece of excretion was expelled, Chris Reifert and Danny Coralles were way more focused on their Abscess project and in the process of consigning Autopsy to the dustbin of history. I didn’t bother hearing this when it dropped, warned off by the negative reaction the album received in the press and from friends. I didn’t get around to listening until many years later and it was just as awful as advertised. At times you can hear the classic Autopsy sound, but the bulk of the material is a significant departure, taking their punky death style way further into something like proto-grind horror-punk. This approach teamed with a concerted effort to be as shocking and gross as possible was far too immature and dumb for me, like it was written by a bunch of edgy teens trying to offend their parents. Songs like “I Sodomize Your Corpse” and “Shit Eater” go for juvenile shock value at the expense of good songwriting. The album is also WAY overlong at 55 minutes, stuffed full of mindless, repetitive junk punk that doesn’t stick. I really tried to approach this with an open mind after not hearing it for a very long time, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Shitfun is essentially the aural equivalent of a snuff film with shit porn interludes. Best avoided by almost everyone.¹

#7. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves (2014). If this one were part of any other band’s discography it would likely land a lot higher in a worst-to-best ranking. Here it falls to the unenviable penultimate position. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves is not a bad release and it has plenty of merit in its own right. It’s just eclipsed by a few genre-defining legendary platters and some second-career-stage stunners. There’s an entirely enjoyable collection of classic Autopsy gore-slopped trash here and one could find spots for gems like “Savagery” and “King of Ripped Flesh” on the most discerning of death playlists, and “Parasitic Eye” is a must-have on any Autopsy best-of list. The guitar work throughout by Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler is sharp and slicing and the sound is surprisingly good too. Sadly, there is some fat and a few lesser cuts that feel generic. Overall, a fun splatter platter with a few inspired moments of gruesome lunacy.

#6. Acts of the Unspeakable (1992). This is the Autopsy album people seem to either forget about, write off, or underrate. This is puzzling to me since there are a lot of ghoulish goodies here waiting to be disinterred. Perhaps it’s because the band was starting the drift toward a more punky style with way shorter songs, some only 20 or 30 seconds in length. They clearly embraced the Thomas Hobbes mantra of nasty brutish and short, with grindcore-esque speed taking up the bulk of the album’s short runtime. It’s actually the slower cuts that are the most intriguing, however, especially because they presage the coming of a beloved death metal institution. Take opener “Meat” for example. It has its blasty bits, but it expands outward into murky doomscapes, creating an oppressively ominous vibe that would come to be the trademark of Incantation when they hit the scene a year after this dropped. These pre-cantation sounds also appear on “Your Rotting Face” and “Funereality” adds a strong Sabbath influence and brief James Murphy-esque touches to the guitars. Acts of the Unspeakable is an awkward transition toward a direction that would ultimately tank the band, but the core of the Autopsy sound is still intact enough to make it worth your attention.

#5. The Headless Ritual (2013). Following close on the bloody heels of their monster comeback opus, Macabre Eternal, The Headless Ritual found Autopsy still riding the wave of a creative rejuvenation. The savagery and brutality are at peak levels and their winning blend of doom and brain-scalding death could still make a jaded metaller sit up straight. Opener “Slaughter at Beast House” may be one of their best moments, recycling the roots of Black Sabbath’s legendary namesake song and turning it into something way more threatening than “Satan’s coming ’round the bend.” Chris Reifert’s vocals here are fucking coconuts and a death metal fan could scarcely ask for more. The 7-plus minutes of “She is a Funeral” are a toxic waste dumping ground that the government should be very concerned about, featuring some of Reifert’s most atrociously nasty vocals ever. Yes, he often sounds like Animal from The Muppet Show, but that’s all part of the grisly fun, right? “When Hammer Meets Bone” is one of my favorite Autopsy tracks, and were I ever to go on a killing spree at AMG HQ, this one would be the soundtrack to the ensuing bloodbathory. The “wounded duck” guitar effects here alone are worth the album price.

