Evisceration Plague

Released 3 years after the monstrous killing machine that is “Kill”. Cannibal Corpse (CC) continues its tradition of killing and destruction with “Evisceration Plague” in 2009. A successful follow-up to “Kill”, which was already a monumental modern death metal release. This album is far from CC’s best records, but this album is still a great slab of old-school death metal.

As with all CC albums, “Evisceration Plague” wastes no time fucking around. Right from the opening scream of “Priests of Sodom”, you get drowned in this fuzzy raw guitar tone and blast beats. I absolutely love the way the guitars sound on this album, Erik Rutan once again showcases his great production skills. This album is way rawer than “Kill”, but it doesn’t make the music sound shitty. It’s a good raw production, it makes the instruments sound even more primal and rage-fueled. The drums and bass also sound fantastic, but all the instruments are tight and killer. Corpsegrinder’s vocals are always powerful, and his high screams especially sound amazing on this album. Paul Mazurkiewicz kills it on drums, as he begins to play to a click track on this album, which makes his drums all the more powerful and tight.

This album also it’s filled to the brim with gut-wrenching grooves and beats. The title track and “To Decompose” are great examples of this, they flow incredibly well and slap you around. The squealy and intricate leads of Pat O'Brien constantly dominate the constant barrage of intensity. I love the relentless energy of “Scalding Hail” as well, easily recognizable for its very short runtime. Corpsegrinder on this song in particular spits a hundred words a second it’s stunning how fast his vocals can get. It’s probably the most intense song on this album and the fastest. It’s ruthless, it’s heavy and it’s spine snapping in execution.

The title track is probably my favorite song on this album. It’s one of CC’s biggest hits, as they play it live at every single show nowadays. And for good reason, it’s a fucking awesome song. It starts off with a buildup riff before it shifts into a slow rhythm and groove. This song is a mid-paced beatdown the entire way through, it’s filled with these distant leads as well. It has this very dread-filled atmosphere as the song slowly progresses. Pat O’Brien has a killer solo on this song as well, overall it’s one of my favorite songs from CC. It had that groovy aspect of death metal that I just love.

The song that proceeds this song is “Shatter Their Bones”. A much more intense and riff-filled song than the previous song. It has this very sinister feeling which the lyrics compliment well. I feel like this album has a much darker feel and atmosphere than albums before this, yes it’s CC but it’s filled with something a little different. Other songs on this album I love are “Beheaded and Burning” and “Carrion Sculpted Entity”.

Overall this album is Cannibal Corpse. And that’s the way it should be. It contains everything this band does well, delivering an absolute killer slab of death metal. It continues to show CC’s incredible ability to put out consistent albums without compromising their quality and sound. These gentlemen will always please me with their music, there isn’t a negative thing I can say about this band. Check this out if you haven’t. A great album overall.

The very enthusiastic opinions of "Kill" with a considerable bang had an impact also to the guys from Cannibal Corpse. On "Evisceration Plague" they kept "debut freshness" from the predecessor, in some solutions they went a step further (about which later) and made the longplay attractive enough not to be confused with others - something as if in opposition to what was found to "Gore Obsessed" or "The Wretched Spawn". This approach, however, was very worth (commercially too), because "Evisceration..." was as warmly received as "Kill", and in my humble opinion it looks even more interesting than its predecessor.

"Evisceration Plague" is an album that you can listen to without any problems, in one go - just like "Kill". The music of the Americans is shocking again with the "greasy" sound of guitars, bearish Corpsegrinder growlings, efficient operation in medium tempos or very great catchiness (just right for headbanging). What distinguishes "Evisceration..." from "Kill" concerns a slightly differently exposed technique (especially in terms of guitars - more effective). And the fact is, not much, but in such a sound and composition configuration it's fully enough. The plus is that the individual songs are not identical to each other or made samey - each of them has its own individual pattern. I was impressed by all the tracks, although I would not lie that the title track, "Beheading And Burning", "To Decompose", "A Cauldron Of Hate" or "Priests Of Sodom" as the most overwhelming and superior to the others not mentioned. Apart from this detail, "Evisceration..." is still perceived as a coherent and equally strong album to the end.

On their eleventh album, the Americans managed to raise the level even higher and they created another hitty, death metal songs without any major deviations from their characteristic style. So they basically repeated the "Kill" class on "Evisceration...", and at the same time they showed that this pattern can be interestingly diversified. In the case of the "newer" Cannibal Corpse, this approach works really well.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/04/cannibal-corpse-evisceration-plague-2009.html

...when I listen to this album. In conclusion, I'd say this album... oh wait I haven't written a review yet. What hasn't been said yet about Cannibal Corpse at this point ? Perhaps I should grab the opportunity to make a few broad comments about the band, within the context of this album's release in 2009. It's quite a feat in and of itself for a death metal band from buffalo, NY with humble beginnings to still be relevant some two decades after their inception, while playing more or less the exact same style of music. We all understand after building success and growing every year, they could've been tempted to use that platform to go more mainstream and mix up their material. "More mainstream" wouldn't necessarily mean selling out and becoming mallcore. They could've for example kept the death metal demeanor with the blast beats and all, but attempted to incorporate a more melodic component to the music, or gone more simple to attract a wider audience. But really, they were only ever interested in coming up with a raw death metal sound, perfecting it and then just continue making more of that. The opener 'Priests of Sodom' here is basically mid 90's Corpse musically, just adapted to modern sound engineering. The title track 'Evisceration Plague' has C.Corpse written all over it, and still it's somehow different and fresh and catchy in its own unique way.

In contrast when one looks at some of the bigger names in the field, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Death, Carcass, Entombed to name a few giants, they've all significantly altered the direction of their music overtime. One could surely use this as criticism towards C.Corpse saying they never evolved, and some would agree and others disagree, but a band like Suffocation fits that profile and tendency as well; i.e. the small local band that despite its eventual success remains "small and local" in spirit and stays forever true to its trademark sound; and they don't get as much heat for this.

At this point into their discography, 'Evisceration Plague' serves as a treat for the fan. Just quality bonus material. The band has already proven they could write classic songs (a crap load of em in fact...), albums that were top notch from beginning to end (consistency and distinction between the tracks throughout a full album being quite uncommon in the genre), profound death metal instrumentals, that they could be super effective in simplicity as in ultra technicality. And they've proven all of that, within that same familiar context of the Cannibal Corpse sound, without ever straying away from it or being caught "cheating" on their genuine identity, which shows tremendous integrity but also rigor. It's having to be creative with restrictions, like writing a poem that follows a very specific set of rules and patterns for syntax and rhymes and all, yet still managing to make it coherent and captivating. When all those new bands and movements within the metal genre were coming up with all those new shiny modern tones and styles, Corpse stayed on track firmly and just delivered more. Never faltered.

