Review by TheOneNeverSeen on February 1, 2023.

Although I wouldn't call myself a huge Autopsy fan, I do enjoy their first two albums. This one, however, is not nearly as interesting and for the most part fails to impress the listener.

The thing you notice instantly upon looking at the tracklist is the fact that the average song length is way lower than before (most songs on "Severed Survival" and "Mental Funeral" last around 3-4 minutes, while here only two songs last 3 minutes or more). It's not a problem in and of itself, we all know albums with "shorter" songs that were nonetheless cool ("Reek of Putrefaction" or "Discordia", for example). "Acts of the Unspeakable", however, is not one of them.

The opening track has a classic Autopsy riff and solo, which tricked me into thinking the rest of the record is going to be enjoyable. Tracks 2 and 3 are also decent (the middle part and the riffs of "Necrocannibalistic Vomitorium" or the main riff of "Your Rotting Face" could easily be present on "Severed Survival"). However, starting with "Blackness Within", the album slowly starts decaying. The riffs turn more and more uniform over time, making it impossible to remember any particular song and differentiate it from the rest. The intro riffs of "Death Twitch" and "Battery Acid Enema" or the intro riffs and development of "Skullptures" and "Funereality" sound nearly identical, for example. Perhaps in order to compensate for the low average track length, Autopsy wrote more songs (there are 18 of them here compared to 12 on "Mental Funeral" and 11 on the debut album). As a result, one can witness nearly filler songs (like "Tortured Moans of Agony" or "Ugliness and Secretions"). So, consistency-wise, "Acts of the Unspeakable" is definitely not the best album imaginable, to say the least.

There are two things that remain unchanged on this album, one of them being Chris's excellent vocal performance (particularly his stunning growls in the middle of "Blackness Within") and the other one – the violent lyrics (apart from the cringey "​​You fucking whore!/Fuck you!" on "An Act of the Unspeakable"). However, sadly, they can’t compensate for the poorer songwriting and uniformity of riffs.

"Acts of the Unspeakable" certainly isn't bad. It's fast, brutal and made in the remarkable Autopsy style. However, it's definitely weaker than its predecessors and doesn't stand out much as a death metal album, either. Besides, its cover art is just plain awful. After the sick covers of "Severed Survival" and "Mental Funeral" this looks more like a parody than a serious artwork (even the "Shitfun"'s one is better, because at least it's... um... original). So, give it a shot if you liked other releases by the band, but certainly don't start your journey into Autopsy's music here.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10