Review Summary: A multifaceted transformation of Cannibal Corpse with a greater technical edge, more deliberate songwriting and extra weight from Fisher and the new low-tuned guitars. Vile remains one of their strongest and most technically impressive efforts.
Chris Barnes's departure from Cannibal Corpse during the writing of Vile and the arrival of George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher usually seems to overshadow the other major changes that occurred with its creation. With the introduction of seven-string guitars and some C# tuned songs, there seemed to be a simultaneous accommodation of Fisher's greater range, and unleashing of the creative intentions of Webster et al. If
Six Feet Under is anything to go by, Barnes clearly favoured a less technical, stripped down sound, and with him out the picture, Webster (and it really was almost all Webster on this album; there are only three tracks out of 11 here where he doesn't have a writing credit) now could flex his creative muscles.
The result is almost a happy accident where the mixture of new and old is perfectly balanced. There's enough traditional savage,
Butchered At Birth-esque tracks to keep the pace of the album in line, whilst the sprawling, sinister
Bloodlands and
Monolith introduce much more sophisticated songwriting. For their part, Jack Owen and Rob Barrett also bring their fair share of technical songwriting, with
Perverse Suffering and
Absolute Hatred both serving as highlights, easily swapping between tempos and balancing groove with technicality in a style which basically all the later Cannibal Corpse albums were modelled off. In general everything feels more deliberate and carefully constructed, with carefully placed transitions and breaks that build and release tension much more effectively. When it should feel frantic and violent, it does; when it should feel sinister, nauseating and twisted, it does.
Of course, to ignore Fisher's contributions would be careless, and here he has one of his all-time best performances. Straight out the gate, his iconic scream to open
Devoured by Vermin shows his much greater range and power compared to Barnes. His faster paced delivery and closer alignment with the rhythm sections helps add clarity to the often very technical and rapidly shifting songs, maintaining the direction and purpose. Paul Mazurkiewicz also has one of his best performances here, sounding probably the most agile he ever has and with a new level of technical precision. The fact that compared to basically any other Cannibal Corpse album this one has the most iconic drum parts pretty much says it all, and his contributions really cement things beyond technical flair and wizardry and into iconic moments.
Really just about the only weakness here is Scott Burns's production, which is pretty flimsy sounding in comparison to some of the muscular, savage sounding albums recorded with Colin Richardson and Neil Kernon later on. The usual issues with somewhat unmemorable solos remains, and whilst the scope of the songwriting is much broader than on most of their other albums, it does have some aspects which get somewhat samey (the "slow double bass pattern with spidery palm muted riff" trope crops up basically everywhere). All that said, this is probably one of the best realizations of their sound, and while it's not as catchy as The Bleeding or as buttery smooth as Bloodthirst, it is as savage and sinister as you'd ever want.