Tracks 1 to 4 are nothing but fresh sounding, particularly catchy stuff. A real treat for the C.Corpse regular. What follows is simply yet more quality death metal, however among the more notable ones are 'Carnivorous Swarm' which has this delicious reminiscent quality of previous albums, like this track totally could've been on 'Bloodthirst' - although some will say every track they've ever written fits that description. Classy exit to 'Carnivorous...' with that huge guitar sustain effect on the way to the album title track, which as mentioned higher, is just a delight. It's almost like an Easter egg of sorts (a "Cannibal Corpse Easter egg", hmm...), as it sounds so classic and yet, current. Oh and according to George Fisher: "plague leads to death", as he makes that abundantly clear. So the album is also informative. 'Shatter their bones' is riffy goodness, one of the riffiest tracks on the record, coarse yet perfectly contained. Even the last two tracks, 'Unnatural' and 'Skewered From Ear to Eye', which most people would have ignored, are damn good. Check them out. I'm out.

What differentiates this one from the rest of Cannibal Corpse's discography? Well the music flat out. Yes, still sticking to B-flat tuned guitars, low-end hoarse vocals with some screaming, decently recorded, aggressive drumming and of course a lyrical nightmare. This you may say is similar to the rest, but no, it it might sound that way from my words, what makes it unique? The fact that the guitar riffs are technical, variety in vocals, variety in brutality, creative musical output, intensity, and balls-out heavy. If you're still asking what makes it DIFFERENT? My answer is: THE GUITARS. You get riffs that are intense, technical, solid leads, and exceptional musicianship for a death metal band.

The opener may have you set on pouncing drumming with fast guitar, but there's variety here. It isn't all just fast. It varies. Corpsegrinder is right on cue with the music. He really does a good job here and in my opinion his vocal style is more diverse and fitting for this death metal band. There may be people that favor Barnes, but Corpsegrinder has range. His throat annihilation fits with the music better than Barnes' style hands down. These guys tear it up on here. I'd have to say that all the music on this one doesn't hit any rock-bottom or boring riffing. All the way from start to end, it's very well put together. They really make a statement here despite what the naysayers may say about it..

You still get that chunky sound once again, but the creativity in the music is what counts here. It's what differentiates it from other albums. They really hit home in my book on here because it isn't just an album of pure noise with blast beating all over the place and absolutely no musical purpose, it's actual purpose is to remain underground and once again over-the-top creative when they wrote the music for this one. Yes, you may say "but you said that they still tune the same and have chunky guitars", though I say on here the music made the magic of this album balls out great. The way they pieced together their riff-writing is what's insurmountably exceptional. The guitars dominate!

Still skeptical, huh? Well I'm going to say that this one covered all angles of music when they wrote it. Again, it is intense in a lot of different ways, but it also shows you how what critics may disagree with me on this is the fact that it sounds like Corpsegrinder is monotonous or the guitars are stale, but they'd be wrong. What I said was that it is creative, they explored sounds on the fretboard that make it yes heavy, but also unique because they decided to dig deep in the progression from their past albums amounting to one genuinely solid release. The leads were top notch and so technical, even though there wasn't an extensive amount of them on the whole album, they still were good.

Production lacked a little, not as solid as their later album 'Torture', but still the mixing was good and the whole album just is so intense and brutal, it'll blow your hair back. The guitars and vocals were the highlight plus the drums were right there blasting away at these prolific overtures. This is not just death metal, this is brutal death metal that digs deep in creativity's utopia. I really do think that this album is way underrated because a lot of people that heard this pretty much may as well have said it to be "generic" death metal. I don't feel that way about it, in fact, I think it was a musical progression. Don't leave this out of your Cannibal Corpse collection because it simply annihilates!

Having been around for over twenty years is what have made Cannibal Corpse such a well known act, along with of course the supporting fans. A band without fans is a band unknown. They are known for the lurid imagery of gore through the lyric as well as making straight forward death metal. But is it enough? For some, sure. After all, taste is a subjective opinion no matter how objective one might attempt at being. But still, is it enough here for Evisceration Plague? No, not really. In fact, it may not be enough for this hardened Cannibal Corpse fan anymore.

The instrumentation found on Evisceration Plague is tight. For starters, there's the drumming. It blasts away like never before, well, very similar to the previous effort by the band, but the difference is that the drums feel and sound more clean and are void of any seemingly human interaction. As for the bass guitar, it feels and sound nonexistent. It is heard once in a while, but is heavily drowned and requires acute hearing to really pick it up. The guitars do not do much better, mostly chugging away with riffs that are predictable and dull, but manage to create some interesting sections here and there. The vocals are average and in this case, seeing as everything else is as well, actually become a problem. Aside the screams, the vocals stay pretty much within the same range from start to beginning.

Production and mixing-wise, it is what you can expect from a band with a big budget that want to create a sonic and dynamic album. The mixing does not go in favor of the bass guitar, drowning it nearly away. And the production? As clean and sterile as an inhuman machine in a laboratory. It basically removes the human element from the music, thus removing all the small quirks and flaws making it feel cold and dead. It is highly overproduced and excessive.

It seems as though the band have tried to reinvent themselves, but in the process just went around themselves until they ended up where they were at, and this is the final result. Truth be told, the only major positive with Evisceration Plague is the drumming, which is fairly well performed, albeit inhuman and lacking warmth. Other than that, everything else found here is sub par for Cannibal Corpse, thus disappointing this fan at least.

In the end, what we have is a technically accomplished death metal album that lacks character and soul. It has everything to create something great, yet has no soul or human touch.

Stand-out track: Carnivorous Swarm.
2/10

When “Evisceration Plague” came out, I was pretty excited. I was hoping maybe they still had some of the old style Cannibal Corpse in them. But oh man, was I wrong. What I have here are blast beats and pretty average riffs.

Cannibal Corpse basically released “Kill” for the second time with a lot of the good stuff gone. “Kill” was actually pretty good. This is just flat out boring. The production is pretty much the exact same as “Kill” which adds to the stale sound that is being created on this remake. The guitars are not very heavy at all and sound pretty thin. The bass is much too quiet. Which sucks because I love hearing Alex Webster play. The drums sound good. Nothing about of the drums is bad but I would like some different production every now and then.