#4. Morbidity Triumphant (2022). An elder death act proves they still have the strength and will to slaughter a new generation of curious listeners who took a wrong turn someplace. I was not expecting an album this brutal and this good from these olde curmudgeons and it all hit me like a 10-ten truck. It opens with the quintessential Autopsy cut “Stab the Brain” and it does in fact stab you in the thought maker. “Final Frost” is like a trip back to the early 80s to hear an embryonic Hellhammer, and the stoner swagger from the Mental Funeral days reappears on the rollicking rip-shitting of “The Voracious One.” Lest we are thinking these olde dawgs can’t smash us into paste with speed, you get high-velocity rampagers like “Knife Slice Axe Chop” and “Slaughterer of Souls.” There’s nothing here but top-notch Autopsy and the band sound full of piss, bile, and military-grade vinegar. This one is a lead-piped sucker shot to the medulla oblongata.

#3. Mental Funeral (1991). The high-quality follow-up to Severed Survival saw Autopsy diving deeper into the death-doom cesspool with fascinating results. “In the Grip of Winter” is like stoner rock before it turns into brain-melting glacial death doom and it should be played on repeat for hours in every tattoo shop in America (mine already does this). It’s so wonderfully sloppy and massive you can’t help but love it. “Torn from the Womb” lurches between doomy plods and blasting intensity with the most Neanderthal of mannerisms sustained throughout. The thrashy parts feel charmingly ramshackle and unstable, which only adds to the overall appeal. The doom elements creep into almost every track and rather than drag things down, they provide a powerful accent to the beef-brained deathery. Tracks like “Robbing the Grave” even foretell of later acts like Hooded Menace and Acid Witch. Definitely a slower, more ball-crushing version of Autopsy than heard prior, but the shambling death-doom creak and rattle really worked for them. An enduring genre classic.

#2. Macabre Eternal (2011). After profoundly shitting the bed with 1995s Shitfun outing, Chris and Co. went off to do awful things with Abscess, and Autopsy was prematurely laid to rest. I moved on and submerged myself deeper into the fetid oceans of death they helped inspire and I considered Autopsy a dead stick. Then 2011 rolled around and they dropped what may be the greatest comeback ever by a metal band. Macabre Eternal is at once classic Autopsy but them on bathtub steroids and homemade pruno. It’s feral, savage, and completely deranged. It’s also a surprisingly diverse album, with the band dabbling in a wide range of tempos and moods, all horrific, of course. The sheer intensity and violence with which the material hits you is a rude awakening. Cuts like “Dirty Gore Whore” and “Sadistic Gratification” make you feel like an uncomfortable voyeur peering into the brain of an absolute maniac and the happy marriage of thrashy death and ponderous doom is once again attained on “Seeds of Doom,” which sounds like early Trouble until Reifert starts vomiting over everything. This is just an absolutely insane album with some of the band’s best writing and most over-the-top antics.

#1. Severed Survival (1989). The late-arriving true prototype death metal album and a major genre building block that’s still referenced to this day. Though its core sound is much like Death’s 1987 debut (which isn’t surprising considering Reifert’s involvement on the album), this one is way more unhinged and nastier, the blueprint for onga-bonga death metal. So loathsome is its foul, scuzz-bucket atmosphere that it can still stand proudly against even the most repellant of the new generation of death spew. Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler use this album to pour the foundations for the entire genre with their slippery, slimy riffs. Songs like “Charred Remains” and “Service for a Vacant Coffin” are genre touchstones that spawned an ever-flowing stream of noxious abominations and the hits keep on coming. “Gasping for Air” features the most caveman-like vocals ever put to tape paired with an infectious chug that’s as righteous as it is comical. “Ridden With Disease” is an absolute gut-busting triumph that looms large in the Grand Pantheon of Death. Meanwhile, tracks like “Impending Death” set the stage for the death-doom genre. Every track here is a vicious stab in the sense and sensibilities, dragging you deeper and deeper into the depraved world of serial killers and black market organ traffickers. You will enjoy your stay until you end up fucking dead. Die.

