Autopsy Aren’t Ashamed of Sticking to Their Formula
Even die-hard fans of Autopsy will admit that, while they make some brilliant death metal, they’ve never exactly been reinventing the wheel. But in a recent interview with Blabbermouth, Chris Reifert admitted they really don’t mind rehashing the same structure—because if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Their latest record, Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts, is out October 27 via Peaceville records.
“The title is like a bizarre shopping list. [Laughs] ‘Don’t forget the organs!’ I guess every album is a continuation from the last. We don’t try to do anything new beyond what we normally do. It’s another album from us. Hopefully, we’re consistent. Like, if you’re going to buy an Incantation album or Motörhead album—You know what you are going to get, but not exactly. That’s how we see ourselves.”
He also opened up about how, while the band does like to stick to a formula, that formula includes experimentation and variation.
“Some people can’t handle the doom stuff and get bored, like, ‘I only want the fast parts.’ We’d get bored writing and playing—as a drummer, if I played all fast and slow, especially all slow because I enjoy playing fast, but if it were all one-dimensional, it wouldn’t be as cool to play and listen to. There are a lot of bands who play only fast or slow, and I’m a fan of bands who do that, but for us, maybe it’s our attention spans, but even going back to the first demo, we’ve always liked to include speedy and doomy stuff and some kind of weird shit in between. That keeps it interesting. We haven’t changed our formula since that first demo in 1987. It’s just one foot in front of the other. It’s the same formula since 1987.”
Reifert spoke about how another part of the recurring formula is signing with Peaceville for each release.
“We signed with them when Eric (Cutler, vocals and guitar) and I were 19. Now we’re in our 50s! Get your head wrapped around that, which is bizarre. That was our first real offer. We only had one before that, but it was super dicey and lame. We turned it down; then Peaceville came sniffing around, and we said, ‘Let’s do it!’ That was on the merits from the second demo in ’88.
“Later in the year, we signed and we’re still with them. They’ve been cool to us. We’ve been hopefully cool to them. There’s been no reason to go anywhere. We could probably get on a bigger label if we really wanted to. Maybe. We’ve never really tried. We know what we’re going to get with them. They know what they’re going to get with us. They don’t have a zillion bands, so we get a lot of focus and care.
“They do a really good job, so I’d be bummed out if we ended up on a bigger label in a stable with 300 other bands. Then our album would be a blip. It works for us. It suits our pace. They don’t try to make us do things we don’t want, like going on the road for three months or shit like that. [Laughs] They’re always at the ready when we say, ‘Okay. We’re ready to make an album.”
Formula or not, we’re perfectly OK with Autopsy sticking with what they do best—and we’re impressed that they’re still doing it. Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts, will be released on October 27 via Peaceville records.
