Foul Body Autopsy

Given the image, this band tries to promote, I went into this album expecting crushing, groovy grindcore ala Napalm Death, early Carcass and the like, however, I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not that much of a fan of anything which ends with the suffix "core", so hearing extremely melodic riffs, and enjoying songs which can last up to more than seven or eight minutes was quite amazing. I've known about Foul Body Autopsy for quite a few years now, but I never really bothered to check them out, writing them off as another boring gore-inspired band like their co-nationals Basement Torture Killings. This entire work of art proved me so god-damn wrong on so many levels. When listening to Foul Body Autopsy, rather than being reminded of the aforementioned acts, you can draw more similarities to bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder.

The epitome of this album, in my opinion, is the first song entitled "Humanity? (A World Starting to Decay)". It has everything I've been currently searching for in music. It's an eclectic mix of melodic death metal, black metal, deathcore and other genres one might tag this song with. The song starts out very frantically, with fast picked riffs and maniacal drumming, progresses for a long time without becoming the least bit boring, and ends in a very soft manner, with clean guitar picking. The guitar playing on this album is extremely proficient and technical. The one brain behind this band could have easily been four or five, because this sounds like a whole traditional band effort, and doesn't sound like anything a one-man band would be capable of. There are certain bass lines which are so damn chunky they leave you breathless, and the drums although most probably programmed still sound organic to a certain extent.

One of the more interesting things on this album, however, is the vocal range of Tom Reynolds the guy behind this band. He can do pig squeals, as evidenced on the third song entitled "And the World Looked On in Horror", he can growl in the sickest way possible, he can do black metal-style screeching and can also do deathcore-styled high-pitched vocals. The pacing of the album creates a sense of immensity within the listener, that it leaves him flabbergasted. There are so many mood changes and tempo changes within each song, that you can't just describe this album with one or two words. Usually, when a Cannibal Corpse or a Mayhem album comes out, you can describe them in two words. Brutal and dark, respectively; But this album is so multi-dimensional and multi-faceted it is impossible to categorize it so easily.

The name of the band, the image and the artworks on Foul Body Autopsy's albums literally do no god-damn justice to the music. All those components all point towards Foul Body Autopsy being just another generic grindcore band, but to be honest, there is little to zero grindcore or brutal death metal on this album. The lyrics on this album also show a certain level of leftist sensibilities which is very common within the grindcore scene. They are crafted immensely well and flow very efficiently and fit the music in the best possible manner so there's literally nothing to rant about in that respect. The only thing that bothered me a lot about this album, is its short length. I know it's become a cliche to rant about a masterpiece being too short, but damn, this release certainly warrants at least that.

I recommend this album to everyone who's into pretty interesting melodic death metal ala-Amon Amarth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Kalmah, Norther and the like. Simply freaking impeccable work.