Let’s begin by stepping back a moment to 1995. Did you realize how much of an influence those first two AUTOPSY albums were? You were soon to break up the band due to your opinion that ‘if no one gave a fuck, why should you?’
To be honest, we didn’t really think that much, or at least I didn’t think that much about it at the time. Not to sound conceited or uncaring about the accolades we’ve gotten, but even now, as busy as we are with getting ready for gigs and just promoting the album, there’s not a lot of time to reflect unless someone brings it up.
By the time you got around to recording Shitfun- an album obviously far more punk in influence than metal- had you already in your mind begun to pave the way for ABSCESS to become your main band?
Yeah, there was definitely some bleed over going on. After we did the last AUTOPSY tour, we knew we were gonna split up. We’d been working on some new stuff. Believe it or not, we didn’t plan on Shitfun sounding punk at all- it was just AUTOPSY doing AUTOPSY. We had actually done the first two ABSCESS demos before the final [at the time] AUTOPSY album came out. More recently, the same thing happened with AUTOPSY. We had the EP [The Tomb Within] done before we made the decision to break up ABSCESS.
Okay, backstory bullshit done, and everyone who reads any further already knows it anyway. When you got together in ’08 to write a couple new tracks for the special edition of Severed Survival, was that what first put the germ to the idea that AUTOPSY may actually work again, or were the two “new” songs just discarded bones that hadn’t been gnawed on yet?
We did those strictly for the reissue. We just went in, tossed around some ideas sort of to put the cherry on top of the reissue– to give people their money’s worth– and didn’t think that we’d end up doing anything else. “Yeah, we’re done now, let’s move right along” sort of thing. Finally, we thought about it enough, and decided to play one show to put a true cap on whatever AUTOPSY was. All of a sudden, I’m like “Oh, fuck, now I have new song ideas.” There’s gotta be a reason for it, though, and I think it’s probably being able to look out into the audience and see kids that were my age when I got into metal with “that” look in their eyes– that passion doesn’t come easy, but it’s real as it gets.
When you were recording the EP did you already know you had Macabre Eternal brewing in your blood? Was the EP a way of working out the kinks, as it were, getting back to doing AUTOPSY the way AUTOPSY should be done?
We had so much stuff written that we actually were working on the EP and the album at the same time. The only real concern was deciding how to break it up– which songs would go on which release. In a way, doing them simultaneously was how we validated moving on from here to ourselves. We already had new material, had the titles and the artwork ready to go far, far in advance.
Do you think you’d have revived the AUTOPSY moniker without either Danny [Coralles, guitar] or Eric [Cutler, guitar] on board? Where did you come into contact with bassist Joe Trevisano?
Eric and I started the band, and Danny is…without either of those guys, it’s just not AUTOPSY, plain and simple. It wouldn’t be the same. I’ve known Joe forever, and he ended up joining ABSCESS back in 1998. When it came time for AUTOPSY to officially get back together, there was no question in my mind.
It’s by now expected for any band member during any interview for a new album cycle to refer to what they’re doing now as “our best material ever”. Well, it damn well should be. Why would anyone half-ass an entire record and admit it later?
I know, man! It’s a pretty ballsy– and stupid– band that puts out an album and says, ‘yeah, we really disappointed ourselves with this one, folks’ and still expects to have a fan in the world left. For us, it’s about finding different ways to write songs that still sound like AUTOPSY and have that death metal vibe. The last thing I want to do is write Severed Survival Part 2. Death metal is the genre, but we’ve always found ways to express feelings of horror, torment and other standard-seeming topics that have stood out from the norm.
You’ve boasted before that there were no triggers used on Macabre Eternal. Why do you think there’s this almost worshipful reliance on triggers, especially in the death metal scene, which has prided itself on its purity and back-to-basics ethic? It’s like this obsession with “faster = better” that I just don’t get.
I have been and will be obnoxiously adamant about refusing to work with triggers. They’re not an instrument, so they have no place on an AUTOPSY record. There’s a visceral, primal quality about real drumming that I feel is vital, especially in death metal. In the live arena, it’s even worse. I’ve stood behind drummers and watched them play, and they’re basically tapping on the heads like a toothpick on a feather, but there’s a huge sound. It’s not like they’re putting any effort into it, and I’m not impressed.
‘Sadistic Gratification’ is over 11 minutes long, man. That must have been fun to play without triggers.
[Laughter] That song was murder! We’re not ones to shy away from experimentation, so long as it fits our form, so when Eric said he was going to have a six to seven minute song, we figured ‘why not?’. As long as it’s heavy and brutal, it works for us. No one was timing it, and what you hear on the album is I believe only the second take of the song. We’re six minutes in, and all I could think was ‘crap, I still have five minutes in which I can fuck this up somehow!’