Dr. A.N. Grier

I’ve explored almost every facet of death metal for the last twenty-something years. So much so that many of the new bands, with their unique takes on the style, bore the living fuck out of me. Like many of the old fucks on staff, I’ve found myself also being old-as-fuck, returning to and ever-appreciating what came before. Back to the days when everything was fresh, chaotic, and spontaneous. I’m not saying that doesn’t exist, but many death metal records that everyone masturbates to today feel formulaic and leave me hollow. Another reason for this feeling is that I’m not a huge death metal fan. There, I said it. It’s not a secret. Look at the number of death metal records I’ve reviewed in the last nine years. Like I told my ex-wife before she left me, I’m not stubborn, I’m picky. While I enjoy many death metal acts, Autopsy is one of my favorites. It’s pure filth and will always be, no matter how long they continue to write music. Autopsy is easily one of the most disgusting outfits, from the lyrics to the vocals to the always-significant bass work. And if they ever lose that, I’ll burn this fucking planet to the ground.

The Ranking:

#8. Shitfun (1995). In 1995, Shitfun was considered the band’s swansong. Never again would we hear another Autopsy album, as the band members went their separate ways and continued making music in their separate projects. This was a horrible time in the world of filthy murder metal. Not only because the band called it quits but also because Shitfun is one of, if not the worst, of their albums. Hopping on the Acts of the Unspeakable bandwagon, Shitfun is a collection of twenty songs. The biggest difference, though, is Acts of the Unspeakable was thirty-five minutes. Shitfun is a towering fifty-five minutes. While this is nothing new for modern-era Autopsy, this was shocking at the time. And, at least for me, it was far too much Autopsy in one disc. But it’s not the length that the album truly suffers from. It’s the lack of memorable material. The only song I enjoy on this abomination is “An End to the Misery.”

#7. The Headless Ritual (2013). From the moment “Slaughter at Beast House” hits your earholes, The Headless Ritual has you by the brain stem. Right away, it’s obvious this album is gonna be big. It’s also a cleaner-sounding record compared even to Macabre Eternal. There’s less gunk slathered across it, allowing for a heavier and smoother product. Some would argue that the production takes the punch out of dishes Autopsy is known to deliver. That is true in some respects, but it’s still one hell of an album. After sharing vocal duties with Cutler on Macabre Eternal, Reifert performs most of the tracks, simultaneously laying out his mighty drum work. The Headless Ritual is a tight little album compared to its two predecessors, making repeated listens easy. Unlike Macabre Eternal, this record doesn’t do anything out of the norm or send you reeling from the overly sickening displays of grotesqueness. Instead, it’s a straightforward record, with the back-to-back “She Is a Funeral” and “Coffin Crawlers” being some of the more interesting tracks. It was perhaps their smoothest and most concise record at the time. And every time I listen to it, I’m surprised when it ends.

#6. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves (2014). Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves continues where The Headless Ritual left off—clean production, in-your-face attitude, and heavy as fuck. But, unlike its predecessor, Autopsy showed up with some interesting new material. Though it never stood a chance of topping the wild diversity of Macabre Eternal, it does a fine job. But it’s not apparent immediately, as it takes a while for the album to get going. After “Savagery,” the band settles into their classic, doomy, droney songwriting structure for most of the album’s front half. It isn’t until “After the Cutting” that I begin feeling its urgency. After the short funeral march that is “All Shall Bleed,” Autopsy shocks the masses with acoustic guitars that somehow add an unsettling quality to the already unsettling “Deep Crimson Dreaming.” For the remainder of the album, I’m glued to the snarling vocals, crushing riffs, disgusting attitude, and the flailing drum work. Not to mention, we finally got an “Autopsy” song to conclude the album. While it’s not the greatest song they’ve ever penned, it has an old-school character that represents the band’s legacy well.

#5. Acts of the Unspeakable (1992). During the band’s early years, Autopsy was coming into its own—tinkering a lot with song and album structures. Acts of the Unspeakable is no different. Following the easy-flowing Mental Funeral, the approach here is moar is moar. Though Acts of the Unspeakable is a tight thirty-five minutes, eighteen throat-slitting tracks were new for Autopsy fans. With “Pus / Rot” being the longest song (clocking in at four minutes), Reifert and co. focused on short, slimy morsels forced down your throat in the time it takes to do your shopping. While Mental Funeral was about flow, Acts of the Unspeakable is about jarring transitions and unrelenting pain. “Meat” and “Orgy In Excrements” are pounding, slithering, and sinister classics. “Death Twitch” feels like you’re tied to a table and smashed to oblivion by Reifert’s giant wooden hammer. And the lyrics of “Skullptures” are a textbook on what not to do on your first date. While not as strong as the band’s previous albums, the attitude is unmistakably there, and the sheer amount of material in such a short amount of time is astonishing. Though, sometimes, it hurts the album because a song rarely settles in and evolves.

