POST MORTEM - CORONER'S OFFICE - 1986
Post Mortem have been labelled as pioneers by some although often overlooked in their influence to death metal, the way in which I agree is their exploration of influences and utilization of such a spectrum of them within their music to artistically try and stretch the size of the canvas of where heavy metal music could be drawn. This being said, I prefer more method to my madness on metal albums and there is just too much going on with this one regardless of the variety and hidden solo gems this album is riddled with. The best song example for how heavily afflicted this album is with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is "No Time". The beginning and end of the song have a raw thrash and punk infused sloppy feel but sandwiched in between is a characteristically out of place although somewhat impressive solo that could have been plucked from a classic rock album that devolves into a slow, measured and heavy doom riff before making its way full circle. They took every genre in the rainbow including jazz and a hint of even classical influence and sound to create this truly experimental piece of work.
There were really only two songs that came up to bat for our genre of discussion, "Coroner's Office" and "Death to the Masses", the later an interesting one since it was for the most part a nice mixture of very catchy doom and thrash heavy riffs with a solo that fits neither of those genres and polished with a few shiver inducing moans made by the vocalist, John McCarthy. When first hearing the song "Coroner's Office" I almost immediately zeroed in on the lyrics, it wasn't the typical satanic imagery that had been (not so) popularly peddled by other bands previously and of this time. This was gore, not a half bad "stab" at it either with lyrics such as "behind the dripping scalpel knife I deface your mother's womb in the coroner's office" and "putrid gasterous juices amongst the bloody bowels carving choice selections". Although "Coroner's Office" could easily be deemed quite crude, the lyrics throughout the entire album really showcase the strong sense of humor that these young musicians from Boston possessed with songs like "Syncopated Jazz" and "Soupy Sales" which were nothing more than mid marker jokes woven into the album for yet a further spice of variety. The humor doesn't stop there, the album cover? Its a close up picture of the Snow White ride at Disneyland. You really need to be in the mood for this album, by that I mean in a mind set of not taking it at all seriously or looking for any specific genre of music in it because it has it all.
Standouts: Death to the Masses, Coroner's Office
Rating: 5/10
There were really only two songs that came up to bat for our genre of discussion, "Coroner's Office" and "Death to the Masses", the later an interesting one since it was for the most part a nice mixture of very catchy doom and thrash heavy riffs with a solo that fits neither of those genres and polished with a few shiver inducing moans made by the vocalist, John McCarthy. When first hearing the song "Coroner's Office" I almost immediately zeroed in on the lyrics, it wasn't the typical satanic imagery that had been (not so) popularly peddled by other bands previously and of this time. This was gore, not a half bad "stab" at it either with lyrics such as "behind the dripping scalpel knife I deface your mother's womb in the coroner's office" and "putrid gasterous juices amongst the bloody bowels carving choice selections". Although "Coroner's Office" could easily be deemed quite crude, the lyrics throughout the entire album really showcase the strong sense of humor that these young musicians from Boston possessed with songs like "Syncopated Jazz" and "Soupy Sales" which were nothing more than mid marker jokes woven into the album for yet a further spice of variety. The humor doesn't stop there, the album cover? Its a close up picture of the Snow White ride at Disneyland. You really need to be in the mood for this album, by that I mean in a mind set of not taking it at all seriously or looking for any specific genre of music in it because it has it all.
Standouts: Death to the Masses, Coroner's Office
Rating: 5/10
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