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Band: Cannibal Corpse This is the kind of music serial killers play when they torture and rape their victims to death. I'm sure something like that has been said many times before. Possibly by the band members themselves. It's the way the band and their fans want it, so you can take it or leave it. Formed in Buffalo , New York in 1988, Cannibal Corpse helped define modern death metal. Original vocalist Chris Barnes was one of the early innovators of the “death grunt” vocal style, making it more aggressive and guttural, and certainly deeper than anyone had taken it before. Current singer George Fisher is not quite as deep but in every other way has perfected the style in his ten years with the band. In all other respects as well, Cannibal Corpse is the definitive death metal band: extremely fast drumming, lyrics obsessed with death and sexual violence, rhythm guitars pounding out furious progressions and only limited use of solos. Like most death metal, the band has little in the way of recognizable melody so there is no verse/chorus structure to speak of. Signed to Metal Blade Records since their first album, Cannibal Corpse has been part of that label's “ Florida ” sound for years. On Kill , their 10 th album, little has changed since their debut. The lineup has altered along the way, and now bassist Alex Webster writes the majority of the songs. The band has always sought to lyrically depict variations on torture and death, constantly pushing the envelope of what will shock and disgust. From early songs like “Edible Autopsy” to “Meat Hook Sodomy” to “Orgasm Through Torture,” the band has been remarkably creative in finding new ways to torture, maim, rape, kill, and – as befits their name – devour the remains of their victims. Kill continues in this vein with songs like “Five Nails Through the Neck,” “Brain Removal Device,” and “Submerged in Boiling Flesh.” But there is a philosophy here. The lyrics emphasize the inevitability of violence and death, but do not glorify it. In fact there is very little commentary at all in the lyrics. They are more like reportage brought back from the wasteland – which is in fact the world we live in, at least as they see it. The religion of “Murder Worship” accepts the fact that its adherents kill as a way of life just as easily as it accepts that the adherents themselves will be killed by their god just as brutally. He who lives by the sword…? Similarly in “Purify By Fire” The cure seems worse than whatever the disease may be as flesh melts and organs are charred and the pain drives the penitent insane, but nonetheless he feels “transformation is rapture.” And in “Necrosadistic Warning,” putting aside the narrative of zombies first killing and then raping their victims, the warning of the title is disingenuous since those who see it “will be next for the army of killers” whether they take heed or not. It is a brutally deterministic philosophy in which Fate controls all things and humans are utterly without control of their destinies. The band's world view is so nihilistic it seems to come from another planet, like the chants of mercenaries who fight endlessly under the white hot skies on some distant gas giant. But Cannibal Corpse has been going strong for nearly twenty years, and their fans wouldn't have it any other way. by Robin Graves |
you are what you eat
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