Death metal legends Autopsy are on the verge of releasing their eighth album, Morbidity Triumphant, on September 30.
Described as a “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” by the press release, Morbidity Triumphant also introduces new bass player Greg Wilkinson to help usher in the next chapter of Autopsy’s dominance.
HEAVY sent the band a list of questions to help us find out more.
HEAVY: Autopsy return for your first album in 8 years on September 30 with Morbidity Triumph. How are you feeling about it?
AUTOPSY: Really damn good. We’ve been plenty busy with other things like mini-lp’s, a live album and a bunch of travelling shows but yeah, we’ve been overdue for a proper full length album and the right time has finally rolled around. It’s been going over great so far so we’re pretty fuckin’ stoked!
What were you going for musically on the album.
Death metal in the way people would expect to hear from us. It’s what we do, ya know?
Chris is quoted as saying “buckle up, it’s a raw, rough and ugly ride.” Can you elaborate on that?
Give a listen and you’ll see what I mean. Haha!
8 years is a long time n music. Did you change your approach to writing and recording this one?
Not a bit. We established the way we conduct ourselves when it comes to writing and recording when we first got together and really haven’t strayed from that. No need to as it works for us just fine.
You have released the singles Skin By Skin and Knife, Slice, Axe, Chop. Are they a good sonic representation of the album as a whole?
I would say yes. Of course there’s more surprises and such lurking within the other nine songs but basically if you dig those two songs you’ll dig the whole album and if dislike or hate them, the same will go for the rest of the album. Ha! Pretty simple, really.
The videos for both are awesome, especially Knife, Slice, Axe, Chop which comes with a disclaimer. Was that for legal reasons, or did you genuinely fear for people’s health and sanity when watching the video?
Thanks! Not sure what the disclaimer is or was. If it’s something I said, then it was nothing to do with health or sanity. Haha! But if it’s the age confirmation thing that youtube added, that’s got nothing to do with anything we wanted or asked for. It took about two or three days for that to pop up and it was just a matter of time before that happened.
How much time and planning goes into the film clips?
I don’t know exactly. Maybe a couple of months for Knife Slice and possibly a couple of weeks for Skin By Skin. I’m not sure, as we just supplied the songs and the video creators did the rest. We just waited and checked stuff out as it was sent to us and said “Fuck yeah!” So since we weren’t involved in the actual creation of those, it’s hard to pin down the actual timeline.
This is also your first album with new bass player Greg Wilkinson. Tell us about him and what he brings to Autopsy.
Greg is someone we’ve known for years via seeing him in our rehearsal building, as he has his own room across the hall where one of his other bands plays. Besides Autopsy, he’s also involved with Deathgrave, Brainoil, Leather Glove and Shrinkwrap Killers. Plus, he owns and operates Earhammer Studios. Busy guy! In terms of Autopsy, he brings great chemistry and killer bass lines. A crucial combination.
The cover work done by Wes Benscoter is awesome. Was that something you sent to him as a rough idea or did he have full creative license?
Thanks, we love it too. We sent him very little. Maybe a couple of song titles and a bit of lyrics. Not much at all. He came up with the idea all on his own. What a maniac!
Autopsy formed back in 1987. What was the musical climate like that gave birth to the band, and where did you fit in?
We didn’t fit in at all. At that point here in the bay area the local scene was still very much thrash oriented. Death metal was still largely considered music for losers, weirdos and idiots. It only started to get accepted later, but that was fine by us. We loved rebelling against what was popular and doing what we wanted to do regardless of if we were wanted or not. Any rejection by the local elitists only fueled the fire for us.
What was your early vision for Autopsy, and how has it changed since?
Pretty much just playing the music we wanted to play and hear. Simple as that. We were hellbent and I guess we still are. So in that regard nothing’s changed. The cool thing is we stuck to our guns and now instead of playing for 10 people like in the old days, we can play for 10,000 today. Gotta love that!
How has death metal in general changed over the course of your career?
Musically not drastically as you can only do so much for it before it becomes not death metal. You can branch out with it a bit, but if you get too experimental or whatever you have to call it something else. Not that you can’t be unique or creative, because those traits should be encouraged. The biggest difference between now and the earlier days is most people have actually heard of it, even if they don’t like it. Back then if you asked s random person at the grocery store what death metal was you’d get a blank look, for example. Now there’s big death metal festivals and stuff which is great, but even cooler is the fact that there are now teenagers into it, meaning the torch is being passed on the next generation. And further cooler is that means this music has been withstanding the test of time and has only grown rather than diminished. Pretty mind boggling if you think about it.
What does the band have planned for the rest of 2022 and beyond?
The release of Morbidity Triumphant, one last show for the year and on to writing new material. We have a couple of gigs set for next year, but beyond those, we’re looking forward to whatever else we get up to. We’ve been on a hot roll since reforming 13 years ago, and we’re psyched to keep it going for as long as we can.
PRE-ORDERS LIVE AT https://autopsy.lnk.to/MorbidityTriumphant
