Tomb of the Mutilated

A recent review here on the archives that’s since been deleted gave Tomb of the Mutilated a 0%—and that is frankly unacceptable. Even though that review didn’t stay up, I felt it necessary to remind everyone of just how iconic this album is. Revisiting it, there’s no doubt this is among the best death metal albums of all time.

I think ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ alone cements Tomb’s iconic status with its unrelenting assault on the senses. Between its intro bass noodling and brutal riffage to the delightfully indecipherable vocals from Chris Barnes to the balance of speedy riffs as heavy as cinderblocks which turn into slow, menacing, mid-paced crunches, there’s just not a dull moment to this opener. It’s undoubtedly one of the most iconic songs in death metal’s history. The guitars are complete and utter chaos; Jack Owen and Bob Rusay sound like they’re wielding chainsaws with all the noise they’re making. It is the standard that all death metal songs need to be held to. It summons the most violent and wild moshing imaginable; in fact aside from perhaps ‘Liege of Inveracity’ by Suffocation I doubt there’s a metal song I’ve experienced live with a more wild pit than this.

But I wouldn’t be doing the album justice if I didn’t mention the rest of the songs. It’s hard to pick them out because damn, they’re all amazing. There’s particular moments though that just seem to stick. That groovy mid-paced riff that serves as the foundation to ‘I Cum Blood’ is unforgettable. ‘Addicted to Vaginal Skin’ starts out so unsettling with that spoken serial killer intro and then proceeds to play catch with its two main riffs: one chunky and slow, hitting like a sledgehammer with repeated hefty blows and the other a catchy, speedier lick that pumps up the adrenaline to the max. The latter is guilty of living rent free in my head, it amazes me that such a brutal album can produce such catchy material. ‘Post Mortal Ejaculation’ is also guilty of this sharp contrast of riffs, balancing the blazing fast with the bludgeoning slower riffs incredibly well. It almost feels like being in a full on sprint and being hit in the face with a mallet out of nowhere.

And then of course there’s just the shock value of the songs. Even if you aren’t brave enough to pull up a lyric sheet, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that ‘Entrails Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt’ is not for the faint of heart. There’s a shred of guilt to enjoying such a fucked up song but it’s impossible to resist the memorability of the riffs on display. Even worse (if possible) is ‘Necropedophile’ which has to be the most disgusting song ever made. No doubt this song helped inspire other sadistic acts like Devourment and Infant Annihilator in the future with their equally despicable themes. It’s a great song but that outro audio of the little kids screaming is downright sadistic. Cannibal Corpse’s influence isn’t just in the brutal music they produce, but the vile and disgusting subject matter they seem to love as well.

Tomb of the Mutilated isn’t exactly the best produced album ever made but this hardly matters; in fact it may be to the album’s benefit. Alex Webster’s bass is so raw underneath the dull guitars which in their own right feel very authentic, like the recording was done in an asylum with less-than-optimal equipment or something. Perhaps it adds to the horror aesthetics that Corpse so dearly wishes to convey. The drumming from Paul Mazurkiewicz has a dull thud to its sound as well but it’s such an onslaught behind the violent guitar duo, it makes its presence known anyway. In fact I prefer this grimy production. The cherry on top is Chris Barnes though. Say what you will about Barnes, but in the early 90s this guy was simply on another planet. I’m not surprised at all he ruined his voice soon after at the rate he was going; in fact he’ll try a higher scream here and there and you can kind of start to hear the deterioration of his voice already. But it’s all about his growl—it’s deep and cavernous and evil sounding. He doesn’t even sound human, but like a feral animal desperately trying to communicate some sinister message to the listener. The first time I heard it I didn’t even realize there was someone doing vocals for the first few seconds, it’s just that low and unnatural sounding. But damn it sure grows on you. No other vocal style could possibly fit this despicable music any better.

This is without a doubt Cannibal Corpse’s prime. I’ve reviewed Butchered at Birth as well and with the debut album Eaten Back to Life close behind, I’d have to say that either Tomb or Butchered takes the crown as the best Cannibal Corpse album. I tend to revisit Butchered more due to the more unorthodox songwriting but we’re really splitting hairs here. Early Cannibal Corpse was an excellent precursor to the brutal death metal scene (minus Eaten Back to Life which is rooted more in thrash) and its influence has spread far and stood the test of time. Death metal simply wouldn’t be what it is today without it, and revisiting this it’s clearly not a legacy album—the quality of the music is undeniable. It really does separate the true metal-heads from the posers—sorry but if you don’t like Cannibal Corpse, or can’t at least appreciate their impact then do you even like death metal?

