Annotations of an Autopsy

Annotations of an Autopsy guitarist Jamie Sweeney is one confident lad. And that's cool. Dude is in one killer death metal band, and yes, they'll drop upon the planet an unholy LP come Jan. 22 called 'The Reign of Darkness,' a concept album about the truth of your entire universe coming unraveled. Heavy. Blame frontman Steve Regan for that ... he's way into Stephen Hawking. Sweeney's so confident, in fact, that he promises Noisecreep the band's gigs "will be the heaviest experience of 2010."

But wait -- there's more. Sweeney says that the band's much darker now and will be bringing "that aspect to our live performances." But that doesn't mean Annotations is changing to fit finicky tastes.

"We've just been putting our music out there and writing it and if people don't take to it, that's their opinion," he says. "We're not doing anything that's not what we want to do so we're just going with it. What we write is what we write at the end of the day. We have a long way to go, but I am fairly confident we will dominate the metal scene this year. I don't mean that in an ego way. Its just with this new record, we're fairly confident that we'll be able to bring our name to a higher status, if you will."

Of course, the sound on 'Reign' was influenced by the inclusion of new members, but it doesn't completely abandon what they established with their debut, 'Before the Throne of Infection.' "We brought along everything, all those elements, but with this record, everyone has helped with the input," Sweeney says. "On the previous stuff, it was myself and Steve writing everything. But on this one, everyone's dived in and helped write stuff and ideas. It's been really great."

While the new album is a progression in the style with some unruly riffage, it wasn't until Regan started laying down vocals that Sweeney knew 'Reign' was a winner.

"That's when the album started coming to life, really," he recalls. "As soon as the drums were done ... because we hadn't heard any of the lyrics. Steve keeps it secret until the end. And when he finally did it, we were just blown away. That was the most amazing bit of the recording process, Steve's vocals going on it."

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