AUTOPSY - MENTAL FUNERAL (1991)
This is another early death/doom release that doesn't fall far from the OSDM tree, but boy does it have some very doomy and sedated riffs. A natural step past Obituary.
While Deicide went for blunt directness and Morbid Angel languished in satanic fury, Autopsy decided to take things into a far more grotesque and surreal direction with Mental Funeral. Here you'll find very low, guttural barks, odd, often angular guitar flourishes and an impending sense of dread. Autopsy's sound is like that of an abomination, unfit to live and so slowly screaming to death in agony.
The band trades between sabbathian dirges and midtempo pummelling. The former often has quite a powerful groove and at times even invokes the likes of Crowbar. There is some very evil and depressive Master of Reality worship, and that's rare to hear quite so directly on a death metal release. The later are chunky, rarely very fast either, and, if you're into that kind of thing, are well suited to headbanging.
We also get some more spooky, atmospheric guitar playing like on the interlude Fleshcrawl or the quiet moment on In the Grip of Winter before real violence kicks in. This is all really well accomplished and grafts to the more muscular moments in a way that gives this album a really cool, unique vibe and structure. All of the songwriting, for that matter, is really distinct and hideous.
This is a release I can only describe as freakish, and freaks like me eat this **** up. Autopsy had great songwriting and atmosphere, riffs with the best of them, and a very unique approach to low and slow that sets them apart from the pack. Totally essential and just a bit left field of your Deicides etc.