Cannibal Corpse belongs in the death metal pantheon. They were a gateway into the genre for many people, they are good musicians, they did tons of groundwork, their albums are consistent, they are professional and dedicated to their craft (and also a great live band). This stuff matters when it comes to having a successful career in any chosen field. None of it matters to me in terms of my death metal cravings. I don’t care how good a band is at managing their career. I don't care about a band’s ability to create gross-out slogans and posters to annoy anxious parents. I don’t even care about their credentials as a live band. I do care about whether a band made some savage, transcendent and mind blowing music at some point during their discography. I don’t think Cannibal Corpse ever did this.

"Tomb of the Mutilated" might be the closest they got. This record was released during the heart of the genre's most commercially successful period. It has 'edgy' artwork and plenty of conceptual shock value in the song titles and lyrics. The music itself is solid American death metal from a band that has found their sound. Needless to say, I have never found the Cannibal Corpse sound to be particularly interesting amongst such crowded competition. These guys always sounded like they were ‘in the middle' of everything. They were among the scene leaders, but there were always similar, better, nimbler and more interesting bands around them. They were not as brutal as Suffocation, they lacked the malevolence of Immolation, the dexterity of Morbid Angel, the violence of Malevolent Creation, the atmosphere of Incantation, or the catchiness of Deicide, etc. They were good, never great.

The album's most famous song, "Hammer Smashed Face", is a metaphor for the band as a whole (or at least, during the Chris Barnes era). This song appeared in a mainstream movie, is good for windmilling your hair around, has a distinctive opening, some good riffs and bass parts (including a brutal slow part in the middle). However, it lacks fluidity and aggression. There isn't much groove, momentum or atmosphere. The low grunting vocals have little variation or expressiveness. It is a good example of death metal, but I struggle to understand why it appears on so many 'best death metal song' lists. There are hundreds of better structured and more evocative death metal songs, and many of them are easy enough to find (“God of Emptiness”, “Chopped in Half”, “Left Hand Path”, etc.).

Other songs fare similarly. The band had a frustrating tendency to ride dull riffs for longer than necessary, and hide their more interesting riffs like diamonds in the rough. The opening of "The Cryptic Stench" is awesome, developing the much-needed menace through flaying drumming and wild riffing (though it returns to standard death metal stodge after the first minute or so). There are some amazing slow grooves in "I Cum Blood" (but again, this song curtails itself with disjointedness). "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt" (erm, yeah whatever) is my favourite and builds from some rolling triplet-picked momentum that is maintained throughout. "Post Mortal Ejaculation" has an angular section near the beginning that evolves from an off-kilter intro (Possessed was an influence, of course). These ferocious and off-the-leash moments are rarer than they could be, or should be, given the band's undeniable quality.

Overall, this is a passable death metal from the glory days of the genre. It covers the main bases, it sounds professional, the musicianship is solid (the bass playing is excellent). It sounds like a band who are making a solid career for themselves in a niche genre of music. I would never doubt this band’s work ethic or dispute their subsequent enshrinement into a (hypothetical) death metal hall of fame. I just don’t get much more from it than basic heaviness. It offers no transcendence.

Ahhhh Cannibal Corpse, my old buddy old pal. How well you've served me through my years of being a fat mosher and not looking back. It's long overdue, but I figured a CC review would go down a treat. I was tempted to do Butchered At Birth, and while I do love that album, Tomb of the Mutilated is one that I find myself way more hooked on when it comes to the Barnes-era of this band. Eaten Back to Life was a good old thrashy-hardcore riff driven death metal album, and is another one of my faves, but TotM is an album that ups the gore 'n' groove factor by A LOT. Let's see why I feel this way, shall we?

Right from the get-go, you know damn well that this is CC's most controversial and daring effort so far, especially considering this came out in 1992! A half-skeletonized zombie performing cunnlingus on the half-mutilated corpse of a young woman would have turned many heads during this year, especially since artwork of this nature was still kind of unheard of, so it's no surprise that Cannibal Corpse really wanted to up the ante and bring these morbid concepts to life. So controversial that it warranted a "cleaner" alternative album cover for official sales, which still looks cool and fits the album in my opinion.

