II: The Reign of Darkness

Annotations of an Autopsy are one of those bands that are constantly put down and labeled as a "core" band by "true" metalheads for their heavy, sludgy brand of deathcore that includes many pig squeals and glutteral growls. This style was best described in their "Welcome to Sludge City" and "Before the Throne of Infection" albums. While many, many metalheads (myself included) simply shunned these early releases or put them down, their newest release, "II: The Reign of Darkness" shows much promise for the band.

On this release, AOAA appear to be following in the footsteps of fellow deathcore pioneers, Job for a Cowboy (and from the sound of it, Carnifex) and moving away from the genre that helped put their name on the map in the first place. They focus on a much more straight-ahead death metal sound with zero pig squeals which should delight many. Also, the lyrical content has shifted from a gory, child molesting, cadaver raping sludgy filth to more fine-tuned content that deals with topics such as a dark, almost mystic subject to anti-Christianity (Impale the Sun).

As for the music, almost all factors of the former Annotations is gone. As mentioned before, zero pig squeals grace this album and the breakdowns are less abundant. The music itself is still relatively sludgy, downtuned and thick. This also proves as a major flaw due to fact that many songs lack diversity and you may find yourself checking the title of the song due to forgetting it easily.

So, all in all this is a vast improvement for Annotations, they have matured in both lyrical and music content as well as ditched those annoying squeals that many found annoying and although it is not perfect and at times, forgettable, it breathes new life into this band and hopefully gives them a more broader audience. Hopefully, this change may invite some former haters of the band to give them a second opinion, like I did. I reccoment any casual fan of death metal to check this new release out and even a harcore fan or two may give it a second spin.