FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY last graced our lugs with their fifth release, "The Sea of Tragic Beasts", a full-length that delivered the perfect amalgamation of melancholic heaviness, carefully crafted with sharp production, and saturated with intoxicating intensity. Over the years, there has been clear evolvement in the band's sound and identity, the last album encompassing the best aspects of FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY's artistry, and almost surely impossible to transcend. Or so you'd think. Not only is the new album breathtakingly brilliant, there's a very clear maturation in sound, especially with an individualistic avant-garde take on the Deathcore genre, resulting in the latest release becoming their biggest masterpiece yet. Masters of their craft, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY have truly surpassed previous offerings from their catalogue and reached dizzying heights in their highly anticipated sixth opus "Oh What the Future Holds", firmly ensconcing themselves at the top of the Deathcore table.

The swell of menace and malevolence in the title-track is a gripping introduction to what ultimately unfurls as a monstrously monumental metal LP. "Oh What the Future Holds" is a metaphorical noose that wraps tightly around your neck with its crushing breakdowns and brutish vocals; even the subtleties of the tinkering piano notes enhance an already haunting intro. The echo of hate spews into "Pandora", catastrophically unleashing hell in an onslaught of aural battery, a deluge of riffs brutalising, the rhythm section seething and surging in crescendos of fury, like a sonic melting pot of boiling piss and anger. Viciously corrosive, boisterous and rage fuelled, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY bludgeon with their virtuosity from every-which-way, "Far from Heaven", although overlaid with more melodic passages, still delivers a wholly visceral track, intertwined with grooves, sharp, soaring leads, exacting drum fills and crisp tightness that backbones the cut, with Joe Badolato's bellowing vocals as gloriously face-melting as ever.

If the above few tracks don't get you excited, I can guarantee this next section will. "In Shadows" gnaws with nastiness, bringing plenty of bite and depth with the bass line, overbearing you in a sonic chokehold, thrusting venomous vocals in your face, force feeding you with riffs of rabidity. It's a cut that sets foundations down for the torment of "Two Towers", enveloped in a luring shroud of soothing soundscapes to begin, yet escalates to the peak of hostility, packed with surly grooves and temporal switches to keep you on your toes. FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY plunge deep into "A Higher Level of Hate", taking an enjoyably discombobulated approach that satisfies with rambunctious drum fills and ingenious vocal contrast that projects the thematic perfectly. But it's the rupture of "Collateral Damage" that really penetrates my core, the pure pulsation and pounding of the entire track blistering with insidious intent that roots deep.

Thus far, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY have struck a deep, dark chord in my soul, and truly, the final section of "Oh What the Future Holds" cements this further. The sonically sadistic slice, "Savages" is furious, frenetic and ferocious, with crushingly caustic riffage and filthy breakdowns, entirely engulfed in every ounce of hate you ever felt in your life. This swell of savagery is projected a notch or two further in "Conditional Healing", pelting you to within an inch of your life with its feral output. It barely gives you a moment to recover, until you reach "The Man That I was Not" and are momentarily hypnotised by clean, mellifluous vocals and share a tender moment, until Joe's brutish growls erupt once more. Sincerely, this profoundly touching cut is the perfect way to bookend "Oh What the Future Holds" and tore my soul in two.

Granted, we're only in January, but, by all the Metal gods, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY deserve to be a contender for AOTY with "Oh What the Future Holds". This is a hellish full-length of punitive measure, that offers gnarly brutality from beginning to end, merciless body blow after body blow, with little reprieve and enraptures throughout. This intense, wow-inducing masterpiece is by far the easiest 10/10 I've given.