Another awesome digi-pack release from everyone’s favourite masters of madness and gore?! Killer! So what do we have here… three tracks of new material, along with all the sold-out EPs (including the recent Tomb Within) re-mastered by the band? Interesting… but weren’t all those older EPs featured on past reissues previously? Completely unavailable they are not, that is certain. Anyways, the awesome presentation and (once again) lengthy footnotes make this release very desirable… and who wouldn’t want to have all those legendary releases within one big bundle? I ain’t complaining (I got that out of my system now).
So this is essentially an opportunity for non-die-hard fans to get their hands on this material and another nail in the coffin for obsessed collectors such as me. Why not, I guess…
For starters, let us talk about these new tracks and how they fit into the Autopsy-legacy. The band’s previous two comeback releases have received high acclaim from all corners of the globe, and the follow-up to ‘95s absolutely fucking awesome Shitfun album (if you think this album sucks, you’ve got no idea what Autopsy’s about, by the way, this is not a matter of ‘opinion’, it’s a matter of having a clue), Macabre Eternal’s indeed strong for a comeback album. Yet it felt somewhat like a new Abscess album, after all it’s just guitarist Eric Cutler who wasn’t involved in the ‘project’. What the full-length also lacked was the maliciousness so essential to an Autopsy album. Way too polished studio sound and lack of vocal bite made the gore-kings seem tame and safe – the danger was gone, it was all a bit too fun. Of course this is being very harsh, as I effectively really like the record, but I like it on the same terms that I enjoyed Abscess’ Dawn of Inhumanity. So, when sliding this comp into the CD-player, the question predominant in my mind was “So what’s next…” Let me tell you…
The title track ‘All Tomorrow’s Funerals’ does in fact have a very old school vibe to it. Reifert’s vocals are growl low and completely inaudible, seemingly mimicking the abovementioned Shitfun, but due to the production they don’t really come across as quite as demented and somewhat over-planned. All the ingredients for a great Autopsy song are present, though, the dark riffs, trademark song-writing and solos battles. We eventually get to an obscene vocal break, that I can’t really wrap my head around… it’s definitely Reifert, but I’m not so sure if it’s great or a bit sad? The classic song-writing then commences with an excellent doom build-up. Everything’d be so fine in Autopsy-land if I’d only be less anal about production… The second track, Broken People starts with a furiously rocking mad solo, and boy do those keep coming. The chorus is another thing that I cannot wrap my head around, but I guess it works. Next up Autopsy conclude their totally unnecessary quest of re-recording old demo tracks. So it’s Mauled To Death this time…it’s a decent re-recording, don’t get me wrong… just not much point to it. Next up’s Maggot Holes another ‘classic new’ track with that trademark song-writing and riffing. The new material is generally pretty damn good. Hopefully they’ll be getting the sound right in the near future. (At the end of the record we’re also ‘treated’ with an outro called Sign Of The Corpse… it’s not exactly outstanding or, again, necessary… it’s just there anyways.)
Next up is 2010’s The Tomb Within… featuring such modern classic as My Corpse Shall Rise and closing with Mutant Village, I remember feeling completely overwhelmed and ecstatic by the sheer reality of the Autopsy comeback and really loving this EP. On many levels it is more Autopsy than the subsequent full-length. Next up’s the comeback 7”, sound-wise the most Autopsy-like release of the new lot and I really hope they’ll consider recapturing this vibe for upcoming new stuff.
Finally it’s time for the truly great material to hit. The song (comp-track) Funereality’s first, a doom-laden evil brute that’ll bring shivers down your spine. Fucking awesome. Next we get the ‘Fiend For Blood’ EP. Never considered the band’s strongest work, it acts (as Autopsy’s EPs tend) as a bridge from one era to the other – released a mere year after ‘Mental Funeral’ and only months before ‘Acts of the Unspeakable’, it foretold the future back in ’92. The thing about ‘Fiend For Blood’ is that whilst classic Autopsy, it ain’t as strong as either of the above albums and lacks the ‘creative genius’ so ever-present in all of their other work.
The best is saved for last, as we plunge further back in time to behold the three-track EP ‘Retribution Of the Dead’. A thirteen minute beast, featuring three absolute masterpieces ‘In the Grip of Winter’, ‘Destined to Fester’ and the title track. An undoubted essential piece of listening to anyone even remotely interested in the genre, the ’91 EP is the strongest material on here. Absolutely essential.
So after over 70 minutes and 22-tracks we can conclude that it’s fine compilation and once we get past the first half of newer material it becomes firework of death metal genius. As it spans from 1991 to 2012 it’s also an interesting time-line for newer Autopsy fans. It definitely is not their strongest material – the albums are – so for anyone actually getting into them, I’d recommend picking up Mental Funeral and Severed Survival.
(7/10, Miika Virtanen)
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