Autopsy
Mental Funeral

THE REVIEW

The Autopsy... perhaps one of the most unjustly underrated death metal bands, a great band with a proud career behind them that has led to the creation of masterpieces like "Severed Survival," "Mental Funeral," "Acts Of The Unspeakable," and "Friend For Blood," a career that unfortunately ended quickly, leading to the dissolution of one of the best death metal bands.

It was 1989 when the promising drummer Chris Refeirt, who had played with Chuck Shuldiner in "Scream Bloody Gore," the very important and great debut album of Death, decided to create his own band by enlisting the excellent guitarists Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles and on bass, the young promise Steve Di Giorgio. After the grand "Severed Survival," a devastating debut album that put the band on par with groups like Morbid Angel and Obituary among the leading exponents of death metal that was emerging, "Mental Funeral" was released in 1991, which I consider in my opinion the best album ever composed by Autopsy and one of the best death metal albums of all time. "Mental Funeral" is the album of experimentation and the approach to even more rotten and slower sounds close to doom, the album is a concentrate of technique, power, and rawness. Completing this masterpiece is a devastating line-up led by Chris Refeirt who, besides impeccably and excellently hitting the drums, spices everything with a totally rotten and monstrous growl, the excellent guitarists Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles who, like a good axe duo, strike with totally rotten riffs (yes, even these are rotten, everything is rotten in this album) and with excellent solos, completing everything is Freeway Migliore, the replacement for Di Giorgio, proving to be an excellent bassist (listen to the central bass break in "Torn From The Womb").

The album opens with "Twisted Mass Of Burnt Decay," a chilling open track, "In The Grip Of Winter" freezes the blood due to the horror atmospheres created and Refeirt's terrible screams, the psychedelic "Fleshcrawl" leads to the masterpiece of the album "Torn From The Womb," cold, rotten, and very slow, in my opinion, one of the best death metal songs ever, "Slaughterday" is a good song but nothing more, "Dead" is another live battle horse of the group, a slow march towards death, "Robbing The Grave" after a faster first part returns to very slow rhythms bordering on doom before bursting again at high speed, "Hole In The Head" finds a wild Refeirt who after a deadly drum solo emits terrible screams and growls capable of freezing the blood, in "Destined To Fester," we find the excellent skills of the guitarists and the bassist capable of offering an impeccable central bass break, "Bonesaw" is a very brief burst with the drums blazing and a beautiful guitar solo that leads to "Dark Crusade" where we find a Refeirt capable of devastating both behind the skins and with his powerful demonic voice, the album closes with the splendid riff of the title track capable of freezing the blood. A masterpiece, absolutely essential because it marked the history of a genre.