#4. Morbidity Triumphant (2022). After two solid releases and one fantastic one, Autopsy drops Morbidity Triumphant and surprises the shit out of me. What made Macabre Eternal so cool has also, to a smaller degree, made its way into Morbidity Triumphant. “The Voracious One” has a nifty groove that lets the bass lead as the guitars and drums swirl around it in controlled chaos. The follow-up track, “Born in Blood,” is a rocking piece whose rhythm is fortified by clever drum work and a pulsing energy. But the odd, gross numbers, like “Flesh Strewn Temple” and the bass-driven “Knife Slice, Axe Chop,” solidify Morbidity Triumphant as one of Autopsy’s best albums. Both songs are chock full of slimy riffs that alternate between aggressiveness and groveling interludes. The overall character of the record is addictive as fook, which is made even stronger by the neat forty-minute runtime. Since releasing Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, never has the band felt like their old selves. Combining diversity and a gnarly production with neatly packaged songs makes for an exciting album that’s enjoyable and easy to listen to. Morbidity Triumphant is a surprisingly excellent album so late in one’s career.

#3. Macabre Eternal (2011). After sixteen years of no Autopsy, the boys came back to town to surprise the living shit out of me. The energy the band once held came back in full force with Macabre Eternal. Heavier, faster, and nastier than ever, this record was easily my AotY in 2011. And boy, it felt like nearly two decades of material stored up for the masses. At an hour in length, it fires on all cylinders, bringing the old attitude and fusing it with new directions. For example, Reifert and Cutler share vocal duties throughout, providing a fresh take on the Autopsy songwriting process. But it’s not only the vocals that instill new character in the album. For example, the doomy, trad approach to “Seeds of the Doomed” makes it more fun than it has a right to be. While the back-to-back “Macabre Eternal” and “Deliver Me from Sanity” bring back memories of the good ole days—gnarly vocals, razor-sharp guitars, thumping bass, and Reifert’s unique drum fills. But we can’t forget about the freak of the album: “Sadistic Gratification.” This eleven-minute nightmare is like nothing the band has ever created. It’s an Autopsy torture room that never gets old, no matter how long it is. In my eyes, Macabre Eternal still stands as one of the greatest comeback albums in metal history.

#2. Mental Funeral (1991). To these ears, Mental Funeral was a stark contrast to Severed Survival. While all the elements that makeup Autopsy exist, I was wildly surprised by the outcome. Instead of a collection of songs that stood alone, Autopsy leads us through a horrifying journey of mental fuckery. Most notable are the skull-pounding moments as you descend through “Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay,” “In the Grip of Winter,” “Fleshcrawl,” and “Torn from the Womb.” While I miss the unhinged approach to Severed Survival and DiGiorgio’s bass contribution, Mental Funeral is an obvious improvement to its predecessor. The production is cleaner, the instrumentation is easier to hear, and Reifert shows his true skills as a drummer. But these improvements do little to dispel the impending doom that comes with the album. As you progress through the album, never really knowing what song you are on, the aggressiveness increases. So much so that when you hit the final tracks of the record, they hit back. “Bonesaw” is sharp as fook, but nothing is sharp enough when your bones are on the line. “Dark Crusade” is green vomit in the face, and “Mental Funeral” is the demon in you finally putting you in your grave. Mental Funeral still stands as one of the strongest sophomore efforts of its time.

#1. Severed Survival (1989). When I first decided to dive into Autopsy’s discog, I started from the beginning. When I purchased Severed Survival and tossed it into my CD player, I thought my speakers were broken. To this day, nothing I play it on can make this album sound good. And that’s not a negative criticism. For one, Steve DiGiorgio’s bass is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard. And its sheer weight and volume make speakers and eardrums alike rumble to damn-near nonfunctional levels. It pops and rattles like I’m listening to a century-old record on an even older record player. But that’s the charm of Severed Survival. Without it, the album would never have its putrid attitude. From the fast-paced “Charred Remains” to the groveling “Impending Dread,” Autopsy’s debut album has stuck with me merely for its disgusting production, lyrics, vocals, and riffs. That first spin was a life-changing moment for me. Not only because I thought I’d blown my speakers but because I realized this was the death metal I’ve always needed in my life. Severed Survival remains the album I return to the most.

