Review by Dominik on August 29, 2025.

Gurgling. Gargling. Rattling. Retching. Vomiting. That's what comes to mind when listening to the vocals, which are not charming in an "early-morning-coffee-cough" kind of way, but rather sound like someone losing a drinking contest with a clogged drain. Layman-ish drumming. Bass guitar absenteeism. Riffs abused, battered to death and under-produced until unrecognizable. That's what comes to mind when describing the sound, which is something you'd expect when recording in a tool shed with the microphone hidden under a pile of rusty shovels.

Childish. Demented. Ridiculous. That's what comes to mind when looking at the cover "art", which is this sort of thing you'd expect from a high school notebook drawing if the kid was later expelled for "creative differences with reality". (Or maybe the artist was paid in expired meat, who knows.) Interchangeable songs. Solos appearing exactly in the wrong moments. Dynamics mistaken for "let's suddenly crawl for no reason, then speed up again". That's what comes to mind when describing the music, which feels less composed and more like a band rehearsal where nobody was told what song they were playing.

I honestly have no fricking idea what made Autopsy abandon the solid path they laid down with "Severed Survival". The band's debut was a filthy little gem — crude, yes, but with bite and impact. And despite all my ambivalence about death metal, that release hit me in just the right way. What followed, however, was not a controlled descent. This was free fall. Starting with "Mental Funeral", they traded hard-hitting songs for something that sounded like regurgitated mush, and even at times swapped punch for sludgy doom crawls. And latest with "Acts Of The Unspeakable", they had fully tumbled down the well with the sound of bones cracking at the bottom.

I get it: there's death metal meant to be listened to, and then there is death metal with the sole purpose of creating repulsion, or winning awards in who gutted more virgins and devoured her entrails while she was still alive. The here reviewed release finds itself firmly in the second camp, trying to generate shock value with song titles and artwork that scream "look at us!" louder than the music ever does. At some point, you want to grab the band and say: guys, the entrails can wait — write a good riff first, don't be aggressive for aggression's sake, and forget about structures that feel improvised in the least flattering sense!

"Acts Of The Unspeakable" is exactly that. Add to this "unlistenable" and you've got yourself covered. In many reviews the brevity of most songs is being praised. I preach to the choir, but for different reasons. 18 songs in just 35 minutes is exactly my kind of brevity, when two songs in, you're already eyeing the clock like a hostage. "Necrocannibalistic Vomitorium" scores with a striking song title but as music it is a complete mess: manic aggression, then the dreaded doom crawl (already unbearable on "Mental Funeral"), rounded off by a solo that feels like someone dropped their guitar down the stairs. It sounds less played than accidentally discovered. "Your Rotting Face" may earn points in a game called "Zombie-Bingo" ("rot", "pus", "vomit" — BINGO!), but follows the same generic approach. Of course, there is the faint hope that your own face might rot before the song ends and you're spared the rest of the album.

The title track fares slightly better, though it still feels patched together. Some of the faster riffs almost register as memorable, and the dueling solos even land on the positive side, before everything collapses – again – into doom sludge. However, it also showcases the shortcomings of the flat and dull production, which has the gritty "charm" of a demo recording, and does nothing to cloth the songs into a fitting dressing needed for death metal. "Pus/Rot" is another excellent example of why the album does not work. The "pus" section drags along like slow motion tinnitus, without any element that may make doom laden music an excitable listen. Then "Rot" bursts in with unfocused aggression, and before you know it, another solo slips past without consequence, and you've already been shoved into the next unidentifiable mess (i.e. "song").

In the end, the only thing truly consistent about "Acts Of The Unspeakable" is the neat alignment between its grotesquely disturbed cover, its lyrical filth, and its musical "quality". Straight to the bin, no detour.

Rating: 2.9 out of 10, because sometimes "unspeakable" really just means "unlistenable".

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