AUTOPSY — Mental Funeral (review)

AUTOPSY — Mental Funeral album cover Album · 1991 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Mental Funeral" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US death metal act Autopsy. The album was released through Peaceville Records in April 1991. At a time where many US death metal acts incorporated more technical playing and sophisticated ideas to their music, Autopsy remained a guarantee for old school sounding, filthy and doomy death metal. Today that may not sound neither original nor innovative, as a lot of artists play music in that style, but back then they did stand out and they were generally considered original. They may be old school, but it´s not because their sound didn´t develop from album to album, because it certainly did, and they in some ways unconventional.

"Severed Survival (1989)" was a pretty straight sounding old school death metal album, that´s basically brutal thrash with growling vocals, but already on the "Retribution for the Dead (1991)" EP (which shares two tracks with "Mental Funeral" albeit in different versions), Autopsy made a notable change to their sound as they began incorporating slow doomy sections to their music. A stylistic element they would explore much further on "Mental Funeral".

"Mental Funeral" features 12 tracks distributed over a 37:54 minutes long playing time and it´s a perfect length for the album. Autopsy really understand how to entertain their listeners with a relatively varied songwriting approach. We´re treated to both faster-paced and mid-paced heavy grooves and of course the many doomy sections mentioned above. Not all changes in pace or style work equally well, but the sometimes messy structures and adventurous ideas are part of the album´s charm and it´s always interesting to explore the music to see where it´s headed next. Tracks like "Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay", "In the Grip of Winter", "Robbing the Grave", and "Hole in the Head" are absolute old school US death metal classics and the same can be said about most of the material on "Mental Funeral".

The filthy and raw sound production provides the album with a gloomy and morbid atmosphere, which is only further enhanced by the gory lyrical themes, Chris Reifert´s brutal growling vocals, and the organic playing by the band. The twisted guitar harmonies, which are a trademark of Autopsy´s sound were also born on "Mental Funeral". "Mental Funeral" is often referred to as a classic US death metal album and rightfully so. It´s the band´s most genre defining release and to my ears their peak. If you´re interested in the doomier side of death metal, that´s still stylistically grounded enough in death metal, that it´s not valid to tag it doom metal, "Mental Funeral" is mandatory listening. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.
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siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Great review. You're right. They remained old school but they did it so well. I love this album a lot. One of my faves from that era

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