Severed Survival

Autopsy
Severed Survival
Peaceville Records

Blood, guts, the sound of chainsaws and hellish screams announce the coming of Severed Survival. Autopsy’s debut combined the growing Swedish death metal sound and the emerging American death metal sound. One of the first to actually put out an album, Autopsy carved out a bloody piece in history alongside Obituary and Necrophagia. Severed Survival starts off with speed of a deranged killer and flows in between moments of intense speed and mid tempo, doom dirges.

“Charred Remains” races through with the energy of a serial killer chasing you, never giving in while “Service For a Vacant Coffin” plods along as if the killer was just in a corner, striping bones...slowly. Many of the songs presented here of in the style of tremolo picked passages and lot of chucky palm muted riffs, like most early death metal. Not one passage strays to far from this sound. But sometimes death metal doesn’t need to sound new or inventive. Sometimes they just need to sound good.

One of the standout features, good or bad, is Steve Digiorgio’s loud and nasty bass. Some have mentioned how is doesn’t mesh well with the guitars and stands out a little too much. Maybe. But alongside Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles’ utterly ghastly guitar tone, it all meshes here.

Chris Reifort’s drums technique isn’t exactly great, but he doesn’t need to be. His double bass and admittedly horrible snare drums sound fits well with Digiorgio’s bass. Puts one backs the helm of Possessed and early Death. Reifort also delivers a great performance vocally, screaming and straining out narratives on death, blood, gore and guts.

“Waterlogged Corpse, back from the dead. Rips his eyeballs, from his head” – Gasping For Air. He makes unintelligible a compliment.

Production, of course, is shitty. If you don’t have a great stereo, it’s going to sound as is you were watching these guys on TV. A shitty TV.

But the dreadful production is what gave the early death metal albums their charm. As with Obituary’s Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death, this should be listened to again and again.

Stop reading and go buy this.