New Jersey’s Fit For An Autopsy are purveyors of the lately maligned ‘deathcore’ genre, ploughing a similar furrow to the likes of Thy Art Is Murder and Oceano, although this, their third album, promises a newly reinvigorated band, with a change of vocalist and an updating of their sound.
Opener ‘Absolute Hope Absolute Hell’ makes good on this promise, with an ambient, djent flavoured intro, before a doomy, downtuned riff kicks in. New man Joe Badolato screams “watch it suffer, watch it burn, watch it die” as the song heads for a more traditional deathcore midsection, with our man belching a vitriolic “bleurgh” over hyperactive drums and melodic guitar leads.
‘Wither’ wastes no time in getting straight to the point, with an opening salvo of savage beatdowns and a growled invitation to “put me in the fucking ground”. The band show off the new influences they have taken on board, with shades of The Dillinger Escape Plan and even a death metal version of early Architects, as some off kilter riffing and lead guitar flourishes back up a “fucking suffer, motherfucker” diatribe from the pissed off frontman.
The band make it a hat-trick of winning opening songs as ‘Saltwound’ explores the more melodic side of deathcore, with the brutal riffs taking a back seat to some stellar drum work and an outstanding vocal performance, and a guitar solo which is almost ‘hair’ metal but manages to stay on the right side of cheesy. After such a strong start, the band do lose focus somewhat over the next few tracks, which are meat and potatoes deathcore, with more than a nod to scene heavyweights Whitechapel and The Acacia Strain, although they delve back into their box of new tricks for album highlight ‘Ghosts In The River’. This is the most outstanding track on the album by some distance, with effects laden vocals, a riff reminiscent of Tesseract and some more masterful drumming also contributing to the most melodic effort on the album.
‘Hollow Shell’ further showcases the consistently amazing drum work, which for an at times fairly generic album, is outstanding throughout, an almost funk beat propelling the song along in an interesting and inventive way, rather than merely blasting away alongside the rumbling bass and gravel throated vocals. The guitar work is understated and mellow on a track that, unusually, has the drums front and centre.
Album closer ‘Swing The Axe’ puts the emphasis on the band’s ‘core’ rather than ‘death’ elements, with a Converge style intro, some more old school Architects worship and a midrange vocal giving the track more of a metalcore feel than the previous heavier offerings.
‘Absolute Hope, Absolute Hell’ is a solid effort overall, being a mix of the often thrillingly inventive and the sometimes predictably pedestrian. If the band can find a little more consistency and tighten up their quality control, they could be onto a real winner when it becomes time for album number four.
TOM DANIEL