Autopsy - The Headless Ritual

Published June 03 2013

*=Staff's pick	Slaughter At Beast House Mangled Far Below She Is A Funeral* Coffin Crawlers* When Hammer Meets Bone Thorns And Ashes Arch Cadaver* Flesh Turns To Dust Running From The Goathead* The Headless Ritual

Genre	Death Metal	Chris Reifert/Eric Cutler	Vocals
Tracks	10	Eric Cutler	Guitar
Running time	44 Min.	Danny Coralles	Guitar
Label	Peaceville Records	Joe Allen	Bass
Release	24 June 2013	Chris Reifert	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	Asphyx, Obituary, Death

In the budget for their 6th studio album Autopsy apparently was given the money to rent a truck. A truck used at high speed to crush the listener when the very first note of opening track 'Slaughter at Beast House' strikes and then used to back up and pulverize what remains when the tempo drops after two minutes! Changing the tempo, ranging from a mid-tempo base with doomy or up-tempo lines added, throughout songs is nothing new in the Autopsy book but on 'The Headless Ritual' the overall variation and dynamic in the music reach heights unheard in the past.

The key previous albums all had their distinctive elements in the rather straightforward thrashy debut, the horror-flick inspired doom-laden 'Mental Funeral' and the weird and vocally twisted 'Macabre Eternal'. This time around the Autopsy beast has digested all of these efforts and spewed forth a deadly volley of insane death metal. Variation being the key 'The Headless Ritual' is filled with brilliant memorable riffs ranging from straightforward and thrashy as in 'When Hammer Meets Bone' to horror-flick sounding and upright weird as in 'Coffin Crawlers' and 'Flesh Turns to Dust'. The bass is varied but generally high up in the mix and push the music forward along with the drums. The guitars partly falls in line with the rhythm section and partly battles against it creating an eerie atmosphere throughout the album.

The vocals are a direct descendent to the predecessor 'Macabre Eternal' and Reifert partly screams, partly vomits forth his messages of gore and horror. The production is quite stripped in an old-school fashion and makes the music seem sincere compared to a modern all-in all instruments to the max production. Adding a bunch of endangered shrieking chaotic thrashy solos makes for the cherry on top of this brilliantly dynamic effort.

The one problem I can find with this album is the lack of new elements in the Autopsy brew. All ingredients have been used before, but quite frankly that is a minor problem when the band treats us with such a twisted behemoth of an album. Were it not for the calming effect of the closing instrumental title track death metal fans all over the world would go berserk when the last notes of 'The Headless Ritual' fades. This is on all counts Autopsy's best effort since 'Severed Survival' and an essential release!

If you confess to having even the slightest interest in death metal it is your bloody duty to walk, nay run, down to your local record merchant and purchase this monster on the spot. You still there? I said run!

See also review of: Tourniquets, Hacksaws And Graves

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
9	7	8	8	9

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Tengan