Severed Survival

The production on my copy (I still have the original vinyl LP from 1989) is excruciatingly bad. The low end is flappy and so high in the mix that the bands bass player Steve DiGiorgio must have spent many a sleepless night planning the execution of producer and ex member of Metal Church John Marshall, well at least I would have. Luckily it’s not as bad as the production on Pray For War by UK thrashers Virus but it’s pretty damn close.

Yet a few listens in and I found myself warming to its unusual sound. Because of the odd noise emanating from my speakers the record broke free from the oceans of copycat thrash about and I found myself listening again and again. It’s pretty similar in speed and ferocity to drummer Chris Reifert’s previous band Death whose debut record Scream Bloody Gore is deemed to be somewhat of a classic around my house although I didn’t know anything about the band members at the time. All I knew then was that both albums sung about cartoonish horror and real life gore. For a spotty long hair like I was then it didn’t take much more to sell Autopsy to me. I remember Atheist and Autopsy getting reviews and add space at around the same time and Atheist always came out on top. In truth they probably deserved it musically but when you compared the record covers it was a no brainer. Autopsy’s depiction of a man’s flesh being pulled apart by surgical tools whilst he was still alive will always be ingrained into my memory. It was just so gnarly; it took some guts for Peaceville to release a package like that. Their reward for doing so of course was that I immediately went out and bought the thing so well done them.

Tracks such as Gasping For Air, Ridden With Disease and Charred Remains are as great (or as rubbish – depending on what side of the thrash fence you sit on) as their titles suggest and I’ve heard these tracks live with a good sound and it’s just not the same without the horrible production. I may be laying a lot of praise on here and most of it is deserved but one thing I would say is that if you played me Embalmed, Disembowel or Critical Madness today I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart at all. I’ve listened to this all day and I still couldn’t. With the likes of Obituary and late 80’s Napalm Death you could name the songs and air drum to the tricky parts. So Because of the very flat production Severed Survival has the odd accolade to be an album that I really love but I couldn’t really justify to anyone the reasons why.