Since forming in the mid eighties and debuting in 1990, Cannibal Corpse has since became probably the most popular brutal death act to date. Their successes, both positive and negative, have spawned much decency debate. Despite being banned in Australia, Korea, and ealy material in Germany, Cannibal Corpse has gained a following large enough to even land them a cameo in the movie Ace Ventura. After thirteen albums and an over fifteen year career, the band has showed no signs of slowing down. Even after the firing of vocalist Chris Barnes in 1995, who was then replaced by current vocalist George Fisher. In reality his voice is extremely close to Chris Barnes, so there was never much adjusting to the vocals. Even after the slight line-up changes CC has managed to keep their signature style and disgustingly grotesque lyrics.
Man this bio sucks...but it's the music that's importent.
The album starts off predictably brutally with the track
Pounded Into Dust. With their quick guitar riffs and fast drumming, Fisher had no problem adding vocals to make this a major album highlight. With high pitched shrieks to shake things up now and then, this song could hardly be referred to as repetitive. It flows great even with the constant blast beatage. The traditional CC insane guitar solo is included, but this one's a mere two seconds.
Dead Human Collection follows, with a slightly more powerful feel than the preceeding track. It has occasional breaks with a great flowing section based around the vocals, but the main parts that are guitar oriented sort of lead into it and make it even sweeter to listen to. Just before the two minute mark the drums produce a heavier percussive sound which ends with an aprupt finish. Alright, so far the songs are short, but
Unleashing the Bloodthirsty changes that around. This track is less spped and more of a steady rhythm. The drums actually keep an interesting beat other than the usual double bass/blast beats. The guitars randonly pull pinch harmonics keeping the music from sounding too linear. When it speeds up it keeps all of those principles but adds a little more...well, speed untill it slows back down. The solo here is once again quite crazy, going back and forth for thirty seconds playing some indecipherably high pitch notes.
The Spinesplitter opens with the well placed palm muting making the intro (a whopping two seconds) a little more creative than usual. The main sections are palm muted but with occasional breaks while Fisher's voice flows pretty well with some alternate screaming noises. The track is prett linear for the first two minutes untill the guitars come in with some unique effects. It's instrumental for another thirty seconds untill the solo, which actually has some structure instead of the randomly insane string of notes that seem completely ad-libbed. With
Ecstasy in Decay there is even more variety to the music, which is slow and steady untill it begins alternating between the slower/faster sound. The guitars play some intersting melodies for a while which are riddled throughout the rest of the song. These dueling lines take the place of a solo.
Raped by the Beast goes back to the Cannibal Corpse brutal speed, with disgustingly fast drumming and the guitars completely out of control. At parts the guitars play some sort of demented scale which adds greatly to the effect. Other times it goes sort of melodic while still being chaotically heavy, and ultimately leads to a cool sounding solo. Yes, it's a short song.
Coffinfeeder open with some alternating between the guitars and bass. The real variety comes with Fisher who frequently shifts to high pitch shrieking sounds. Other than that the song isn't a whole lot different from the usual - pretty generic for the band, still quite short (many on the album are).
Hachsaw Decapitation, my favorite title on the record, has the most unique sound as well. It gradually builds up with feedback and god knows what else making some weird as hell noises. Once the music comes crashing in it sounds even more brutal than usual (mission accomplished). At just over four minutes it's the longest on Bloodthirst and never relents for the entire duration. The guitars make some awesome slow power chords while the drums and vocals keep with the usual fast rhythm - a nice effect. Another solo that actually sounds like something comes next, and is really quite long for Cannibal Corpse standards. Another highlight, the longest track flies by in no time.
Blowtorch Slaughter, another candidate for my favorite title, couples the guitars and the drums going head to head with each other in an all-out metal assault that will leave you begging for mercy (cheesey line?). That's the best sound on the track, other than the guitars speeding up and slowing down cinsistently using some various techniques. And of course, the solo. End track nine, which ends in an interesting slam-type noise-fest.
Sickening Metamorphosis features riffs that sort of set the stage for the vocals. It's uiqte atmospheric and works great with the sound. The slower sections, and the song in general, is made up of the guitars playing something other than power chords. Aaaaahhhhh, the sweet smell of variation. Once again it goes by fairly quickly untill the duel guitar solos which leads back into the main riff which brings the song to a close. Speaking of closing, the album is wrapped up with
Condemned to Agony, probably the fastes song on the record. It's nothing too special. The main guitar riffs sound interesting but everything else, such as the structure in general, really starts showing signs of being recycled.At times it does get low and choppy, a great effect for their style. There's a very discreet solo in the middle as well as a longer insane solo near the end. Probably the best solos on the album are right here. Other than those few things, there's not much to this song.
Not a bad album, if I do say so myself. I like some of Cannibal Corpse's other works slightly better, but this could definitely hold it's own. I'de say George Fisher proves his worth as a vocalist (not that he hadn't proved it in the last two albums). He's quite similar to Barnes and has some good shrieking effects throughout. Compared to their other albums, it's hard to say how commercial this is or whether or not someone knew to the band should look into it. You really can't tell those things with Cannibal Corpse. All I know is that it's another link in the chain and I enjoyed it.
A few
recommended tracks:
Pounded Into Dust
Hacksaw Decapitation
Blowtorch Slaughter
