Death Hack [Weekly Mixtape 96]

Display of Decay • Cannibal Corpse • Foetal Juice
Xoth • Torn The Fuck Apart • Aroma • Maul • Seep
Left Cross • Xorsist • Wormhole • Ruin Lust • Endseeker
Disguised Malignance • Manipulator • Rebaelliun

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2021: Stasis

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175: Cannibal Corpse

Here is Dreams of Consciousness Podcast Episode 175, featuring an interview with Paul Mazurkiewicz of Cannibal Corpse.

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Bandcamp Picks - Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed, Daemusinem, THÆTAS/Haagenti

Few things in this world are as reliable as a new Cannibal Corpse album. Red Before Black, their 14th gore-soaked (s)platter, sees them reuniting with fellow death metal OG Erik Rutan, whose production brings an immediacy and clarity to the band's deceptively thoughtful songwriting. The most consistent and prolific of the genre's elder statesmen, at this point "death metal" is as concise a descriptor of  Cannibal Corpse as you'll get - and vice versa. [$9.99]

After the oddly restrained Necrocracy, Exhumed are back with a more recognizable cross section of gore fucking metal. A concept album based on the Burke and Hare murders, Death Returns matches Surgical Steel for riff after NWOBHM inspired riff, with symphonic interludes worthy of a Christopher Young score. The return of original Exhumed vocalist/bassist (and friend of the blog) Ross Sewage is as much of a bonus as the Exodus cover included at the end. [$10]



Comprising members of Putridity, Turin's Daemusinem continue largely in the same (opened) vein. Thy Ungodly Defiance is unbelievably fast, with squealing pinch harmonics punctuating the guttural onslaught, and technical in a way that enhances the brutality rather than detracting from it. There's no need to complain that Cryptopsy have strayed too far from their vile origins when bands like Daemusinem are here to pick up the slack. [$7.99]



With members of Buckshot Facelift, there's no doubt DoC friends THÆTAS are committed to expanding what it means to be a NYDM band while upholding their city's brutal legacy. The three songs on their new split release have enough blastbeats and slam parts to make Suffocation proud grandpas, but vary their attack with skronking guitar noise and changing tempos. On the other side of the split (and the L.I.E.) Haagenti make progressive metal great again by keeping the blast even through shifting time signatures, with nods to fellow Long Island native Chuck Schuldiner along the way. Both sides of the split are available as "name your price" downloads.

Death Metal World Cup Quarter Finals: Cannibal Corpse vs Behemoth

	VS
Cannibal Corpse A Skeletal Domain		Behemoth The Satanist

Death Metal World Cup: Cannabis Corpse vs Cannibal Corpse

	VS
Cannabis Corpse From Wisdom To Baked		Cannibal Corpse A Skeletal Domain

Brain Removal Police

As a teenager, I used to consider Cannibal Corpse a band for people without the dedication or intellectual curiosity to delve deeper into the underground; the few CC "fans" I knew rarely listened to any extreme metal bands besides Corpse. [To show how much of a metal snob I was back then, I regarded "Slayer fans" with the same disdain.] Corpse weren't faster or more technical than anyone else, and despite the number of copycats they inspired, they weren't particularly innovative either. When it came to American death metal, Morbid Angel, Death, Suffocation, Obituary and Deicide were the bands that I deemed important; Cannibal Corpse were just a band that was popular.

Of course, American death metal wasn't really my thing back then anyways.  It was all about Sweden, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Sweden, Poland, Sweden, Sweden, and Sweden.  With all the excitement going on in Scandinavia, South America, and Eastern Europe, Cannibal Corpse and the other US bands just seemed kind of...dumb.

And then something happened.  Around the time they were about to release Kill, I was cruising past my mid-20s.  Seeing Corpsegrinder on the cover of Decibel, ready to release another Tipper-sticker defying album...I realized that I had more in common with the old fat guys in Cannibal Corpse than ever. Alex Webster and company were lifers, like me. Almost every other metal band has broken up, reformed, slowed down or grown up... but not these guys. Cannibal Corpse kept releasing Cannibal Corpse albums for Cannibal Corpse fans. There's something laudable about that, something dependable, something comforting in a way that most metal fans will never understand, because they won't be metal fans in 5 years. In 2006 I cracked and purchased the entire Corpse discography, and since then, every album they've released has been top ten worthy for me.

Which brings me to their newest album, Torture, which has been getting great reviews. I can't say it's any better than Kill or Evisceration Plague; it's definitely more immediate, and has a thrashy intensity that recalls Darkness Descends in its precocious fury. Is it the metal album of the year? The one that will make converts out of cynics? Is it the best thing CC has ever done? I don't know. But it is a Cannibal Corpse album, and I love it just for that.

Best of 2009

This was originally posted on my design blog. I decided to re-post it here for posterity's sake.

1) Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave

When I was a youngun, two words defined my journey to the dark side of music: "Napalm" and "Death." It's ridiculous to contemplate, but somehow, nearly a quarter of a century after giving the world the blastbeat and a new way to irritate your parents called grindcore, Napalm 2009 are faster, heavier, and angrier than ever. Seeing them live earlier this year was some kind of religious experience.


2) Slayer - World Painted Blood

















The questionable post-rock influence aside, how could a Slayer album not make it to this metalhead's top ten? Half the album is dedicated to the kind of razor-sharp thrash that put Slayer at the top of their game and kept them there. Then there are the strange parts: the fistpumping anthem "Americon", the creepy Pink Floyd partying chez-Lavey interlude in "Human Strain", and the rousing title track with its moshpit-ready breakdown. Is it as good as Reign in Blood? Can anything ever be? It's a Slayer album, and in this new era of hipster thrashers and deathcore poseurs, that's as good as we could hope for.


3) Vader - Necropolis

No question about it, Vader are the reason that Poland is the new capital of death metal. They've been refining their death-thrash onslaught since 1985, but it's taken them till now to surpass all their death metal peers of that era. Vader have a battleplan and they're following it to the letter: catchy thrash, unstoppable blast, brooding doom, headbanging groove. Trade in your Morbid Angel longsleeves, Vader have taken the death metal throne with album after album of perfect songcraft and flawless execution.


4) Behemoth - Evangelion

In truth, it's hard to say that Evangelion is any better than any Behemoth album since they staked their claim on blackened death in the late 90's. A little slower, maybe, and possibly sorely lacking in the blasting department. Still, this is some evil shit, and on "Fire and the Void" and the epic tribute to the dark one "Lucifer," Behemoth prove themselves masters of the death metal anthem.


5) Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague

I realized a few years ago that exactly one thing has never changed in the 15 years I've been listening to this music: Cannibal Corpse. What douchemonger questions their intention and suggests it's time for a change? Beatdown parts? Female vocals? Synthesizers? That shit won't fly here. Corpse have done exactly what Corpse needs to do... death metal music for death metal people. And long after you've "grown up" and discovered a new love for rockabilly or indie rock, or whatever the hell hipsters will be listening to next, Cannibal Corpse will still be 5 ugly guys making the same ugly music.


6) Coalesce - Ox

Has anyone kept count of the number of times Coalesce have broken up and then reformed? With this most recent comeback, it's impossible to impugn their motives, as A) the kind of migraine-inducing noisecore that Coalesce pioneered in the late 90's is a long way from making any kind of comeback, and B) chances are, Coalesce won't stick around long enough to profit off of it. When the dust clears, what we'll be left with is the career best Ox, an album which showcases Coalesce's unpredictability with bits of rockabilly, prog, and 70's rock interweaved into the gnarliest math-metal south of Gorguts. It's like watching Godzilla take his time chewing up the members of Don Caballero, the Jesus Lizard, and P-Funk, before spewing them across the Tokyo skyline in one atomic breath.


7) Kreator - Hordes of Chaos

Thrash revival? Fuck you, wannabe Williamsburg poseurs. Kreator never went away, and over the course of three albums have defined a new era for themselves. They may never be recognized for their true greatness, or their importance in the development of metal (it was a short walk from the melodic thrash of "Extreme Aggression" to the melodic death of "Slaughter of the Soul"), but Kreator have always rewarded their fans with the catchiest thrash anthems Metallica never wrote, all with that European sincerity that American bands never seem to replicate.


8) Wolves in the Throne Room - Malevolent Grain/Black Cascade


Winter is upon us, and nothing better accompanies long walks through freezing darkness than these Wolves. The definitive voice in USBM, the evil that emanated from Norway in the early 90's echoes through their music. The same necro riff will hammer you over and over till you're hypnotized, accompanied by Nazgul screams and a production that manages to be both raw and all encompassing. Malevolent Grain was the teaser ep, featuring the hypnotic dirge "A Looming Resonance", a 13 minute epic featuring the forlorn vocals of Jamie Meyers (Hammer of Misfortune) breaking through the frost and darkness. Black Cascade followed shortly, 4 songs of the grimmest tree-hugging ever executed in a candle-lit studio. Believe the hype: America finally has a black metal band that doesn't suck.


9) Gwynnbleid - Nostalgia

The best melodic death metal band from the US issues their debut album, and the results don't disappoint, with a folk-influenced epic that recalls the early work of Opeth, Katatonia, and early Dark Tranquility. The maturity that Gwynnbleid display is amazing, and it'll be amazing to see where they go for from here.


10) Immortal - All Shall Fail

Mighty Ravendark returns and engulfs us in its freezing shadow. The best riff-writers out of Norway return at full gallop, with seven of the most headbang-worthy black metal anthems released this year. It's even rumoured that playing these grim and frost-bitten anthems at full volume will combat global warming; I'm willing to do my part.