The riffs and structuring of this album are in typical Cannibal Corpse fashion: plenty of shredding, gallops, thrash riffs, low end grooves that border into "slam" riffs, and even some small doses of melody are chucked in. Around this time is when brutal death metal and early slam death metal bands were coming into the genre, so I'm not at all surprised that Jack Owen wanted to extract a bit of influence from bands like Suffocation, Broken Hope and a few other notables to beef up his guitarwork, and what a fine job he does of it! The riffs set the dank atmosphere of the album really well, especially given the gruesome concepts that are presented in the lyrics, which I will touch on momentarily.

The bass guitar is balanced nicely on par with Owen's guitar riffs, showing off some of Alex Webster's trademark bass rhythms and grooves that many CC fans are well acquainted with. The bass solo in Hammer Smashed Face always gets me pumped every time I hear it, and a few of the groovier bits on songs like Necropedophile and Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt are pure mosh build up material. Paul Mazurkiewicz absolutely kills it on drums on this release, showcasing his talents from previous CC records but upping his A-game on this album. Plenty of nice blasts, breaks and fills that enhance the intensity on this album as a whole.

The final ingredient of an album such as is this, is the vocals. And this is when Chris Barnes was at his absolute best. The deep, hideous growls shown here are pure horror material, nearing inhuman levels of savagery. Other than the low gutturals, we have a few raspy high screams that are used more for instrumental purposes as opposed to lyrical passages, but they still add a modicum of variety to the vocal talents. Lyrically, this is CC's most twisted effort conceptually, going deep into the mind of a depraved serial killer who takes part in many gruesome activities, including necrophilia, homicide, genital torture/mutilation, cannibalism, sadomasochism, the list goes on. For the time period as well, it surpasses what you'd expect from death metal, even going further than Scream.Bloody.Gore by Death in terms of extremity and deliverance.

This is undoubtedly CC's most iconic release, due to the reasons mentioned. It's extreme, it's quite innovative and it's a bloody good time! The production style is quite beefy and very on point, I feel like I'm listening to the soundtrack of an Eldritch-based splatter film, except the Eldritch elements are driving a serial killer to commit the most twisted acts known to man. Easily my favourite death metal album of all time, and I'm sure many others feel the same way.

Yes, you read the title of this review correctly. Not only is Cannibal Corpse’s (CC) “Tomb of the Mutilated” my favorite death metal album of all time, but it is also my favorite album of all time. This album is the reason I’m the metalhead I am today, without this record I wouldn’t have even delved that deep into extreme metal. I discovered this album and CC when I was a young kid halfway through middle school, so around 11-12 years old. At that period of time, I was into the main acts of the genre, bands like Metallica and the rest of the big four, and Pantera to name a few. So you can only imagine how blown away I was when “Hammer Smashed Face” blared through my headphones for the first time, it was a completely new experience and I fell in love with it right from the get-go. After listening to this album for the first time I started relentlessly checking out other extreme metal bands as a result, bands such as Death, Suffocation, and Possessed. And it was all downhill from there.

Now enough with my personal experiences and onto the album itself. “Tomb of the Mutilated” contains everything iconic about CC. It has the best artwork that the band would ever use, it has all of the band's best songs wrapped up in 35 minutes, and showcases how tight and professional the band had become and would later improve on. It also would be the last album to feature Bob Rusay on guitar, as the band was transitioning more toward Jack Owen’s writing style at the time, and they felt Bob's playing and execution weren’t up to par with the rest of the band. So after this and the “Hammer Smashed Face” EP, he was asked to leave CC.

Everything lovely about the previous studio album is polished and improved on “Tomb of the Mutilated”. The intensity and groove are upped to the max, and Chris Barnes’s vocals are the lowest they would ever be. This is easily Scott Burns’s best production on any album he ever did, everything is prominently displayed and transparent, while still maintaining that raw and punchy edge. Alex Webster's bass also shines the most here, with his bass solo on “Hammer Smashed Face” being one of the best bass solos of all time in my opinion. The songwriting is also at an all-time high, with the hooks and riffs being groovy and chaotic making every song memorable and entertaining. Jack’s twisted solos and catchy rhythms also amplify the music, with Bob's playing being the best it would ever be. Paul Mazurkiewicz’s drumming is also notable, his bomb blasts are now on full display here and he uses the technique perfectly. There is nothing sloppy about his playing, it’s pummeling and precise, he plays his own style of death metal drums that no other band sounds like. Chris Barnes also steps up his vocals and lyrics to the goddamn max here. I’ve never heard more sadistic, perverse, sexually explicit, and fucked up lyrics than on “Tomb of the Mutilated”. Instead of the usual gore on the previous album, sexual themes, and rape are introduced to the fold of murder and gore. Just read the song titles and lyrics and you’ll see it perfectly.

