“How many more mothers have to bury their sons? You sick motherfucker.”
For years, Fit For An Autopsy have been a band that remained on my periphery. First hearing of the group when their split EP with The Acacia Strain and Thy Art Is Murder, titled The Depressions Sessions, dropped in 2016, it wasn’t until their 2018 LP The Sea of Tragic Beasts that they truly caught my ear. As a big fan of melodicism in metal, it seems I picked the right time to venture into Fit For An Autopsy’s music, as The Sea of Tragic Beasts served as their most keenly melodic outing to date. With Oh What The Future Holds, however, it seems Fit For An Autopsy are seeking to venture further into that realm, all the while maintaining the crushing brutality that made their other work so enthralling.
Lead single “Far From Heaven” clearly demonstrated that there was something more going on here than your typical deathcore release. While still containing the hard-as-nails instrumental and vocal work designed to pummel the listener into oblivion, its main riff and sparingly-used clean vocals gave off a very Gojira-esque feel, which was a more than welcome change of pace. I can’t overstate how much I love that main riff, too. Its entrancing ascent just entirely captivated me the first time I heard it all those months back, and that feeling has not faded.
Of course, you can’t mention Fit For An Autopsy without discussing how prolific guitarist Will Putney has become in metal over the past decade. Producing some of the tightest sounding metal in recent years with bands like Knocked Loose and Greyhaven, both his guitar and production work on Oh What The Future Holds shine through. His fellow guitarists Patrick Sheridan and Timothy Howley also clearly pulled out all the stops here, as every crushing riff, chug or solo on this thing makes a monumental impact. From the descending riff that opens “A Higher Level of Hate”, to the soaring solo in “Collateral Damage”, to the downright violent breakdown of “Pandora”, there are highlights strewn all across each and every track on Oh What The Future Holds. Drummer Josean Orta Martinez stands out too, laying down some mesmerizing fills and providing all the necessary punch and oomph to both the album’s insanely heavy, and serenely subdued moments.
This is all without mentioning the show-stopper performances from vocalist Joe Badolato. Laying down both some of the most fierce growls in all of metal, along with some of the most truly gorgeous clean vocals I’ve heard in a record of this style, Badolato’s performance here left me constantly shocked and awed. Not to mention the pure strength of the lyrical content here, with tracks like “Pandora” and “Conditional Healing” standing out with some truly effective one-liners, with the latter of the two containing my very favourite lyric across the album: “How many more mothers have to bury their sons? You sick motherfucker.”
Oh What The Future Holds represents the very best of what good ole’ fashioned deathcore can be. Crushing riffs, percussive drums and fierce vocals all line the experience of the record, but it’s in the serenity of its melodic moments that it truly sets itself apart from the competition. With their sixth studio album, Fit For An Autopsy have crafted something truly special with a deathcore record that reines the foundations of the genre to a nigh-on perfect point, while elevating and expanding the bounds of the genre through the band’s willingness to continually explore a higher level of melodicism. I truthfully cannot fault this album on anything meaningful, and while true perfection in art is something I’m sceptical of, this is about as damn close as you can get.
Oh What The Future Holds will be available next Friday, January 14th via Nuclear Blast, and you can pre-order the album here.
10/10