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Весть о новом альбоме Autopsy я встретил с изрядной долей скептицизма. Тому есть несколько причин. Во-первых, группа, сформированная ударником Chris'ом Reifert'ом, никогда не вызывала у меня какого-то дикого восторга. Да и вообще, разве она могла? Разве что, в начале 90-ых, когда записывала свои лучшие работы. Да, своя ниша у них всегда была, все-таки Chris не самый последний человек в жанре: работал с Шульдинером, пригласил Стива ДиДжорджио для записи дебютника и его последователя (пожалуй, лучшего, что записывала группа), но Autopsy все равно лишь группа, имеющая относительно локальный успех. Во-вторых, материал, выпущенный после реюниона группы в конце нулевых, тоже мягко говоря, не впечатлял. Тем более что состоял он в основном из синглов, компиляций и записей живых выступлений. В общем, "The Headless Ritual" виделся мне очередным проходным death metal релизом...
А вот не тут-то было! Первая же вещь, "Slaughter At Beast House", прогоняет мою неуверенность в дееспособности группы. Быстрый темп, заданный началом этой "трехступенчатой" песни, вскоре замедляет ход, давая вступить мрачной барабанной партии, тревожному басу и наполненному муками вокалу Криса, который держит в напряжении около двух минут. Когда медленный темп "уходит" прочь и "адское пламя" разгорается с новой силой в кульминационный момент песни, начинаешь понимать, что Autopsy действительно вернулись к своей старой (и лучшей) форме. Грязный звук и маниакальные вокальные эффекты Reifert'а достигают своей цели, как никогда раньше. Стилистически можно разместить "The Headless Ritual" между "Mental Funeral" и "Acts of the Unspeakable". "Coffin Crawlers", своей атмосферой напоминающая фильм ужасов 80-ых; монументальная "She Is A Funeral", несмотря на свою продолжительность (более 7 минут), запоминается великолепной гитарной работой Danny Coralles'а, который своей lead-гитарой вдохнул жизнь в композицию, когда, казалось, нужно было ее заканчивать. Все десять песен, скрывающихся за, прямо скажем, не лучшей (но все-таки олдскульной) обложкой талантливого оформителя Joe Petagno, наполнены болью, кровью, стонами и воплями, доносящимися из самых глубин ада. И это не удивительно, ибо кроваво-красной нитью через альбом проходит тема пыток и прочего гуро: "When pools of blood are red and deep... / Your skull and mind are blown".
Да, "Slaughter At Beast House" и "She Is A Funeral" по своей продолжительности, может быть, больше, чем следовало, и вокал Reifert'а звучит порой слишком хаотично, но в том, что Autopsy создали более бешеного монстра, чем альбом "Macabre Eternal", нет никаких сомнений. Этот лонгплей видится мне замечательным возвращением в форму для калифорнийского квартета. Если вы хотите чего-то, готового сравниться с двумя первыми альбомами, то "The Headless Ritual" это, несомненно то, что вам надо. |
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A new breed of victims moved into this hell
Murders of innocents quickly befell
Again there was one left alive like before
She soon was turned into the beast's willing whore
A slave to it's hideous mutated sex
She'd kill for this unholy cannibal wretch
[Lead - EC]
Bearing it's voracious young
This nightmarish spawning begun
Tales of torture and screams
Bring unknowing blood offerings
See the midnight tour
Depicting scenes of carnage from the past
The myths are real, you're next to die
Your first visit will be your last
[Lead - DC]
You'll be slaughtered by the beast
2. Mangled Far Below
The ancient civilizations
In their temples filled with dread
Were linked together with their gods
By rivers flowing red
Prosperity and power
Gained from bodies without heads
In sacrifice the balance lies
The chosen stricken down
The gods' insatiable lust for death
Had limits never found
Harmony can only exist
With corpses on the ground
Humans squander greatness
The ways of wisdom gone
A cancerous shadow looming
I must bring back the dawn
Selected for this, I am
This world screams inside
The lambs await my coming
I see inside their minds
One by one the open minds
Are standing by my side
Taken from the hand of darkness
For sanity they've cried
Cast aside your past life
You have joined the enlightened pride
[Lead - DC]
The ancient blood will spill again
Our numbers only grow
Our temples raised, our hearts are pure
The power in us flows
I'll lead my people to the sun
The time has come to go
The vultures will feed and I will look down
On the mangled far below
3. She Is A Funeral
Bone pale, dead moon
Enraptured by the sweet scent of the grave
She walks amongst the carven stones
Seeing black, I found the morbid way
[Chorus]
I heard her call
Her funeral moans