Now the music itself is just flat out boring. After two or three songs I can’t stomach this anymore. They all consist of the fast all over the place riff and a slow downed part. Which all start to run together eventually. Not much writing going on here. Some of the songs have pretty heavy riffs, (“To Decompose”). This being said, most of the heavy riffs seem to sound the SAME. I really wish they would go back to their old style of writing like “Tomb of the Mutilated”. George does a good job on the vocal delivery but once again falls short of Chris Barnes. I AM NOT a Chris Barnes fan boy but I am just stating the fact that I would much rather listen to Chris Barnes’ era Cannibal Corpse. Obliviously George destroys Chris now but old Chris Barnes just served as a better vocalist for Cannibal Corpse. Out of the entire album, I can’t really think of one memorable riff.

This album would be much better if it had some new riffs. Not just the recycled crap they keep doing. The riffs are not memorable, the bass is quiet, and the vocals are decent. I would not recommend this album unless you like boring same-song over and over death metal.

Best tracks – “To Decompose”, “A Cauldron of Hate” is decent…other than that, nothing really.

I have nothing against Suffocation. Suffocation got me into death metal, however, Cannibal Corpse is just as good and is the second technical death metal band I got into. Evisceration Plague may not be their best album but it's awesome, although I still think Kill was better. Comparing Kill and Evisceration Plague on paper, it's really too close to call, just like comparing Suffocation to Cannibal Corpse, Kreator to Sodom, Metallica to Megadeth, and so on, although I'm getting off topic so I'll get started now.

Stand-out songs would be Priests of Sodom, To Decompose, Shatter Their Bones, A Cauldron of Hate, Evisceration Plague, and Carnivorous Swarm. Best off the album would probably be Priests of Sodom or To Decompose. All these songs really seemed to have a kind of experimentation in them, which is why I can see they call George Fisher "Corpsegrinder", Cannibal Corpse and this album in particular can do several transitions from death metal to grindcore, and even goregrind in some songs, which is something I dont see in Suffocation, and having the experimentation in these songs while not in Suffocation's music makes Cannibal Corpse and this album above almost all Suffocation and Cannibal Corpses other albums.

This album really has good vocals and instrumentation, especially on the guitars and bass lines and bass guitar itself. The complexity of the guitar parts and brutal bass lines plus those badass vocals and probably 9 out of 10 drumming makes some awesome death metal, and I dont know if those guitars are like two and a half steps down or more, but if they are, add that and you got some brutal and nice sounding technical death metal. Those vocals stand out the most, they are awesome, Fisher certainly has a very low growl, and adding in screams here and there is very unique and he does it very well, better then most could probably do. Guitar parts and bass lines are very brutal and complex, which isn't a bad thing, in fact, quite the opposite.

So other than instruments and how gorey the album is, I'd give it a 97% because the drumming could improve and Scalding Hail, was, well, just average.

With a career now more than 20 years deep, Florida's most enduring and consistent death metal band returns with its 11th full-length album, losing none of its energy and not once deviating from its traditional blend of technical riffing, bass savvy and violent resonance.

How you feel about this album will largely depend on which 'camp' you are in: if you favor the Chris Barnes era of Cannibal Corpse, it's possible you will once again whine about how it's not this or that. If, like myself, you feel the more recent stretch of George Corpsegrinder-fronted albums (dating back to Gallery of Suicide; Vile was mediocre) marks not only the band's career high but also one of the most consistently excellent periods in any death metal body of work, then you will once again be delivered unto gore soaked euphoria by the Evisceration Plague. It's a little better than its predecessor K.I.L.L., in terms of quality.

"Priest of Sodom" opens the album with a many-fisted beating, a blasphemous curb stomping with punchy riffs and those evil octave chords these Florida bands like this use so well (Morbid Angel is another). "Scalding Hail" is short but sweet, and by sweet I mean it will kick your fucking head in, but in less than two minutes. "To Decompose" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, that opening riff just immediately takes me back to what I goddamn loved about an album like Bloodthirst, technical yet still extremely catchy and, in the interest of all the best death metal, DISGUSTING. "A Cauldron of Hate" can be felt wrenching straight to your gut, about to empty your stomach of its contents and then jerk the stomach itself right through your abdomen. "Beheading and Burning" makes use of evil chords under flighty grinding death metal riffs for a truly terrifying and paranoid atmosphere. Incredible. "Evidence in the Furnace" is a bloodwash of off-point open speed and chugging arson. "Carnivorous Swarm" paints its insectile antagonists through a creepy, quick rhythmic patterns. The title track is plodding and groovy, and you just won't believe some of the incredibly evil solos they put over the rhythm as the track just rocks out. If this one doesn't have your fist beating you are probably not a death metal fan. "Shatter Their Bones" will 'eat your fucking guts and your brains'. "Carrion Sculpted Entity", aside from having the best title, has Alex Webster written all over it. Absurd. "Unnatural" is another of my favorites for the new album, the riffs are just amazing from the busy blasting shuffle of the verse to the claustrophobic order of its bridge. "Skewered from Ear to Eye" closes off the album just as consistently as anything that has come before.

As usual, the musicians are on top of their game. Guitars are sick, bass is unbelievable and the drumming is rock solid through each shift of rhythm and intensity. Corpsegrinder's vocals are perfect in this setting, not so gurgly and brutal that they distract you from the wealth of busy brutality going on beneath them, and rhythmic enough in their own right that they can be quite catchy. The mix sounds fantastic.

Florida death metal is...unhh...alive! Listen no further than this album for the proof. If you think Cannibal Corpse is some washed up band, think again, because they are continuing to create their best work, among the best in death metal today. No excess wanking. No failure to deliver a beating. No losing track of the fact that good death metal must convey fear and horror through its music rather than artificial measures of 'technical' excess.

Why are you still reading this? Money well spent, so do it already.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Cannibal Corpse is nothing new. Virtually everyone who listens to metal has had some experience with them, though opinions are divided. Some praise them for sticking to a tried-and-true formula, while others criticize them for never changing. Personally, I'm in the former, given my love of Vader, Bolt Thrower, and King Diamond, none of whom have ever really changed their sound but have stayed very solid. CC is the same way. You pretty much know what to expect: fast, fairly thrashy and often quite technical riffing, grinding, extremely technical bass, and competent drumming. There's no real reason to expect anything else.

