Autophagy – Bacteriophage (Review)

With their debut album Bacteriophage, Autophagy present a release that is quite something. The entire longplayer convinces with insane tempo changes, which always alternate between gentle attacks of violence and unbridled frenzy. The riffing remains mostly blunt and turns out somewhat a little artless, but doesn’t lose its impact over long stretches. Thus, each song ignites and creates an uncompromising body of work that definitely deserves a lot of attention in the Death Metal sector.

On this release, they don’t try to line up moment to moment and to convince with as many strong parts as possible one after the other, but create a big tornado, which seems to be made from one piece. Thus, the strengths of clear role models are combined into a hybrid that is not boring at any second. Be it the menacingly deep hardness of Morbid Angel, the strong tempo and rhythm changes of Dissection or the blunt, oldschool intransigency of Autopsy; everything finds its way onto this debut album and works flawlessly, without lengthy passages, without stumbling blocks, without the slightest failure or moment that you want to skip.

If these guys still lack clear independence and a sense of riffs that are written for eternity, they have at least brought what they work with to perfection. Since every song is a crusher, I can only recommend blasting through the album from “Abhorrent Abomination” to “Dawn of the Endless Plague“. If you like Death Metal, you will love Bacteriophage.