Anatomy

Aside from Sadistik Exekution, another foundational Australian extreme metal band is ANATOMY.  From the suburbs of Melbourne, they formed in 1989.  In sharp contrast with SadEx, they played a more brutal death metal-influenced style.  Their early material--demos like 1991's Dark Religion and 1992's For Those Whose Eyes Are Black--showcases the death metal elements of their music rather heavily.

"Carrion of Jesus" is from 1992's For Those Whose Eyes Are Black

With 1993's Twisting Depths of Horror EP, Anatomy's sound clearly matured, but they could still be described as a black/death hybrid.  With riffage calling to mind developments in the current death metal scene, as well as some of the old-school 1980s black metal bands, Anatomy was neither and both.

From the 1993 EP

In 1996, Anatomy put out a full-length album, Where Angels Die.  This was followed by 1999's The Witches of Dathomir.  On these albums, their sound moved away from a brutal black/death sound to a more overt and straight-forward black metal style.  1996's Angels featured sprawling, majestic black metal soundscapes with hints of death metal and brutality; 1999's Witches featured a rawer black metal sound.

Note the difference from the earlier material

Anatomy broke up around the turn of the millenium (2001? 2002?), but many of their members have been or are currently involved in other prominent extreme metal bands from Australia, such as Hobbs Angel of Death, Gospel of the Horns, and Bestial Warlust.

A pretty cool promo pic of the band

Select Discography:

Dark Religion (demo) (1991)
For Those Whose Eyes Are Black (demo) (1992)
Twisting Depths of Horror EP (1993)
Where Angels Die (full-length) (1996)
The Witches of Dathomir (full-length) (1999)

Next time:  VON