I was transfixed
She took my soul
Dread night, crypt trip
Following the shadows in my mind
Lifeless clouded dead eyes gaze
Dressed in filthy white, I saw her face
[Chorus]
Death entwined with beauty
She drained my bleeding soul
I saw the casket open
She is a funeral
[Lead - DC]
Grey mist, death kiss
In the ground six feet of darkness sighed
Drifting down, I heard her laugh
As the maggots squirmed between her thighs
[Chorus]
4. Coffin Crawlers
On the other side of the shattered mirror
My world is dark
From the corner of my blood red eye
Repulsive shadows breed
Grave mist swirls and black clouds harbor daggers
In this hallucinatory wasteland
I hear them crawl
[Chorus]
Spawned from the pits of a sickening world
Coffin crawlers, coffin crawlers
Breath of the stench of the blackest soil
Coffin crawlers, coffin crawlers
Worm like faces and filth encrusted hands
Headstone hiders, casket riders
Eyes like vomit stained clouded glass
Coffin crawlers, coffin crawlers
They open up wounds on the cast away dead
Leaning down with claws imbedded
Inhaling pure death from dessicated heads
Grotesquely twisted limbs
And wretched minds contort
Lifeless eyeballs are removed
With the dead unbeating heart
[Chorus]
They're crawling
Only I can see them
They want to eat my eyes
But I'll take them out myself
Their feast will be denied
[Lead - DC]
5. When Hammer Meets Bone
Come into our house
Within the darkness we are here
Everyone who wanders in is sure to disappear
The door behind you shuts and locks
You smell the stench of death
That's when the hammer crashes down
And annihilates your head
Your ruined face
It leaves a trail of crimson on the floor
As your body's dragged into a room
With blood it is adorned
The freezer's full of butchered parts
Of others just like you
The rats can eat the scraps that drop
And then we'll eat them too
We've been here for many years
Inbreeding in the filth
Through ages upon ages
Of devouring our kills
A naked blood stained light bulb
Shows the mating on display
Gurgling sounds emit
From twisted worm like writhing shapes
Here we are in wait for you
Deformed and caked in gore
This hammer made of lead and concrete
Ever hungers more
[Leads - DC, EC]
When the hammer meets the bone
Your screams have gone unheard
When pools of blood are red and deep
Survival is absurd
There is no sanctuary
There is no mercy shown
Blunt force smashing is the law
Your skull and mind are blown
6. Thorns And Ashes
I am the thorns
That puncture your skin
I am the storm
Where your sanity's been
I am the flames
That devour your bones
I am the ashes
Where shadows have grown
7. Arch Cadaver
The arch cadaver turns around
Maggots falling from his eyes
Surveying pummeled smoldering fields
The living turned to clay they've met their day
[Chorus]
No battles fought
Just a wave of his hand
Death rays and smoke trails
Wash over the land
Born created conjured spun
In webs of foul deeds undone
Footsteps crush and shock the ground
His fingers point to where you're bound
[Chorus]
[Leads - DC, EC, DC, EC]
His head tilts back, his throat agape
Look inside and see your fate
Bleeding stars and moons rotate
In ways that make the strong insane
[Chorus]
Lidless eyes, orbs of black
Doorways to wrath
All become one
Heaped in great piles of ash
[Death Rays - DC]
8. Flesh Turns To Dust
Time has taken your living flesh
Stolen your last gasping struggling breath
Lungs in upheaval, brain in a tomb
Becoming sand in a world of gloom
No teeth in it's skull, yet you're eaten away
Your epitaph clearer while tissues decay
[Chorus]
Your flesh, it turns to dust
The dice of bones are carved and cast
There's pain to bring and time to kill
There's cemetery holes to fill
[Leads - EC]
Despite your will, you can't command
The reaper's all ensnaring hand
[Chorus]
9. Running From The Goathead
Lying on the floor I realize my fate
I've become victim, I've become hate
How did this horrible night come to be
Piece by piece it comes after me
It catches up and grabs my throat
All I see is the head of a goat
It's sharpened fingers slice my face
The catch is better than the chase
[Chorus]
It comes after me
Running from the goathead
Blood in my eyes, I cannot see
Black heart chaser
Terror races through my mind
Running from the goathead
I run with it behind... me
Hallways that are long and dark
Scratching walls, looking for a door
The burns and cuts have left their mark
I see others have come before
What kind of fate did they meet
This evil place cries for more
With brutal weapons all are beat
To live I must come to the fore
[Chorus]
Running from the goathead
Running from the goathead
Running from the goathead
[Leads - EC, DC]
[Chorus]
[Eye Bleeding - EC]
10. The Headless Ritual
[Instrumental]