Review : ANNOTATIONS OF AN AUTOPSY – “The Reign of Darkness”

Annotations of an Autopsy – The Reign of Darkness
released January 8, 2010 on Nuclear Blast

Now, here’s something interesting. Job for a Cowboy initially led the charge for deathcore to break into the public eye. Annotations of an Autopsy were one of the bands to follow the trend. JFAC, however, has since shifted styles to a much purer death metal sound. Now, it looks like  AOAA is following their masters once again. How did one band gain so much power?

The big difference between JFAC and Annotations of an Autopsy is that the former is better at death metal than deathcore. The latter, however, is significantly better at incorporating the -core into their music. The worst part, though, is that they really aren’t even good at that. Most people would agree that the basis of most metal is anger. These guys have no anger or passion. It’s as if they sat down one day and said “we want to be angry” and then wrote songs from whatever negative things in their life they could come up with. The difference between this and a band like Cattle Decapitation is that in the latter, it comes out naturally because the guys are truly pissed at the world.

This is, quite frankly, one of the most contrived death metal albums I’ve ever heard. The only positive is that there is the occasional breakdown that will bring a bit of a bang to your head. The best of these is on “Cryogenica,” but it only lasts for about 30 or so seconds, certainly not long enough to make the song worthwhile, which has some very odd bluesy riffs that don’t quite do it for me. Maybe they just need to mature. Third time’s a charm, I guess.

FCC: 2, 6
Try 3, 5, 10

01. And So it Begins…
02. In Snakes I Breathe
03. Born Dead
04. Bone Crown
05. Emptiness
06. Catastrophic Hybridization
07. VII: The Horror, the Destruction
08. Impale the Sun
09. Portrait of Souls
10. Cryogenica
11. Into the Black Slumber

Rating : 1.5 / 5