Cannibal Corpse Create Modern Death Metal Masterpiece

Cannibal Corpse vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher often describes the band’s music and lyrics as being comparable to what is found in a bloody horror movie. To build on that analogy, if Tomb of the Mutilated is the band’s horror equivalent to Saw, then the new recording, Evisceration Plague, is more along the lines of Nightmare on Elm Street. The album is a death metal masterpiece.

The band’s eleventh studio release takes a more groove-oriented direction than its predecessors. And while the songs are slower in places, the music is more technical and heavier than ever. This is best shown on title track, “Evisceration Plague”, which opens with crunching guitars, followed by a slow and grinding bass/drum groove led by long-time bassist and songwriter, Alex Webster. Then Fisher comes in with staccato vocals that fit in with the groove perfectly and complete the crushing whole.

I would argue that “Evisceration Plague” is the perfect death metal song.
Webster is a skilled musician who knows his music theory, and it shows on the album. Songs are filled with subtle nuances that will go unnoticed by the casual observer, but on repeat listens become more apparent.

The album never gets dull due to the band’s constant variation of tempo. The tracks “To Decompose” and “A Cauldron of Hate” feature driving guitars and drums, which alternate between slow and fast sections.

“Scalding Hail,” is blindingly fast and clocks in at less than two minutes in length. Its appearance early on in the album lets you know that the guys haven’t lost their ability to write speeding riffs, despite slowing things down now and again.

“Carnivorous Swarm,” is a technical monster that is filled with complex guitar-work and vicious blast-beats. The guitars are layered in a manner that makes them sound like a swarm of deadly creatures getting ready to launch out of the speakers and rip the flesh right off of your bones.

With all of the great musicianship, it would be easy for Fisher’s vocals to fall in the background of things, but instead the complete opposite occurs. His trademark growls act as an instrument that is as important to the music as the guitars or drums.

Album opener “Priests of Sodom”, in which Fisher layers both deep-throated growls and higher pitched Chuck Schuldiner-like vocals, is one of his best performances to date. On several of the songs the vocal parts are somehow catchy, despite being mostly inaudible.

Cannibal Corpse is known for having gruesome lyrics and songs such as “Skewered from Ear to Eye” leave little to the imagination.

Boring through the brain, eye impaled on the point
Steel spears crisscross your greymatter.
Puncturing the eardrum and the blood begins to ooze,
Red blooms grace the dying head.

That being said, the lyrics on this album are actually toned down when compared to older Chris Barnes-era albums which were occasionally too extreme for their own good.
Evisceration Plague marks a milestone in Cannibal Corpse’s career and is sure to join the ranks of my favorite death metal albums, right alongside Death’s The Sound of Perseverance and Morbid Angel’s Domination.

Even those who are not heavily into death metal should check it out, as it just might sway your mind.

Rating: **** 1/2 bloody stars out of *****

Meshuggah Concert Review 2/12/09 @ People's Court

A mixed crowd attended the Meshuggah concert last Thursday at People’s Court in Des Moines, Iowa. Stereotypical frat-dudes, metal heads, hot chicks, the average joes and the 50 year-old way too drunk guy made up one of the most mixed crowds I have ever seen at a metal concert. Just what brought these people from all wakes together? I would like to say the mighty Meshuggah did.

The band put on what was one of the heaviest concerts I have ever seen in my life.

Opening with the song “Pravus” the Swedes whipped fans into overdrive from the get-go. Vocalist, Jens Kidman, has a monster of a presence on stage. He slowly banged his shaved head up and down to the crazy time-signature madness that the guys in the band put forth.

I had a great view of the guitar and bass rhythmic duo of Marten Hagstrom and Dick Lovgren who have perfected the unison slow-motion headbang. Combined with Thomas Haake on drums, these guys have to be one of the tightest rhythm sections in all of metal.

Haake never missed a beat and plays crucial part in holding the band together, as Meshuggah is known for their ridiculous time-changes. Fredrik Thordendal played his jazz-metal solos to perfection, melting audience members’ souls in the process.

“Bleed” got many new fans into Meshuggah and the audience was into it for the full six to seven minutes of the song.

When the band went into “New Millennium Cyanide Christ” the audience cheered and a massive mosh pit ensued. Fans climbed on the stage to do stage dives, but the audience was reluctant to catch them and the crowd-surfing was short-lived for most. Perhaps it was because people didn’t want to miss a minute of the show.

It was definitely an over-the-top sight to see Thordendal and Hagstrom’s eight-string guitars and Lovgren’s five-string bass tuned down to earthshaking levels.

Kidman rarely interacted with the crowd, but when he did it was with a think Swedish accent and he talked about odd things such as his mic being made of metal and not plastic. He did do a good job of pumping the crowd up when he thought they were being too calm.

The amazing thing about Meshuggah is that although the band plays some of the most complex music around, they somehow manage to do it in a way that makes it seem easy. And somehow you can still headbang to it as well. Although I did see the occasional audience member headbanging way off rhythm more than once (I was probably guilty of it too).

The band ended the night with the song “Future Breed Machine” which is one of the most intense math-metal songs the band has to offer. The pre-recorded noise at the beginning of the song got the crowd yelling and the song itself was the highlight of the night. It was a perfect end to an awesome metal concert.



On the opening acts:

The opening acts could not match Meshuggah’s intensity, but that is to be expected. The Faceless opened with an amazing instrumental that was fun to listen to and played technically proficient metal throughout the whole set. The only problem is, unlike Meshuggah they had a harder time getting the crowd to grasp the complex riffing and many of the songs blurred together. I was surprised they didn’t play “The Ancient Covenant” which is my favorite song off of “Planetary Duality”.

I felt bad for Cynic as they just didn’t seem to fit the bill with their atmospheric music and lulling vocoder vocals. The band definitely had talent, the music just seemed a bit stale in comparison to the other bands and it seemed the members weren’t completely into the performance either.

Death to False Metal!

So I have noticed a lot of "false-metal" review blogs out there, the ones that hype up the latest in metalcore and other un-metal genres.

I decided that in order to do the metal world justice I will try my hand at reviewing the new stuff and giving my honest opinion about it.

Stay tuned for some metal reviews!