Autopsy - "My Corpse Shall Rise" (video)

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Videos are the best way for bands to promote themselves now – but that doesn’t mean every band should do them. Case in point: Autopsy. Recently they released their first official music video. (At least their press claims it is. If Autopsy released any official videos before, do share.) I realize that this is a music industry must, and I want Autopsy to succeed in music industry terms. But this video just makes me think, “Guys? Really?”

A big part of Autopsy’s magic is that they fuel the imagination. Their lyrics are vivid, and their music oozes with vibe. “Death metal” and “old-school death metal” are just superficial descriptors. Autopsy are those monsters under the bed come to life. They are ’80s horror movies minus the laughs. Their vibe is creepy and dirty and executed so smartly that it feels real. This means a lot. So much of metal is artifice, which can be cool. But with Autopsy in my headphones in the dark (yes, I am single), I don’t think of musicians with instruments or even fantastic (in both senses of the word) album covers. I am there, in the deliciously unpleasant place where the music takes me.

So it’s disappointing to see Autopsy committed to digital celluloid with such aggressive mediocrity. Cheesy effects litter the video. The pixelated fire reminds me of Pantera’s Reinventing the Steel, perhaps the worst metal album cover of all time. The recording studio footage was seemingly captured only with inward and outward zooms. A few desultory graveyard shots hint at the story that the lyrics contain. But instead we get too strong a dose of reality. I don’t want to see guys in a recording studio. I want to see this:

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My corpse shall rise!

In the cemetery now you have arrived
To finally see my flesh from which you stole the life
Though you never were discovered, you’re still free
I’ve got a curse on you, I’ve haunted all your dreams

You can’t believe I’m gone
You must be sure, it must be real
Panic stricken, to the grave
The truth must be revealed

With shaking hands and sickening thoughts
You find my resting place
With pounding heart and bloodshot eyes
The shovel desecrates
The time has come to face reality
And visit death
To see my corpse and stop the dreams
To see it knows no breath

At your feet, uncovered is the box
You’re almost paralysed with fear
Feel the bile creep up your throat
Lift the lid and know I’m here

I lie here rotting, maggots burrowing, feeding, swarming
You can’t hold back the nausea
Help won’t find you
Stomach twisting, violent retching, defiled by vomit
Now my vengeful corpse begins to rise
I’ve been waiting here for you
Now it’s time to see you die

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Wonderful, right? Even a straightforward rendering would be compelling.

Now, I realize that once actors and an actual story get involved, the budget rises dramatically. Since we’re talking about primitive depictions of the undead, The Evil Dead comes to mind. That movie was shot on a shoestring budget – of $375,000. (In today’s dollars, that’s over $900,000). Autopsy’s budget for this video was probably $37.50 and some weed. So one can’t fault them for getting what they paid for.

But if the results will be this bad, why bother? I love Autopsy – and I have no desire to see them like this. I want them to remain fervid parts of my imagination, not zoomed-in and -out dudes in a recording studio surrounded by digital fires. Part of the unfortunate appeal of TV and movies is that they are passive experiences. Good films can spark our imagination, but most just spoon-feed people sound and visuals. Sometimes it’s better not to give people what they want. Sometimes it’s better to make them work. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are horrific precisely because they don’t provide visuals. They make people fill in the gaps. Horror is greatest when your own mind conjures it. Autopsy make that happen just fine without any stinkin’ music video.

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Autopsy’s Macabre Eternal comes out May 16 on vinyl and May 31 in other formats.
You can order it here and here.

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