ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY

Okay, I get it. Annotations of an Autopsy are pissed off. But I would be too if I put this EP out. Despite its slow, heavy riffs and beats, ‘Buried In A Bad Rep’ keeps returning to a heavy breakdown and gutter-scraping vocals shrouded in effects that disguise it to the point of obscurity. What the purpose of the hardcore gang-vocal “so suck my fucking dick” is supposed to be, I’m unsure. Whether homophobic, misogynistic, or a simple attempt to assert power through phallic symbolism, the line is juvenile at best. And if they’re trying to be ironic, they’ve failed miserably. ‘Reznov’ picks the EP up a little. The riffs are big but, before long, the breakdown makes another appearance to dominate the track. With gang vocals aplenty and climbing and clutching vine-like twisting guitars, the underlying attitude does little to make up for yet another tedious track. The bite of ‘Dark Days’ is a little stronger than the preceding tracks. The riffs, as before, are down-tempo dirges that drag their feet like a sulking teenager, but what has been promised thus far fails to materialise. ‘Stage Breaker’ is as bad as its title. The chorus of ‘There is no love / There is no respect / All we have is hate and misery / In this world full of agony’ is tedious, in both delivery and sentiment. And the down-tempo and dragging muted riffs are shot from the same gun barrel as the previous three tracks. Of the five tracks, ‘Ten Ton Hammer’ is by far the best, and that’s because it’s a Machine Head cover – and not a very good one at that. The guttural vocals are drenched in reverb, the gang vocals are supposed to do something powerful but fail, the riffs are good but fraught by the band’s determination to be as heavy as possible (i.e., slow), and the musicianship is restrained to the point of suffocation. Whatever Annotations Of An Autopsy thought they were gonna achieve with this, they have failed miserably.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Siege of Amida Records

EP

DARK DAYS

Review by Jason Guest

RUNNING TIME:

23:00

RELEASE DATE:

18th July 2011

TRACK LISTING

1) Buried in a Bad Rep
2) Reznov
3) Dark Days
4) Stage Breaker
5) Ten Ton Hammer

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

UK

"Whatever Annotations Of An Autopsy thought they were gonna achieve with this, they have failed miserably."