Expanding on that, the performances are, for the most part, very solid. There are some genuinely excellent riffs on here, and the soloing is much better than most people give them credit for. It's generally very technical, with a frantic, pseudo-atonal edge, but with lots of technique. Pat O'Brien loves to use lots of whammy squeals and fast sweeps, but the sweeps are not melodic in any way; they actually sound pretty demented. Rob, on the other hand, sticks almost entirely to rhythm, which works quite well; he has a couple solos here and there, but they're nothing noteworthy. Bass-wise, well, it's fucking Alex Webster, what can you expect? The bass generally maintains a decent presence, and while it generally follows the guitars, Alex throws in tons of fills and tasty little runs that make for quite a nice performance. Fisher, meanwhile, does a great job on vocals: he's frantic yet quite understandable, with his trademark inhumanly long screams tossed in here and there; it's not anything new, but it's executed quite nicely. Finally, Paul is, well... the weak link. Sure, when CC first started, he was excellent, but that was quite some time ago; everyone else has improved since then. Except Paul. This is NOT a good thing. He's monotonous as FUCK, with no fills to speak of, and three normal beats: fairly mediocre blasts, decent polka beats, and midpaced grooves. Again, this is a very bad thing. I wouldn't be complaining if he had shown at least some sign of having improved since Vile. He hasn't. He literally is the SAME FUCKING DRUMMER that they had back then. He needs to either start taking lessons or get his lazy ass out. There is no excuse for this.

Mazurkiewicz's suckitude notwithstanding, there is some very solid material here. Carnivorous Swarm, Priests of Sodom, Unnatural, and Shatter Their Bones are some of CC's best tracks in some time, and most of the others range from great to decent. The title track, however, is well below the others. It's seriously one of the most fucking boring things I've ever heard. It starts off with a riff that's pretty decent the first few times. The problem is that it doesn't just come up "a few times". It's that it comprises well over half the damn song. This is just lazy. I mean, okay, CC is a pretty hardworking band, but like with Mazurkiewicz, there is no excuse for something like this. Lyrically, it's actually not bad, but musically, it sounds like they pulled it out of their ass. Normally, something like this would deep-six the score, but since the rest of this album is quite solid with a few sparks of excellence, I'll try and let it sit off to the side like a guy with a constant cough in a burn ward.

As I said before, this is another CC album. There's nothing on here you wouldn't normally expect from them, and while that is, for the most part, a good thing, Mazurkiewicz is anything but a good thing, and one of my biggest gripes about this album, and the title track doesn't help matters. Again, though, the rest of the material and performances are solid enough that I can overlook these flaws. Granted, they've done better, but they can do a whole lot worse. I suppose it's that factor alone that vindicates much of this album. If you hate CC, this will not sway you in the slightest, but if you like them, then you will have no problem. That's how it goes for pretty much every release by them.

After the generally well-received reaction to Kill, Cannibal Corpse slings us another album to chew on after a few years since. It seems Cannibal Corpse have gone to the hurry-up offense for this one. Let me start out by saying Evisceration Plague reminds me a lot of latest Bloodbath but better. The first track Priests of Sodom put this reminder in my head quite quickly. It just rolls right out with quick pounding and straight up death metal riffs of medium to fast pace. George Fisher’s deep growling is raised up a little bit as he spits out the lyrics faster than usual at an even pace. So, the first song does quite well to set the speedy brutal tone of the album. Paul Mazurkiewicz’s drumming is point on top of most of these songs as he seems to be leading the charge through this blaspehmous proceeding. He does a very good job on this album. I think this is the best display of his drums that I’ve heard from the band’s entire catalogue. What disappointed me the most from the album was the pedestrian bass approach from the usually reliable Alex Webster. His playing seems to be noticeably more passive than on the other records. The fact that this time around, Cannibal Corpse is throttling at full speed ahead might explain the cutting back of the more audible bass which makes sense but the production sound seems drained from the absence.

I do like the fact that they brought Rob Barrett back in the fore. Jack Owen was alright but his playing never really shined through to anything original. Barrett and Pat O’Brien sound like they have better chemistry together. They construct a nice source of speed and for the solos to come in. I think this allows Mazurkiewicz greater freedom to showcase the breadth of speed on his pounding which I thought Owen and Bob Rusay’s riffs pushed back. His blasting down on Carnivorous Storm is much livelier while the guitars do well to support them with sharply cut time changes. This type of direction is refreshing from the Gallery of Suicide days. Producer Erik Rutan places good emphasis on letting the rhythm guitar sounds have minimal bleed for the leads to jump out in good time. Often times, your average death metal albums will just go down-tuned with 3/4 patterning and the solos will just sound predictable as hell. It is in mastering that helps Cannibal Corpse establish a distinct new feel.

I’ve also noticed that the band’s song titles are slightly less gory than earlier stuff. The lyrics maybe are less so as well but the writing of them makes more sense somehow. Cannibal Corpse was among the first gore death metal bands. Here, they seem less concerned with lyrical shock value and more concentrated with just sounding as faster and fearsome. It’s old school intent in sound and doesn’t sound over rehearsed at all. Not being much a fan of this band, I never cared to decide which vocalist was better. I am officially now of the opinion that George Fisher is decisively the better man for the job. On this album he is pure guts and gravel. He churns out the lyrics expertly. He adapts naturally to the rush and kill pace of Evisceration Plague. There is no cupped mike growling of his predecessor who sucks so bad he deserves not mentioning.

I liked how this album wraps itself up with intensity and it leaves on a good note with the song Skewered from Ear to Ear. A little bit of everyone gets heard nicely on it. Mazurkiewicz displays veteran rapaciousness. Again, it’s a stop and go attack that sounds really cool. You can almost feel them coming right before the pummeling. Pat O’Brien’s riffs are steady and loud and Rob Barrett creeps in a good solo. Alex Webster sounds a little clearer on here too even if his tone knob is still muted outside the beats. Corpsegrinder’s growling sounds very enunciated. I enjoyed hearing the lyrics sound off to my naked ear with his ferocious growls. The best part about this song is how the vocals and drumming seem to be in tandem with each other as the song plays. It’s like a gruesome dance of attack with violent demise as its M.O. As such, when that song finished the out the album, I found myself pleasantly surprised indeed. I think this is Cannibal Corpse’s best record. I thought they would just be repeating themselves. Evisceration Plague is not a trailblazing approach even for them but what I heard was very satisfying and I like the guitar work much better than anything else they have done as well as the drums which is the best part. I enjoyed the skill set demonstration by this band and I think Cannibal Corpse fans will enjoy it for the same reason.

20 years to the day that Cannibal Corpse began challenging the limitations of what constituted death metal, as set by its more occult-oriented pioneers Morbid Angel and Possessed, as well as their slightly less gory and later intellectual foil Death, this band has consistently held brutality as the necessary and sufficient primer for this style. Relying largely on the aggressive brevity of “Reign In Blood” as a template, they’ve held firm to this directive of all brutality, all the time, making distinguishing one album from the next largely one based on quality rather than stylistic evolution. Muddied down tuned guitars, hyper-guttural vocal barks, Kerry King influenced lead guitar bursts and a mishmash of neo-tonality and chromatic sequencing to their riff work are all elements within their template that have basically become as cliché as their exaggerated lyrical content, resulting in something that will come across as noise to anyone not already indoctrinated into the extreme side of the metal paradigm.

