Mortician's Apprentice

Sledgehammer Autopsy is a fairly new death/ grind band consisting of members from Satanic Destroyer and Slaughter By The Scythe. That in itself is a bad omen. Good news though, it doesn’t suck! The music is very brutal, and the members have matured greatly since their ‘black metal’ days. Part of the reason is probably because they had help, but I’m not shooting down the chance of newfound creativity. The music is solid for the most part. I personally find it to be a bit monotonous at times, but it’s short.

The vocals tend to be a bit heavier then they need to be, considering the band’s music isn’t brutal enough for the incoherent screams of a future Glen Benton. Not to say it falls apart on itself. The drums are beastly and fit perfectly with the music. The guitars for the most part are solid and contain some fairly good riffs. The bass isn’t easy to hear, but put the songs on bass booster and your brain will implode. Gates To Hell and Entomophobia are both easily the standouts on the album. I will say that addition of Lewis Black and Bender from Futurama are funny, but really unnecessary and sound like the band is trying to hard to make their grind sound not be taken so seriously. With good grind, you do not need the silly samples (though I am an avid Lewis Black fan).

A few things to say that I didn’t like that I didn’t mention above. The brutal growls are good, but dear god never do the horrendous deathcore pig squeals that plague Bluuuh! and Bunghole Annihilation. Also, the high pitch yells in the latter track, ditch them. They completely ruined the song and flow. Lastly, diversify, because the last part of the release sounded meshed together and it was hard to separate the tracks form one another.

It’s a good release and a worthy download considering who’s behind the band. It is no Mortician or Aborted or some of the other pioneers, but it’s a good start in becoming something that could be big (just not deathcore, I beg of you).