Ferox

Ferox like Autopsy. Autopsy good.²

The Ranking:

#8. Shitfun (1995). The notorious Shitfun is so entrenched as Autopsy’s worst album that it’s scarcely worth revisiting. Unless…. ? Nope! Shitfun remains cringey juvenilia, the chortling of an unrestrained id that is badly in need of a superego to come along and skull fuck it into compliance. The record’s reputation is so terrible that it’s almost shocking to find pockets of quality here and there–but the overall impression, as noted above, is that Reifert and Corrales must have been focused on Abscess. If Autopsy had to dash something off, why the hell did they dash off so much of it? Shitfun is not just a tough listen–it’s a reaaalllly long tough listen. NO ONE COULD POSSIBLY DEFEND THIS ALBUM.³

#7. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves (2014). Sorry, Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves. You deserve better than a spot next to Shitfun. Autopsy surprised gorehounds by releasing a new album just a year after unleashing The Headless Ritual. Its quality bodes well for Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts, which follows hard on the heels of Morbidity Triumphant. The novelty of “Autopsy-but-modern-production” that supercharged the band’s sound when Macabre Eternal came out had worn off by the time this one dropped, leaving THaG to stand on the strength of its songs. It does just that–“Parasitic Eye” is as good as anything they’ve done, and “King of Flesh Ripped” is a classic Reifert freakout. THaG has become the “easy” Autopsy album for me, one I can throw on when I just want to enjoy the band doing what they do. Everything ranked higher stabs just a bit deeper into my swollen brain, which is why Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves lands here.

#6. Acts of the Unspeakable (1992). This one gets lost in assessments of Autopsy’s early era. The requisite praise is heaped on Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, the requisite feces is flung at Shitfun, leaving Acts of the Unspeakable to be vaguely acknowledged as a midpoint between those extremes. It plays to me like a great band searching for where to take their sound next. Some songs continue what came before (“Necrocannibalistic Vomitorium”), some augur the unfortunate shit-caked future (“Orgy in Excrements”), and others feel like first steps down paths that Autopsy would never fully commit to walking (“Meat,” “Funereality”). It may not be their most cohesive album, but AotU remains a vital listen. The highlights soar and/or wallow, and it’s fascinating to imagine alt-universe versions of Autopsy that pursued some of the sounds explored here.

#5. Morbidity Triumphant (2022). I find no daylight between Morbidity Triumphant and the album that comes next. A band as seasoned as Autopsy should really not be indulging themselves in 41 minutes of sheer berserk lunacy. This is a bracing blast of Reifert and the gang at their most feral–the doom passages barely give you time to settle in before Autopsy starts seizing uncontrollably again. Like a car with an eleven-ring gearbox, Morbidity Triumphant buries the needle in the red with opener “Stab the Brain” and just keeps accelerating. “Knife Slice, Axe Chop” plays like Autopsy has jumper cables connecting their lizard brain directly to yours. At times it feels like neither listener nor band is going to survive Morbidity Triumphant… but what a way to go.

#4. The Headless Ritual (2013). Here’s a slab that snuck up on me. The Headless Ritual has been stuck in Macabre Eternal’s shadow, first retching for our attention while the world was still marveling over Autopsy’s first long player in sixteen years. Now that time has granted it space of its own, the album reveals itself to be a varied beast that conjures mood and menace over the course of ten killer tracks. The opening troika of “Slaughter at the Beast House,” “Mangled Far Below,” and “She Is a Funeral” launches the album flawlessly, showcasing everything Autopsy does well. The highlights keep coming, with “When Hammer Meets Bone” ranking among the outfit’s nastiest and most effective transgressions. I’m surprised The Headless Ritual landed this high, but let it gibber at you for a while and you might wind up brainwashed, too.

