After 4 albums on FDA Records, Germany’s Autopsy Worshipping duo, Slaughterday (an Autopsy song title for the newbies), has jumped to Testimony Records for album number 5, but that’s the only thing that has changed.

While 2022s Tyrants of Doom added a cleaner, clearer sound and some other old school death metal dynamics to the material, it still reeked of Autopsy. And that remains the same for Dread Emperor, as it’s 40 minutes and 9 songs (plus 1 intro) deliver the exact same recipe as the last few albums.

That could not be more obvious from the scrawling intro “Enthroned” and the first tracks, “Obliteration Crusade”, and “Rapture of Rot” which could have come from any Autopsy album, especially the crawling solos,  just with a less sinewy, icky tone.

The rest of the album is pretty much the same, with lots of moments that make you go “oh that’s Autopsy” such as the rotten sway in “Subconscious Pandemonium” and the doomy lopes of the title track and “The Forsaken Ones”.

But Slaughterday, at least don’t deliver a complete rip off, as they do have some standard European Death metal moments here and there, such as the classic Stockholm death metal gallop of “Astral Carnage”, grooving death ‘n’ roll of “Dethroned”, which could be a latter Entombed song, or Bolt Thrower rumble of closer “Golem”.

In all, another fine addition to the band’s discography, that should appease fans of Autopsy, as well as just good death metal.

[Visit the band's website]

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