Couldn't Tell the Bodies Apart

As I write this, I'm still somewhat shooken up by the strangely marketed sentences that come with this album located on a small cardboard flap incased inside the plastic shrinkwrap on the CD's spine:

"Finally, Germany's brutal slam death outfit unleashes their highly anticipated, and long overdue debut full length! "Couldn't tell the bodies apart" aka negative slamming brutality at it's (sic) best. [...] this release is guaranteed to kill you!"

Now despite the fact that this marketing flap contains the sentence that this release is guaranteed to kill me.... I'm also somewhat astounded by the grammar error found in it; the word "it's" when the writer clearly meant to write the word "its" instead. Then again, I can't expect much grammar coordination from a Japan-based record label and their failure to distinguish the word "its" from a contraction of the words "it is", so I'll cut them some slack there. Nonetheless, this album does have some visually interesting aspects, I mean the artwork itself doesn't go as far to some Tony Koehl exaggerated morbid violent/sexual bombarded album cover, just some blood and gore in its finest display as the cover depicts disfigured corpses impaled on spears. The album title completely reflects the music and the art itself. A disc as brutal as this could have gone just fine without the marketing flap.

The music on here is not only impressive to my liking as far as brutal slamming death metal reaches, but the fact that these guys don't pride themselves on how heavy their music is is another aspect I enjoy. It's just not-so-clean fun. Filthy slams, brutal riffs, guttural vocals and blast beats are all of the norm here, but the fact that this band also employs deathcore-esque breakdowns into their assault feels like they're just giving a big "fuck you" to all formulaic elements of a specific genre.

To get on with the vocals, I want to make note that the vocalist is female. Yes, you read that correctly... if you've already heard this album, that is a woman doing the lead vocal work heard on this release. Frankly, I want to just make note that these are without a doubt the deepest growls of any sort I've ever heard a female vocalist perform. Most to all female growlers, you can actually (if you're like me at least) hear in their voice a tad bit as they're growling, a small pigment or clue in the sound that their throat is projecting that they are female. It's like, Arch Enemy, Cerebral Bore... those sort of bands. It's hard to explain, but their vocalists and all female growlers before and after them have had some sort of sound that partially gives away that they're female albeit it would sound different if it was a man doing those same types of vocals in those bands.

With that said, I want to state here, that there is NONE of those clues for the vocals in Awaiting the Autopsy. Absolutely literally no indication that the vocalist here is female. It literally one hundred percent sounds like a man. Although, in contrast to the growls, she does occasionally lets out a tortured-esque scream in variable moments within the music that sounds a little more feminine in its tone than her growls, but her gutturals are without a doubt just impressive. In fact, the vocals are so ridiculously deep that I'm not even sure if they're exhaled. I've debated for a while if these are exhaled or inhaled vocals. If they're inhaled, my praise retains no different from them being exhaled. The fact that a woman can generate this sound is nothing short of amazing and absolutely badass.

If skullcrushing slams and really, really slow heartstopping breakdowns are up your alley, then this album is for you. Everything down to the production tone is impressive and I'd rank this album across a board of alltime favorite slam albums if I ever were to create such a list. The only issue I have is that this record tends to wear off and become a bit boring with too many listens. It's good for the occasional dose of brutal music, but not to be taken in overly large doses.

Best songs: "Baseball Bat Lobotomy", "Feet First Woodchipper Suicide" and "Intestinal Self Strangulation"