3. Severed Survival (1989). You shut up. This is one of the best death metal albums ever, and if we were ranking Autopsy albums by historical importance, it would obviously top the list. Severed Survival is the sound of Autopsy stripping the version of Death found on Scream Bloody Gore down to its essence, bringing the resulting slurry to a boil, and recording the disgusting noises it makes before evaporating entirely. Play opener “Charred Remains,” and the force of the band’s vision still shatters your skull all these years later. Even though this is essentially a flawless death metal album, Severed Survival doesn’t rep a fully realized version of Autopsy. The band perfected the putrid doom side of their sound on follow-up Mental Funeral, which is why this seminal slab lands here. Shut up.

2. Macabre Eternal (2011). The epic and incredible Macabre Eternal is evidence that, while Autopsy may have been hibernating for years, ideas for Autopsy were germinating the whole time. I know of nothing else like Macabre Eternal, with its sixty-five minutes of exquisitely paced and sequenced stöopid and transgressive death metal. Opener “Hand of Darkness” invites you along for a ride that finds Autopsy expanding what they do while never losing touch with the band’s essence. Eric Cutler takes over the mic on “Dirty Gore Whore,” somehow upping the ante on the vocal antics of Chris Fucking Reifert. Reifert comes for his crown, though. The bonkers “Sadistic Gratification” lands a death metal Triple Lindy, sustaining itself over eleven minutes of depravity. Autopsy has Painkiller chained to a wall in the basement, just to be sure that Macabre Eternal has no competition for the title of “Best Comeback Ever”… and also because, in the universe the band conjures here, torturing things is fun.

1. Mental Funeral (1991). Aw, would you look at that? Our death metal boy geniuses are all grown up. Between Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, Autopsy ”matured” into a band in full control of their sound. The lurching doom that reared its head on the act’s debut staggers into the spotlight here as a newly minted partner–and thus was born Autopsy’s second child, the death-doom subgenre. The songs are there on Mental Funeral–the songs are always there with Autopsy— but the album stands out for its ability to sustain an atmosphere of nightmarish disorientation. Second track “In the Grip of Winter” pummels and plods, setting the template for a record that whips between paces with no thought spared for the listener’s delicate vestibular balance. These transitions, explored further on tracks like “Robbing the Grave” and “Hole in the Head,” are a huge part of what I love about Autopsy. That’s why I reach for Mental Funeral before Severed Survival, and that’s why this genre-expanding classic stands atop my own personal pile of innards and mystery slop as the immortal Autopsy’s best work.

Official AMG Ranking

The contributors’ votes have been cast and counted. Certain life events precluded the creation of a Google sheet to poll the entire staff, who would have ignored its existence anyway. Here, to be carved into unwilling torsos everywhere, are the results of the experiment and the Official AMG Ranking for Autopsy.

#8. Shitfun (1995), with 3 points out of a possible 24.⁴

#7. Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves (2014), with 7 points out of a possible 24.

#6. Acts of the Unspeakable (1992), with 10 points out of a possible 24.

#5. The Headless Ritual (2013), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#4. Morbidity Triumphant (2022), with 14 points out of a possible 24.

#3. Macabre Eternal (2011), with 20 points out of a possible 24.

#2. Mental Funeral (1991), with 21 points out of a possible 24.

#1. Severed Survival (1989), with 22 points out of a possible 24.

If you don’t know Autopsy, you can rectify that by listening to this playlist assembled by Steel Druhm, Dr. A.N. Grier, and Ferox (with one contribution granted to our still-nameless Shitfun defender):

Addendum of Poop: In Defense of Shitfun

Shitfun overstays and actively drains brain—true! Rowdy, punky nuggets (goregrind-leaning “Fuckdog,” “The Birthing,” “Brain Damage”) capture an especially pungent side of this low-brain, high-pit brand of death metal. Autopsy sans dedicated bassist relied on sturdy plonks from the core-trio players, or one of two additional bodies from Autopsy-offshoot Abscess. So, still, why Shitfun? Trademark moments of sludgy, stoner-esque harmonies rumble with pipe-bursting low-end (“Humiliate Your Corpse,” “Maim Rape Kill Rape”) and upfront, impacted-bowel Reifert howls (“Deathmask,” “Grave Violaters,” “Bathe in Fire”)—a nasty flow with audible grit through hot-mic and string-chunked loudness. As an excretion of elements scraped off previous successes, Shitfun sounds more sonically balanced than preceding Acts and maintains a grotesque, corny identity a few plies more solid than some of the more interchangeable outings of post-reformation Autopsy. Don’t be so quick to flush it!

