Autopsy

Autopsy emerged in the late 1980s as a ferocious, enduring California death metal outfit steeped in grindcore elements. Eric Cutler and Chris Reifert launched the group after the latter exited pioneering Florida death metallers Death. Their sound fused thrash, doom, and death metal, yielding key early releases such as Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, both from 1991, prior to a 1995 disbandment. Reassembling in 2010, they issued the EP The Tomb Within and the full-length Macabre Eternal. Retaining the raw aggression that had cemented their place in American death metal history, the veterans kept releasing material at a steady clip, including the 2018 EP Puncturing the Grotesque alongside full-lengths like 2013’s The Headless Ritual and 2022’s Morbidity Triumphant.

Ex-Death drummer Chris Reifert assembled the initial lineup shortly after settling in San Francisco during 1987, enlisting guitarists Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles plus bassist Ken Sorvari while also taking on vocals himself. Peaceville, the U.K. independent label, signed them following the 1988 Critical Madness demo, leading to the 1990 debut Severed Survival. Echoing early English acts such as Napalm Death and Carcass, the record merged classic death metal intensity and vocals with slower, grinding riffs and lurid splatter-gore themes. Steve DiGiorgio, another former Death member, appeared as a guest bassist, though another player handled bass duties by 1991—a prolific stretch that brought the EPs Fiend for Blood and Retribution for the Dead plus the album Mental Funeral. Momentum remained elusive, and 1992’s Acts of the Unspeakable, featuring bassist Josh Barohn, became known chiefly for cover art so extreme that Australian customs seized incoming copies. After a lengthy hiatus the band resurfaced with the 1995 album Shitfun, which introduced bassist Freeway Migliore, before Reifert and Coralles formed Abscess and Reifert later collaborated with Nuclear Assault’s Danny Lilker in Ravenous. The 2001 retrospective Torn from the Grave was conceived as a closing statement, yet the 2008 recording of two bonus tracks for Severed Survival’s twentieth-anniversary edition prompted a full reunion announcement. The Tomb Within EP surfaced in 2010, followed in 2011 by Macabre Eternal—their fifth studio album and first since 1995—now featuring the core of Reifert, Cutler, and Coralles alongside bassist Joe Trevisano. That same quartet delivered 2013’s The Headless Ritual, 2014’s Tourniquets, Hacksaws, and Graves, and 2022’s Morbidity Triumphant.