In terms of overall album quality, the band has gone through some pretty sizable peaks and valleys through their various studio efforts, making this album something of an aberration as it doesn’t jump out as being fantastically good or bad, but sort of lingers in the solid fanfare category. Brief, tremolo-happy, blast beat steeped crushers like “Carnivorous Swarm” and “Priests Of Sodom” are the order of the day, clocking in at less than 4 minutes in most cases, and going almost as quickly as they arrive. Individually most of these songs are crafted for the adrenaline rush rather than sticking in one’s long term memory, but the album as a whole will definitely leave a lasting impression of a 39 minute long sonic ass whooping.

One breath of fresh air that this album offers is occasional breaks from the lyrical descriptions of human decomposition and botched surgeries “Hostel” style for something a bit more interesting. “Priests Of Sodom” and “Cauldron Of Hate” are all but gore free and loaded with evil imagery that wouldn’t be out of place on a Morbid Angel album, while others like “Evisceration Plague” and “Shatter Their Bones” pay homage to various horror movies with plotlines rather than sit on the gore theme and ride it all the way through like a Necrophiliac jacked up on Viagra would with a decaying corpse of a Louisiana hooker.

This album is at its best when things stretch beyond the 4 minute mark, which only occurs twice on the entire album. “Evisceration Plague” is the first winner with a pretty wide range of varied riffs and an actual sense of buildup from one extreme to another, rather than a straight line of blurred brutality from start to finish. The principle riff has a pretty sweet mix of Sabbath style trills and an overall doom oriented atmosphere that draws some similarities to “Into The Void” and “Zero The Hero” in terms of feel, but definitely departs from Iommi’s still fairly common practice tonality sense of dissonance. “A Cauldron Of Hate” also stands out with a really morose vocal performance and a good mix of tremolo work and heavy groove riffs, as well as a pretty dynamic and, at times, melodic guitar solo.

When all is said and done, this is a pretty predictable release for this outfit, though by their occasionally lackluster offerings, a cut above some in their back catalog. It’s not likely to pull in many death/thrash fans that prefer this genre the way it was before the mid-90s, but occasionally there are some brief glimpses of thrash, though they tend to not last very long. The real charm here is the technical guitar work and the solos in particular, which do challenge a good number of tech. death bands out there trying to be the next Suffocation, while simultaneously not getting ridiculous with the blast beats and endless streams of random notes. This isn’t quite as good as the thrashing “Kill” was, but this is still pretty good and worth your time.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 1, 2009.

This is my first full album taste of Cannibal Corpse. I really have not heard much of the band before this, and what I have heard was somewhat mediocre and underwhelming. So I will not try to make any comparisons to the sound of older albums with this one. Evisceration Plague is the band's newest full length album, and it's solid. Not great, and not really doing anything too exciting or fresh, but still solid. The basic sound here is big, chunky riffs that maul and ravage your ears while the vocals of veteran growler Corpsegrinder howl away off to the side. There are some melodic whiddly solos in here that gallop and skip along like blood flowing from an open wound, and the drumming is always there in the background, crushing skulls into a fine dust. I really do like the guitar tone on here, as it is crunchy and metallic as fuck, and it makes for an overall satisfying listen any time you want to throw this one on. The riffs are mostly mid-paced, possessing little variation in tempo and mostly just grooving and lurching along in an energetically charged stomp that will satisfy both old school Death enthusiasts and those of the newer school, too. The vocals are all understandable, so you can hear every single inch of the gory, maddening lyrical poetry coming out of Corpsegrinder's mouth!

All the songs here are relatively homogenous, possessing little variation at all from one to the next, and that was exactly what we came for, right? Another thing I like about this album is that the band seemed to just have picked a bunch of cool sounding Death Metal parts and jumbled them all together. Normally this would be a bad thing, in another, more polished genre, but here it just seems to work, as every song sounds like a bubbling, breathing concoction of pure evil. "Priests of Sodom" kicks off with an excellent Death Metal crunch, and then the next couple of songs are not so great, but once we hit "Evidence in the Furnace," things skyrocket and never look back, with more awesome cuts like "Carnivore Swarm," "Carrion Sculpted Entity" and especially the crushing "Shatter the Bones." But really, I like different songs every time I play this damn thing, and that says something good about this one. Evisceration Plague doesn't pack many surprises, but from a band I expected to hate, this is a pretty damn formidable beast indeed.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

I happen to have every Cannibal Corpse album with George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, which comes up to seven if you include the “Worm Infested” EP, which is whole lot of Cannibal Corpse! With so many albums, I’ve basically made a special “Cannibal Corpse” mix with my favourite songs, which I consider to be some of the best songs, catchiest songs or most notable songs due to the band trying something a bit different. Most people have also gotten to the point where they don’t expect anything greatly creative about Cannibal Corpse, which can pretty rough for a music reviewer. As it stands, I do think that the previous Cannibal Corpse album, “Kill” was great, as it had a lot of catchy hooks, there were two songs which were very notable for something different (such as the simple tread-along of “Death Walking Terror”, and the instrumental “Infinite Misery”.

As many times as I played “Evisceration Plague”, I tried, but simply couldn’t get into the album. Not one song seemed special, or featured a catchy hook, and features staples the band have used for a long time now. The chug-along technical riffs, slught tempo jumps that aren’t quite grindcore style tempo jumps, supported often by one-two drumming and signature bomb-blast beats. To be honest, Cannibal Corpse isn’t the most emotional band or raw band, so technical execution usually takes a front seat. The production is nearly picture perfect (although sometimes I hear that snare drum over everything else), merged with the super-tight played and vocals makes the recording a bit robotic. Taking all the modern personality that Cannibal Corpse have made standard along with the same production as the last album has made “Evisceration Plague” into “Kill” part 2. It’s like they simply mixed and matched song portions from “Kill” to make “Evisceration Plague”.

I’m sure long time Cannibal Corpse fans won’t be disappointed, though “Evisceration Plague” probably won’t pull in as many new fans as they did with “Kill”, “The Bleeding” or “Vile”.

Originally posted at www.waytooloud.com

Ah, Cannibal Corpse. I've never had a fixed opinion on this band, to be honest. There was a time when I hated Chris Barnes and felt that Corpsegrinder was superior, and after that I felt that CC were THE most over-rated band in the world and never recorded a decent song, let alone an entire album. Recently (since a couple of months ago) I really started to enjoy Barnes-era Corpse, namely “Tomb of the Mutilated” and “The Bleeding.” And maybe that's why I like this legendary band's latest album more than it's predecessor, “Kill.” Kill was an album that almost exclusively focused on sheer speed and brutality, and lacked the addictive mid-paced grooves of the two early Corpse albums I just mentioned. For that reason alone, I like this album more than “Kill.”

