Album Review - Morbidity Triumphant

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Welcome back metal heads to another episode of The Great Metal Debate podcast. I'm Xander and today we will be talking about the brand new album by the old school death metal band Autopsy titled Morbidity Triumphant. I've been a fan of this band for a good 11 years now ever since an old friend of mine showed me their first two classic albums Severed Survival and Mental Funeral. I have always enjoyed the harrowing vocals of Chris Reifert and respected him for his ability to not only be the lead vocalist but the drummer at the same time! Its extremely rare for a drummer to be doing vocals in any genre of music. As for the band's later records, I found myself enjoying Macabre Eternal and Headless Ritual. Morbidity Triumphant is the band's first album in 8 years since the release of 2014's Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves. This band has made a name for itself over the last three decades and have achieved legendary status among all metalheads. It is a shame that I have never seen them in concert, especially since they managed to unintentionally create a brand new form of mosh pit during the last Maryland Death Fest. I have to keep it G-rated so I won't talk about that here, but if you know ... you know. Kicking things off we have the first track titled "Stabbed In The Brain". We are immediately blown away by the immense power of Chris' drums and not even a minute into the track we have our first of many chaotic guitar solos. It is everything that you can come to expect from a band like Autopsy. Next we have a song called "Final Frost". It is yet another solid track where the vocals continue to stand out as always. There is just something about the way Chris' vocal sound that give it that extra zombie horror vibe. I especially like the way the song ends with the vocals being dragged along as the music fades out. The guitar intro for "The Voracious One" has a very windy but rhythmic sound. Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler make the music for this track sound like rock music but with Chris's monstrous voice layered over it. It almost sounds a little groovy in a way. "Born In Blood" is another banger and so is "Flesh Strewn Temple". "Tapestry of Scars" and "Knife Slice, Axe Chop" had their incredible moments along with audible bass in the sound mix. Greg Wilkinson is the newest addition to the line-up and does an outstanding job filling in for bass. Moving on we have a song titled "Skin by Skin" where we hear more of the bass in the beginning accompanied by a cavernous bellow by the vocalist and his very slow drum beat. This one is honestly kind of a boring track and it serves as filler. Sure, the song picks up in speed a litte but only for one part. The guitar solo was also sorta mediocre. "Maggots in the Mirror" is a much faster track that I could see a crowd of people doing a circle pit. It definitely seems like this album can't make up its mind whether or not it wants to be fast or slow. There's a pattern. Slow songs then fast songs, slow songs then fast songs. "Slaughter of Souls" goes back to being slow again, almost as if this entire album is meant for High Intensity Interval Training. "Your Eyes Will Turn to Dust" is the final track on this album and its the same formulaic approach. Starting slow, then picking up the pase only to go into death doom territory. This is the type of thing that Autopsy has always done. Sure, it's great death metal but at the same time its really hard to get into it when there's no real twist or turns. Morbidity Triumphant is not a bad album. In fact this album is really good just like all of their other albums with the exception of Shit Fun. We don't talk about that album. Every great band has their magnum opus and every great band eventually has their St. Anger. I love Autopsy. Autopsy is a band that never strays from the path of brutality, which is why I highly respect them. So with all things considered, I'm going to give Morbidity Triumphant an 8 out of 10.