Now I wanna dedicate a paragraph to the best death metal song of all time “Hammer Smashed Face”. The band's most iconic song and death metals anthem. It contains everything great about death metal, the pummeling drums, hooky riffs, easily recognizable vocal lines, and overall chaos. It also contains one of the most brutal and classic breakdowns the genre would ever offer. There is no intro to this album opener, it’s an instant beat down right from the start.

CC’s second most iconic song of all time follows “Hammer Smashed Face”, “I Cum Blood”. Showcasing some of the most recognizable and hooky riffs the band would ever write, and just how heavy the band was willing to go. Every single song on this album is perfect, but other highlights would be “Necropedophile”, “Entrails Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt” and “Addicted to Vaginal Skin”.

Like I stated before this is my favorite CC album and my favorite album of all time. This album contains everything I love about metal. In this band’s whole discography, there are only 2 other albums this band would release that I would say are just as good as “Tomb of the Mutilated”. But everything single CC record is kick-ass and awesome. After this album and Bob Rusay’s exit from the band, we would see Rob Barrett enter the band. Turning the band into more professional songwriters and tighter musicians. If you want to know what death metal is about and what it should sound like. Listen to this album. A fucking masterpiece.

This requires a bit of thought, today in 2022, to pertinently assess the exact quality of this album. Cannibal Corpse released their debut 'Eaten' in 1990, 'Butchered' in 1991, and then 'Tomb' here in 1992; albums released in quick succession, just one year apart each time, showing the band's remarkable capacity for rapid maturation as the progress is evident with each effort, just as the next one ('The Bleeding') yet again takes the Cannibal sound and gives it a riper shape. Right off the bat, the riffs on track 1 ('Hammer-smashed face') have, quite simply, served as prototypical material for decades of death metal bands: think of how many times a band has played a variation of that hammer-on/pull-off chorus lick. The riffs display a similar quality over the next two tracks; classics according to most fans of the genre; the infamous 'I cum blood' and 'Addicted to vaginal skin'. They harness all the heaviness that was possible in early death metal and couple it with sharp stings of riffs, sinister and relentlessly negative in spirit. And always with that present, burpy bass guitar tone by master Webster-San, grand sensei of the death metal bass, that has been emulated countless times since.

Now let's cut to the chase: the point here is to shock. Arguably their most shocking album cover to date is what's promoted before any music is even heard; one with an obvious focus on sex. In case this wasn't clear, this has titles like "Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt", "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" (based on serial killer Arthur Shawcross, heard in the intro sample), "Post Mortal Ejaculation", " I Cum Blood" or "Necropedophilia" among the more provoking. This album was surely the most obsessed by sex in their catalogue, and what comes out of it musically is bludgeoning psychopath-killer metal. So then the music needed to flesh out those concepts, and technically it is done well enough with particularly memorable moments especially early on the album - but for vast portions it's Barnes' monotone lows, a lot of blast beats, guitars certainly busy but rarely ever able to pull away from the status quo formula in action here.

With the guitars sitting at the back of the mix giving way to the omnipresent pounding blasts, and with routine-like composition, a certain detachment starts setting in. The first three songs, as mentioned, have iconic linchpins that conferred their status to them; a memorable quality there to be enjoyed; but that concentrated death metal essence is something we hear less of as the album unfolds, as it turns to blunter conventionality.