– Dolphin Shiterer

The post AMG Goes Ranking – Autopsy appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

It took Afterbirth more than two decades to launch their first deep space probe with 2017’s The Time Traveler’s Dilemma. The Long Island gurglers were worth the wait, as that album and 2020’s ingenious Four Dimensional Flesh sketched out the band’s vision of prog-enhanced brutal death metal. Kronos deemed Four Dimensional Flesh “one of the most charismatic and original death metal albums you’ll ever hear,” and in the wake of that triumph a new Afterbirth slab qualifies as a full-fledged Event. In But Not Of stares down the pressure, mixing a bold and brilliant melange of tropes and subgenres into the act’s slammy stew. This is music to concuss you and then heal your battered brain. Nobody mixes beauty into brutality like Afterbirth, and In But Not Of finds these maniacs doing that in new and thrillingly inventive ways. This is an album to savor and return to again and again, a companion piece to Four Dimensional Flesh that manages to equal if not surpass its predecessor.

The excursions on In But Not Of venture further into distant parsecs as the album progresses. The savagery of the first five tracks gives way to a back half that conducts experiments wild enough to send the meek of spirit looking for the nearest fainting couch. The band’s sonic palette still poses Kronos’s immortal question: “What if Voivod, on occasion, slammed?” Afterbirth just finds new ways to answer it on In But Not Of. Here you’ll find thrilling brutal death freakouts that give way to alt-rock-inflected b-sections with riffs that could have come from Jane’s Addiction or Spacehog (Song o’ the Year candidate “Devils with Dead Eyes”). You’ll encounter post-driven slow builds that explode into spasms of slam (Song o’ the Year candidate “In But Not Of”), and menacing death metal that evokes a trip to some frozen necroplanet (Song o’ the Year candidate “Angels Feast on Flies.”). You never know what’s around the next corner on In But Not Of, but Colin Marston’s production work and the strength of Afterbirth’s songwriting keep the record cohesive.

In But Not Of’s first five tracks feel directly descended from the sci-fi explorations of Four Dimensional Flesh. Opener “Tightening the Screws” is intro track by way of total immersion. There’s no wasted time here–the song’s two minutes of brutal death metal are a bracing plunge into the world of the album. Afterbirth hits warp speed with the incredible “Devils with Dead Eyes.” The inimitable hypergurgles of Will Smith tie these initial tracks together. The former Artificial Brain frontman is, here as always, largely incomprehensible–yet somehow he elevates everything he touches. His vocals in one section of “Autoerotic Amputation” compete with a MOAR COWBELL percussion freakout. The combined effect conjures up something like a hip-hop track that plunged into a black hole. “Vivisected Psychopomp” features another alt-rock descended b-section, this one recalling an amped-up version of The Cure. The contrasts in this first section invigorate the listener, but Afterbirth always finds their way back to the true north of brutal fvkkin’ death metal.

The back half of In But Not Of is bolder in its departures. “Hovering Human Head Drones” announces the shift in tone, playing like a death metal song that’s trying to birth itself by pushing through a membrane of gorgeous alt-rock. The double whammy of “In But Not Of” and “Angels Feast on Flies” may be the slab’s high point. “In But Not Of” repurposes post-metal to Afterbirth’s unique ends. Its crescendoes and eventual growling catharsis make for a song to captivate your synapses while it pushes you toward a personal deadlift record. The Tangerine Dream vibes of “Time Enough Tomorrow” are the only less-than-successful experiment in a section that, on the whole, is as protean as it is captivating. Only the dull and flaccid of soul will be put off by the non-metal points of comparison; In But Not Of is first and foremost a brutal death record, it’s just one that invites new and vital influences into the tent.

Between this and Wormhole’s Almost Human, slam and brutal death are having themselves a moment. The two albums, considered together, are a testament to metal artists’ ingenuity and their ability to elevate even little-loved subgenres to new creative heights. In But Not Of marks a fresh high for the Slam-aissance. Afterbirth birth one of the best records of the year, a towering achievement that already feels destined to stand the test of time.¹

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: facebook.com/afterbirth | afterbirth.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: October 20, 2023

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