Before I can delve into the music and why I think that the groovy sections are the sole reason why this album rips apart it's predecessor, I guess I have to explore the production a bit. The production is very similar to Kill, but the guitar tone has more of a crunchy feel to it, which really elevates the quality of the slower mid tempo parts. The drum sound also has a nice punch to it, which also aids the classic Cannibal Corpse grooves. However, the drums feel too mechanical and less fluid during the faster parts and the loud drum sound is to blame. Fortunately, the faster parts here don't usually last too long (unlike Kill) and just when the drum starts to get annoying, a guitar solo comes to save the day. And if it doesn't, the band just shifts into a slower yet more sick speed.

Anyway, like I said before, the riffs here have more in common with Barnes' last two CC albums than they have to do with “Kill.” Sure, the faster songs may bring “Kill” (and sometimes “Eaten Back to Life”) to mind, but as I said before, the fast sections are scattered throughout the album. The riffs are extremely catchy and just force you to bang your head in tune with the song's tempo, even if your neck is sore after the ass kicking that Napalm Death's latest album gave you. The only problem here which I can see is that when the songs finally move into faster sections, it just doesn't feel full and at times it feels forced, as if the band just said to themselves “Hey, we're a death metal band, so we should be ULTRA fast, right?” Also, the faster sections feel restrained, as does Corpsegrinder's vocals. His voice doesn't travel as far as it should at times and feels hollow and powerless. Maybe the guitars should have been a bit higher in the mix so they could have overshadowed the vocals and the drums (which sound pretty mechanical) during the fast parts.

The songs feel a lot more full than the ones in "Kill," in spite of the half baked faster parts. The band seems to have put more thought into the song structures, with the sharp tremolo riffs seemlessly morphing into chunky thrash inspired riffs. "Priests of Sodom" and "Carrion Sculpted Entity" show this off well. Speaking of the tremolo riffs, the tremolo riffs here are actually very interesting, which is more than what I can say about the other George Fisher albums. Corpse were always good at their headsplitting grooves, but when it came to tremolo riffs they would usually fall on their faces. The tremolo guitar work acts as a "path clearer," for the most part, just building up for the chunky riffs that would follow it. BUT it does its job extremely well, (once again) unlike the other Fisher albums. The highlight of the quality guitar work here is definitely the mid paced riffs (which I have mentioned about a million times in this review, hahah) simply because they were ALWAYS the main highlight of Cannibal Corpse's sound and and because they are so damn catchy. Corpsegrinder's weak vocal performance here is only good in these slower parts, just like the drums!

What else is there to say? This is a Cannibal fucking Corpse album, which means that despite the negatives, it's still fucking enjoyable. This isn't something I'll be listening to all the time and this is by no means as good as the band's first four albums, but it still manages to kick a sufficient amount of ass.

So here we are. It’s the beginning of 2009 and the long-awaited 11th studio album from death metal giants Cannibal Corpse is finally here. Kill received much critical acclaim for it’s “upping the ante” of the technical precision Cannibal is known for, and there is no difference with Evisceration Plague.

The production is thick and solid, and sounds very similar to the way Kill sounded. The guitars seem just a bit more on the crunchier side, which I find allows their impeccable technique to shine further more in the barrage of blasts. The bass tone, as always, is absolutely perfect. Mr. Webster never fails when it comes to making the bass shine in the mix. Paul’s drumming is a little bit more varied than before. I did however expect a different approach from him, because Cannibal stated he was experimenting with his playing, and he did, but it isn’t really all that noticeable. He is now using ddrums (he explains in the making of DVD), which sound a little bit more punchy than his previous drum sound, but overall, it’s pretty much the same sound and performance as his previous efforts.

Now let’s get to the songs. I really admire Cannibal for having songs with their own character and identity. They do not all sound alike, and I believe that this is a result of having the four separate song writers contributing their own songs to the CD. Pat only wrote two songs for this album (To Decompose and Carnivorous Swarm) as opposed to his usual three, but trust me, he packs enough punch in those two songs to knock Kimbo Slice out in 14 seconds! Rob wrote one song, Shatter their Bones, by himself, and Scalding Hail, which he collaborated with Alex Webster. Those songs are more on the catchier and trashier side. They remind me of his work with Malevolent Creation, and they set themselves nicely apart from Pat’s technique-filled compositions. This album also marks the second release with the writing help of Paul. His song, Carrion Sculpted Entity, is simpler and much more drum driven than the others. It’s nothing to special, but is a nice new dynamic to the Cannibal writing force. Alex wrote everything else! He is a Renaissance man of Death Metal!!! His songs are all different from each other, but you can still tell it is his writing style. He is the absolute driving force of this band, and he continues to impress me with everything he plays on.

Sure this album isn’t going to redefine anything in death metal right now, but it’s Cannibal Corpse we are talking about here. They already did their job in the death metal world, so if they can consistently release awesome albums, they should continue to do so. One thing this CD will do is entertain fans of catchy, old-school, brutal death metal. For a band that has been around as long as they have, they have never half-assed any of their releases. Sure you may not like some of their albums, or may prefer older ones, but I honestly believe that it is damn near impossible to say that anything they have done has ever been half assed. So pick this album up and listen for yourself!

Everyone knows Cannibal Corpse. My girlfriend. My parents. My cat would probably recognize them. They're the top selling band in death metal... well, I could go off on a massive kvltist rant, but meh; I'd say they deserve it.

Kill was my favourite album by Cannibal Corpse. There, I said it. Yes, more so than the oldest recordings, Tomb, Vile, everything; sorry to anyone that offends (I've met a few). It was heavy, it was groovy,the riffs were sick. It was all there. The pressure's been on to top it, and while I'm not sure they have, the liddle Corpsies have definitely come close. The down-tuned yet clear and polished sound of the Wretched Spawn and Kill is back, with Erik Rutan at the helm once again - let's face it, innovation was never going to happen. The formula's pretty damn effective.

The individual performances are great, as usual, and a special mention goes to Webster for yet again managing to have his basslines cut through the gigantic wall of guitars. However, one big exception: the drumming. Quite simply, it's boring. Paul Mazurkiewicz has had nigh on twenty years in Cannibal Corpse, yet whaddaya know, he keeps playing the same fucking beats over and over again, to the point of monotony. If you watch the making-of DVD, he complains about having to blast at 200 bpm, something which would make most death metal drummers stare at him oddly. Corpsegrinder is on top of his game, as ever, with some interesting use of layering now and again. Check out Priests of Sodom - it sounds like a little crowd of cookie monsters. Aaw.

