Morbidity Triumphant

With their first album in seven years, Bay Area death-metal titans Autopsy continue the gore-splattered comeback run they began with 2011’s *Macabre Eternal*. This time, the classic lineup of vocalist/drummer Chris Reifert and guitarists Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler are joined by new bassist Greg Wilkinson (also of Brainoil), who signed on in 2021. “What’s Greg bringing to the table?” Reifert asks, repeating Apple Music’s question. “A lot of liquor, so there’s that. But he’s also adding some cool dimensions to the songs and coming up with some really creative basslines. He’s just a cool person to have around, too.” On *Morbidity Triumphant*, Reifert returns to the fertile lyrical ground of early Autopsy staples like 1989’s *Severed Survival*, writing songs inspired by ’80s horror movies, serial killers, and bizarre cults of his own creation. Below, he comments on each track. **“Stab the Brain”** “We wanted to start off with something right out of the gate that just laid into things. We wanted to immediately stab your brain musically. Lyrically, it’s about a cult ritual where a woman is standing over a coffin spread-legged and squirts a baby out into the coffin and then stabs it in the brain. So, that part’s pretty literal. Things get nonsensical from there—all of a sudden, she’s like a dead queen that everyone needs to worship.” **“Final Frost”** “The end of the world is a popular theme in metal because the apocalypse is always fun to talk about. But rather than the Earth going up in a scorching ball of flame or something like that, it slowly freezes, and everyone gradually turns into frozen statues. I tried to pick interesting words that fit together well, that aren’t just like, ‘You’ve been hacked in half’ or whatever. Everything’s been done, so you’ve got to do better these days. Greg wrote the riff to that song. That was his contribution to the album, and he did a hell of a job.” **“The Voracious One”** “There’s two songs on this album that harken back to my favorite scenes from horror movies or horror stories from the olden days. I just had a rare moment of horror reflection, I guess. For some reason, I thought about that story from the first *Creepshow*, whether it’s from the movie or the book—‘The Crate.’ We used to write about horror stuff more back in the old days, on *Severed Survival* and stuff, but now we hardly ever do it anymore. But fuck, there’s no rules here. Musically, it’s a slower kind of shambling, stoner-y thing.” **“Born in Blood”** “Lyrically, this doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot. It’s just blood and guts and gruesomeness and all things slimy and squishy and nasty. It\'s not a cohesive story, but I did steal the title from a line in the new *Dexter* season, so that kind of stood out. Musically, this is pretty old-school death metal, to use that tired old chestnut of a term. It’s pretty straightforward, but it’s a lot of fun.” **“Flesh Strewn Temple”** “This is a Danny song—he wrote most of the riffs for the record. Lyrically, it’s another cult reference, this time about a modern-day human sacrifice cult. I imagine it exists in some remote place in the world that no one goes to and that has no access to technology or anything like that. One of those places that’s frozen in time but still exists in 2022. And there’s flesh strewn everywhere, pretty much.” **“Tapestry of Scars”** “That one is about someone who’s super into self-harm—cutting and scarring and all that—but in an artistic way. Not even because they’re trying to make up for something wrong with their life or whatever—or maybe that’s completely what it’s about. Either way, they’re obsessed with turning their entire body into one giant scab or cut or sore or scar or whatever. The object is to have nothing unscarred, from head to toe—not even a millimeter. So, you’re a walking tapestry or scars, basically.” **“Knife Slice, Axe Chop”** “This is another rare moment of reflection. I’m usually not a looking-back person. But I thought it’d be cool to do a song about watching horror movies back when we were obsessed with finding the goriest, splatter-iest, bloodiest movies. Just go to the video store, rent a pile of movies, and watch them over and over. You’re rewinding your favorite scenes, like, ‘Did you see that head fly across the street?’ I think the video we did for this one perfectly captured that essence.” **“Skin by Skin”** “That one is about someone that preys on people who are vulnerable. They meet people in the street and say, ‘Hey, I’ll take you home and make you safe and give you food and shelter.’ And then, when it’s too late to get out, they notice everything in the entire house is made of human skin sewn together: faces, legs, hands, feet, torsos—you name it. I’m talking the ceiling, the floor, the walls, everything. And guess what? This person that just got suckered into the house is the next piece.” **“Maggots in the Mirror”** “Here’s another one where I was thinking about a scene from an old horror movie. I don’t know why I thought of it, but I had a flashback to the scene in *Poltergeist* where the dude is looking in the mirror and, next thing you know, he’s ripping his face off and shit. Kind of a classic scene. So, that was the inspiration for that one. One of my favorite lines in the song is, ‘Your face is a worm farm.’ I prefer not to reference old movies anymore, but once in a while, you’ve just got to fucking go for it.” **“Slaughterer of Souls”** “This is another one that’s not really about anything in particular. It’s just a matter of putting cool words together in cool structures. There’s no storyline. Looking back at the lyrics, it just seems like a kind of weird psychosis that I can’t explain. I was alerted to the At The Gates album *Slaughter of the Soul*, but this is just different enough to not worry about it. Plus, we’re not calling our album that. Plus, At The Gates is cool, so it’s not a terrible thing to be mentioned with.” **“Your Eyes Will Turn to Dust”** “Again, there’s no storyline on this one. It’s just a title that sounded cool and kind of scary. It’s just words strung together in a way that I thought was cool. And it’s fun to read. Even if it wasn’t set to music, it’s something I can trip out on reading.”