Not to say the rest of it is filler of the most banal kind, but a certain comfort does set in and the tracks release that tight grip from the first three. 'The cryptic stench' (Track 6) has excellent gruesome old-school death metal value. However it becomes noticeable after a point this often comes across as caveman metal. Despite the popular narrative around the early wave bands in the movement, in 1992 death metal was nowhere near as developed as it would be by the end of that decade. To award such tremendous importance to a rawness in sound and to the rustic song-writing, that it somehow trumps the brilliance of the later, much more organized, technically advanced, educated and vastly more mature material generated by Webster and the addition of a Pat O'Brien (surely among the greats in the field)...seems like a rose-tinted narrative superimposed over the reality of it. From a technical scope the riffs are a much more basic, early version of what would be found on albums like 'Bloodthirst' or 'Kill', those being on a different level, more musical and ripely composed.

Could one really compare a song from this to a 'Frantic disembowelment' ? Well that's an unfair comparison; some would retort; that track is from much later and musicians then had hindsight allowing for better technicality and knowledge of how to write death metal. Exactly. It's simply better. 'Murder worship', 'From skin to liquid', 'Hacksaw Decapitation', 'Sanded faceless'... these are all just better death metal and better music. Deeper, bigger, darker. More sophisticated. Interestingly, that doesn't mean all death metal acts were merely a more elementary version of their later selves back then: Carcass went from a sound that was remarkable and unique on 'Symphonies' in 1989 and eventually gravitated towards a more mainstream, less singular identity later. Morbid Angel most probably reached their peak some time during the early 90's before devolving into something of a caricature of their own selves afterwards. But with a band like Cannibal Corpse, where so much of the onus is on how tight the central riff architecture is, with little else at stake (there are no arrangements), it might appear quite obvious that the riper version of main composer Alex Webster and the band in its fully developed incarnation, a few years later, are a worthier spectacle of musical force to behold.

My review of "Tomb Of The Mutilated" should be started with a bang and more effusive than usual, but...not this time. Well, it won't be an exaggeration, but my introduction from "Butchered At Birth" review has exhausted the topic a bit when it comes to some intriguing description summarizing the circumstances of the records that Cannibal Corpse created one or two years after the previous one - and this, in a way, can be said in the case of "Tomb...". This does not mean, of course, that they have turned into something bad or boring. On the contrary! "Tomb Of The Mutilated" simply outclasses its predecessors with the level of music and background, and shows that the words from "Butchered At Birth" review would be more appropriate here.

Anyway, the Americans managed to break the previous level very clearly in a very short time. This applies to everything in turn: both the composition side of the disc, the heavy sound created by Scott Burns (fully professional and with a better perceptible bass), Chris Barnes' vocals (completely unreadable and gurgling [occasionally chiseled]), guitarists' ingenuity, faster drum paces than on "Butchered..." (though still without any extremes) or even more psychopathic cover. So roughly what I have already praised before.

However, there is no repetition and laborious rolling over and over again of similar topics. Death metal on "Tomb Of The Mutilated" it's mostly in medium-fast tempos, but characterized by even greater brutality (but also catchiness), more varied by technique and even more distant from the "homogeneous wall of noise". As confirmation, it would be necessary to mention "Post Mortal Ejaculation", "I Cum Blood", "Addicted To Vaginal Skin", "The Cryptic Stench" and - the biggest hit of the album - "Hammer Smashed Face", as the fastest memorable and best illustrating how strong progress has been made within a year (though actually most of them would be suitable). In fact, the step forward was so important that such a formula of death metal brought the Americans a gigantic commercial success.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/02/cannibal-corpse-tomb-of-mutilated-1992.html

Burly Barnes crushes here as does the death metal (witch brutal vocals) dominates this entire release. The riffs are the highlight (to me), being a former guitarist I'm able to absorb what's being played here. I'm surprised that I didn't write about this sooner maybe 30 years plus ago since it's original release. I have nothing but good things to say here. I think that when Barnes's vocals changed on 'The Bleeding' that was it for me regarding liking the band from this era. I thought that Jack Owen was his strongest on 'Butchered At Birth' and here. Not sure what happened to him after that during Corpsegrinder's era. Aside from the fact that he joined Deicide in 2006 or thereabouts.

I don't necessarily like live tracks on albums with exceptions. And from my understanding, Jim Carrey's favorite bands (or what's been talked about in the media is Cannibal Corpse and Napalm Death). I'd have to say that what's so therefore dominating on here are again the riffs. And the bass you can hear throughout. Tempos all over the place but all interrelated. Barnes just soaks it up alongside the music and gives them that utmost gruesomeness. It sounds like he's going to chug that microphone. If they had more stable albums in respect to the music and vocals I think Barnes would've been a longtime member. Him and Six Feet Under are pathetic.