A few little things are different to the usual Cannibal fare; every now and again, through the usual, pounding riffs, something will make you prick up your ears: check out the strange, high notes in To Decompose, for example. And there's why this album is ultimately a winner: though Cannibal have found their path and are happily sticking to it, they keep throwing in a few little new things, to keep it interesting. If you listen closely, they crop up throughout the album (listen closely to Carnivorous Swarm).

So is it a Kill-topper? Well, no. Not quite. It lacks something of the catchiness of Kill, although it makes up for it by cutting some of Kill's flab. No filler tracks on here, no sir-ee (though the title track does drag a little). It remains a seriously good album; nothing new, but crushing, brutal, and chock-full of what we've come to expect from these titans of death metal.

How many bands can boast of such a curriculum vitae as Cannibal Corpse? Not only in extreme fields, but also in the metal scene in general.

I don't know how many else succeeded to match such a discographic production (11 studio albums, with this) with such a high average quality, and especially without ever changing that much.

Originality, yeah, the hurting point in the band that has always earned a lot of critics to them; and even me, who don't appreciate the static groups too much, must bow down to the fact they're all but boring. That because their style is not simple or linear, their tracks are carefully written around sudden tempo changes, complex guitar scores, deviated whispering melodies, straight attacks and broken rhythms.

"Evisceration Plague" is the ideal continuation to "Kill", and that for the line-up (with Rob Barret back to the ranks), for the cover artwork (once again crimson painted and not obscene), and for the style: the tracks are more straight and melodic as tendency, a bit in the vein of the very nice "Gallery Of Suicide", with the drums who grind the assault leaving the tireless guitars the task to change shape and shake ("Scalding Hail", "To Decompose", "Beheading And Burning", "Carnivorous Swarm").

Other songs repeat the syncopated hiccup-like walking of most of their greatest pieces ("Skewered From Ear To Eye", "Shatter Their Bones", "Carrion Sculptured Entity", "Unnatural"), while the most doomish ones are a bit asleep (in "The Wretched Spawn” they were the cream, instead). Once again, viscerally great.

Originally written for Silent Scream http://www.silentscreamzine.com/Home.asp?Lang=ENG

Cannibal Corpse is a band many hate, mostly due to their success. This band has one simply formula. Make every album faster and more technical than the one that comes before it. Evisceration Plague is the bands eleventh album and the predecessor the there 2006 release, Kill. These albums both sound similar, in production and musically. Normally you’ll find songs on Cannibal Corpse albums with titles like “Fucked With A Knife” or “Addicted to Vaginal Skin.” Which show more comedy than death metal really. However on this release, most of the songs are serious in content. Well, not truly serious, but serious for the band. I also noticed some of the songs are incredibly short; “Scalding Hail” clocks in under two minutes. Songs this short haven’t been on a Cannibal Corpse album since “Eaten Back to Life” in 1990. This is a positive, many complain about some songs just completely dragging on releases like “The Wretched Spawn” and “Bloodthirst.” These tracks are fast, and straight to the point. Which is great on any Death Metal album. Sure, there are still a few lengthy ones here, but the album isn’t blanketed with them. Overall, “Evisceration Plague” is thirty-eight minutes long. Once again, not a bad thing.

The music is typical of the group. George Fisher still has that “love it or hate it” vocal mentality, with his heavily deep growls to his higher screech thing he does so well. Paul Mazurkiewicz is still here, doing what he does. This man is criticized beyond imagination for being a player who can only do the same thing over and over. Whatever the case he does a solid job here. Rob Barret and Pat O’Brien do a fantastic job on this record. Many solos are found throughout, more than most Cannibal Corpse records, which is another good thing. Alex Webster is still one of the greatest bass players in the metal world, and my opinion is just solidified here even more.

The songs themselves are structured well. The opener “Priests of Sodom” has some layered vocals, which is new, and some great bass work. “Scalding Hail” is short, but one of the best tracks here. “Evidence in the Furnace” is my favorite track here. The chorus is solid and the vocals work well. Old school fans will be pleased with the speed here, just about all of the songs here are extremely fast-paced and flow well together, and the flawless production helps. “A Cauldron of Hate” is mediocre and not really anything special, as well as the title track “Evisceration Plague.” These are really the only two blemishes on the album.

So, if you’ve never liked Cannibal Corpse, this album won’t change you’re opinion. However, fans of the band will eat this up. This is not as good as Kill, but beats most of the mediocre albums like “Gore Obsessed” and “Bloodthirst.” Pick it up, you’ll be satisfied.

If you've ever heard a Cannibal Corpse album before, you knew exactly how Evisceration Plague was going to sound from the time they announced they were even working on a new album. While the first four records do indeed have their variances between them that help them stand out amongst one another, there's no denying that they haven't really done anything different since Fisher joined the ranks. But here's the best part, they haven't had to change. Cannibal Corpse are currently in the middle of a streak reminiscent of Krisiun or Vader, where the albums don't vary too horribly much, but they all do what they set out to do extremely well. Evisceration Plague has but one goal in mind, and that is to destroy absolutely everything around it.

Everything you've come to expect from Cannibal Corpse is here in full force. There's the "Cannibal groove" drum pattern (as drummer, Paul, describes it) that surfaces in numerous tracks and helps add a deep, stomping groove to what would otherwise be plodding riffs. There's the obligatory under-two-minute maiming in "Scalding Hail", and extremely similar sounding tracks forming one coherent, half hour aural assault. Like nearly every album in their career, it's difficult to pinpoint a favorite track, and most albums can only be described as a whole. I can't tell you if "Priests of Sodom" is any better than "Carnivore Swarm" because of how similar they are. The difference is that instead of coming off as one faceless blur of blast beats, it presents itself as one monstrous Death Metal force, unrelenting in its attack. The overall tempo of the album is about as high as it was on Kill, which is faster than what they normally seem to play. This small adjustment has given us shorter tracks as a result, and it helps to keep the album from dragging on like some past efforts have done (Gallery of Suicide, Gore Obsessed). Therefore, the realization that "A Cauldron of Hate" is not only the longest track, but also the weakest, comes as no surprise. Rob and Pat have also seemed to taken a liking to shredding each others' faces off, as solos seem to come about as frequently as humanly possible near the end of the record.