THE LONG-AWAITED FULL-LENGTH RETURN OF THE US DEATH METAL PIONEERS FOR A NEW BOUT OF SUPREME SICKNESS. “Absolutely brilliant. "Morbidity Triumphant" is definitely one of the year's best death metal albums” - Blabbermouth Since first bursting onto the death metal scene with the now genre classic ‘Severed Survival’ back in 1989, and following up with the equally revered ‘Mental Funeral’ album, the influential US quartet has carved an unwavering legacy over three decades as masters and purveyors of the vile sides of the extreme metal spectrum. And now, Autopsy marks its reinvigorated return, presenting the first new full-length studio opus since 2014’s ‘Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves’ with ‘Morbidity Triumphant’; a savage offering of brutal death, showing the US legends still have an unbridled hunger for the sadistic, never reluctant to step beyond the threshold of decency. ‘Morbidity Triumphant’, the band’s eighth album, is truly a dark delight for seasoned and new listeners alike, with a raw organic sound perfectly encapsulating what makes Autopsy so distinguishable among its peers, for what could easily be considered one of its strongest offerings to date. The driving force of Autopsy as ever is the virtuoso guitar pairing of Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles, effortlessly trading off their schizophrenic leads and switching from all-out death metal madness to groove-laden heavy doom, with unmistakable drum/vocal legend Chris Reifert being master of proceedings, spewing his own infinitely creative maniacal musings. ‘Morbidity Triumphant’ also notably marks the first album to feature new bassist Greg Wilkinson, currently also seen in Static Abyss along with Chris. ‘Morbidity Triumphant’ was recorded at Opus Studios, with long-associated engineer Adam Munoz at the helm. Mastering was completed by Ken Lee. The cover artwork appears courtesy of Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Bloodbath), with a new work of twisted and sinister genius. Autopsy will be supporting ‘Morbidity Triumphant’ with a series of dates throughout the remainder of 2022.

Energized by the presence of a new bassist, the death metal pioneers still stand apart from the pack.

In 1987 drummer and vocalist Chris Reifert, not long after his departure from DEATH, and guitarist Eric Cutler formed AUTOPSY, one of death metal's most revered bands. Their early impact helped define what death metal is; their influence upon key bands and hordes of fans is simply immeasurable, and...

Autopsy return with another gore laden death metal masterclass in 'Morbidity Triumphant'! Read Gavin Brown's review here on Distorted Sound!

"Upon a rigorous inspection, I can say the house is in very good shape. Watch your step as you walk in, however, lots of blood."

A review of Morbidity Triumphant by Autopsy, available worldwide September 30th via Peaceville.

Death metal pioneers Autopsy are back with their first full-length album in years, but it feels like they never missed a step.