Cannibal Corpse is just one of those anomalies... it may be easy to say that Tomb of the Mutilated is your favorite album, but it's rather difficult to explain why "I Cum Blood" is your favorite track on that album. Likewise here, I'd say that "To Decompose" or "Unnatural" would be the best tracks, but it's hard to defend that when they sound so similar to every other track. And that's what makes Cannibal Corpse so special, they can write the same song across seven albums and never get stale. Running Wild did a similar thing, and Krisiun did nearly the EXACT same thing. It can happen, if a band is good enough, it can happen. This is recommended for established fans of the band, but not those who are craving experimentation. If you're easily pleased like me, then you are bound to be more than happy with Evisceration Plague.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

It’s more brutal, fast, high intensity, more of the same. What should one expect while listening to Evisceration Plague? Your really should expect nothing different, if you were looking for Kill II this is exactly what you will get to an extent. There is something missing inside this album for me, the album showcases the sound that was formulated when Corpsegrinder arrived in the band, but there is just something missing. It took me a while, actually about the 5th listen, to realize that even though the album is good there is no hook that really grabs me and says “this album fucking slays babies!” That is one thing that Kill II did to a listener. I honestly do hate comparing albums of a band to each other, but with the success and sound of Kill II there really is nothing else to do.

Every musician is in their top form. With the exception that they failed to write a catchy song, I am not looking for another Hammer Smashed Face or Stripped, Raped, and Strangled catchy, just something that will stick in your mind and make you want to scream along. The only song I can really say that does this is Priests of Sodom for me; it honestly reminds me of Make Them Suffer. It basically sounds the same except for the lyrics.

One highlight that is worth mentioning are the solos, there is a bit more added to the album with these. The solos are one of the few things that really catch while I listen. The other obvious element that sticks out is the brutality; it seems to be upped on this album. Every song is shredding and pounding your face away, but the problem is they all sound the same. This is sounds funny, well because nearly all Cannibal Corpse songs do sound the same because they made and perfected their own sound. This is one of the few times where I think a band should stretch their abilities and their sound to see what they can do.

With all my bitching about what I don’t like about the album, it definitely warrants multiple listens. I hope it grows on me and I think it will. The hook isn’t there for me, but the songwriting really is and the perfection of their sound. With the extra intensity the band exemplifies what they are all about and show that their career is not finished.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

It's almost hard to believe that almost 3 years have passed since the last Corpse album. I remember blasting Kill for the very first time, and feeling like all my internal organs were collapsing into each other. So when my promo copy arrived, lets just say that I was as happy as a pig in shit.

Now the boys are back with their 11th full length studio album, titled Evisceration Plague, and needless to say, there has been a lot of anticipation flowing around this album, and for one single very good reason - it's Cannibal Corpse. Not much more really needs to be said. When you go off to the store to buy some coffee, you know exactly what to expect. You expect it to be fragrant, black. It's the exact same principles with Cannibal Corpse. When you go to buy a new Corpse album, you know exactly what to expect, and very rarely are you disappointed. That mindset alone is always very comforting when a new Corpse album is released.

So, how does Evisceration Plague match up to previous Corpse material? A lot of people will be comparing it to Kill, since both albums were produced by Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal. The thing is though, that upon careful listen, both albums are completely different. The line-up is still the same, which I am very pleased to say, as the current Corpse line-up is the best they've ever had, and one of the best line-ups in death metal, period. I mean, you can't really go wrong with Webster, Corpsegrinder, O'Brien, Barret and Mazurkiewicz - all of whom are seasoned pros at what they do best.

So when the first track Priests of Sodom burns through your skull, the first thing you'll notice is the sound, which is pretty similar to Kill, but that's pretty much it. The songwriting, when inspected, is pretty different overall. It's still Cannibal Corpse, obviously, I mean, they couldn't really be anyone else after this point. But the sound is a bizarre mixture from the entire Corpse discography. There's elements from everywhere - even Eaten Back to Life, and that's not a bad thing. The track in question is pretty straightforward, with some great riffing throughout, solid vocals and a killer guitar solo. Not a bad way to kick things off at all.

Then something spectacular happens, and it's called Scalding Hail, possibly my favorite track off of the album. From the very first notes to the very last, it's a lesson in pain, delivered with such precision and brutality that it's sure to put a smile on any Corpse fans face. Fast and relentless, George's vocals are a huge highlight in this song. Everything is crystal clear and his pronunciation is spot on, even at the fastest moments, which makes the overall feeling that much more powerful. The riff at 0:27 is classic Corpse in all it's glory - nice and thrash, loud, obnoxious, middle finger. Just plain nasty, it makes your stomach turn and your head bang at the same time. When the vocals kick in again you're just consumed in the power of it all, and the ending! At 1:26, you'll be treated to the musical equivalent of your head being smashed into the pavement. Two words to describe this song? Fucking glorious.

The album as a whole is jam packed with awesome Corpse material, so there's no need going over the tracks one by one. "To Decompose" will be a live favorite, merging elements from Gallery of Suicide, so you really can't go wrong. There are excellent riffs scattered all over the place on this release, like the glorious riffing to "Shatter Their Bones", which does exactly just that. The title track is one of the highlights on the album, being a mix of old school Corpse, infused with their new sound. The end result is pretty relentless, which could be said for the whole album.

"Evidence in the Furnace" and "Skewered From Ear to Eye" will put a smile on any Corpse fans face, however this album also has, I hate to say it, filler material. Personally, "A Cauldron of Hate" just doesn't do anything for me at all, and neither does "Carrion Sculpted Entity", thought it has a really fucking cool title. Still, these tracks the album could really do without, and was surprised to find them on here as they just seem to lack the quality we've come to expect from Cannibal Corpse.

The mix on the album is deeper than it was on "Kill", and though I can't say that this or that sounds better, it just sounds really good. Very deep, yet crystal clear. The vocals are loud, powerful and clear, and the guitars cut like chainsaws through your skull. Sadly, the bass seems to be somewhat lost in the mix, so you have to strain your ears a bit to hear it. Paul's performance is as expected - nothing too fancy going on with the drums, though he does provide a solid backbone like always. The vibe is the most important thing though, and the entire album flows very well, though like I said previously, it could do without some of the more filler tracks to be found here. But that said, this thing is packed with blistering material which is sure to please the legions of Corpse fans.

So, was it worth the 3 year wait? Without a doubt, as there are some real gems on here which are simply not to be missed. The songwriting in general isn't very consistent - sometimes it's extremely powerful and creative, whereas sometimes it just seems uninspired and lacking of focus and direction. To compare it to Kill isn't really required, as both albums are completely different animals.

So would I recommend it? Fuck yeah. Scalding Hail, To Decompose, Evidence in the Furnace, Carnivorous Swarm, Shatter Their Bones, Unnatural and the title track are all awesome Corpse tunes not to be fucked with, sure to get your blood boiling and your head banging.

In conclusion, this album is more for seasoned Corpse fans, rather than new ones. It will take some time to sink in to fully appreciate what's going on. It's not for the weak, and it's not, by any means, for people who don't have a special passion for Cannibal Corpse.