They were one of the most brutal bands back 30 years ago and they're still kicking ass. Though the guitars are way different in turning and currently Corpsegrinder with the band. There's been a lot of debate as to who's the most likeable over the years. I'd say consistently Corpsegrinder has been more solid. But I'm still appreciating Barnes on the first few releases. There's a wide variety as to who you would choose after all this time. I'd say, Corpsegrinder. He's got range that Barnes never seemed to ever have. But on the 2nd and 3rd album, I like him. After that, no more. He's just not diverse enough. But on 'Tomb of the Mutilated' he tears it up!

The mixing/production wasn't the greatest, but I still like the overall sound quality that the band sets forth thereof. There wasn't a track on here that I dislike. They were all strong musical annihilations with the guitars shredding it up. The lyrics we never tackle nor do we want to tackle. It's just gruesome and vile. The music and vocals are what's to focus on. I got this on CD a while back I'm certiain that they're on YouTube. I don't know about Spotify except for the more recent albums. I would tell you to do the band justice and just get the CD. It's worth its weight in gold. There isn't a track on here that's not good. Check it out!

So out of 20 reviews ranging from undervalued genius to completely hacky garbage, there's something no one seems to have touched on or, possibly, even noticed at all. I am convinced that Tomb of the Mutilated is Cannibal Corpse taking a stab at a multi-layered concept album a la Quadrophenia or Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Or Seventh Son if you need a metal example. This album, track by track tells the story of a mentally deranged psychopath who goes from fledgling murderer to necrophiliac to unread horror, taking many an innocent life along the way. The vocal delivery seems to become subtly more twisted and detached along the way, and the structuring of the album seems more than coincidental.

At the start of the album, a standard opener about becoming convinced that your rage is actually a separate being, a demon living rooted in the cortex, compelling you to settle odds in the most violent way imaginable. Just a hammer to the face,and you are no longer yourself. You've let this being take hold and the floodgates are open. Following this initial murder, our main character discovers that the dead body is still warm, and fulfilling some personal sexual curiosities with the corpse. Specifically eating the labia of and then masturbating upon said corpse. This sets off a whole new round of fetishistic corpse hunting for the purpose of violating the bodies of these beautiful women, and giving him a hunger for a live woman whom he can fuck and kill simultaneously.

What comes next is a short but lucrative segment where our main character finally finds a woman he can relate to. The two come together for the purpose of giving birth to children they can dissect and torment as a couple. Eventually this leads our lead character to experimenting sexually on the dead children, leading to yet another run of grave robbing and kid fucking. He's becoming deranged even by serial killing rapist standards. Then we have a brief and surreal look into the mind of our main character, finding him convinced that the blood and... Other liquids... He has been so keen on, have been feeding him and helping him reach an immortal state. Should he ever die, he will return even more powerful as an undead being of immeasurable indulgent evil.

So with this fancy in tow, he kicks it up a notch, and we find he has gone on a veritable spree, raping and murdering young women all over the place. And disemboweling them in a horrible fashion. Over time we are led to believe that he was caught and held accountable for his crime. Nearing the close of the album our main character, having been found to be an unrepentant monster who has been raping and murdering like it's going out of style, is hung for his crimes. The anticipation and sensation of this death causes him an unending orgasmic sensation, wherein he feels himself rising from his grave to fuck and kill some more just chasing the high.

And THAT is when we wrap it all up, approaching the last track, we are appalled to find that his sick fantasy was true all along. He has risen from his grave, too evil to die, and too sick to ever stop. The evil really is cyclical and will follow this circle forever. Much like any good story told by album, when you finish the final track, you find that starting the album over gives it all new context. Rising from the grave, our character has no memory, only an impulse... To pick up a hammer and start it all over...

I genuinely think it's meant to be this cyclical narrative. And if you look at the album on those terms, it obtains another level of interest and disgusting appeal that only make it an even more amazing offer of death metal. The music carries this narrative in a way that makes sense, giving context with both frantic, pounding frenzies of violent, rage-laden riffcraft, and plodding, creepy forays into the darkest corner of psychopathy with dissonant lines that can feel grim and cold. The mix gives the whole experience an atmospheric, foggy feeling that both adds grit and punchiness to the heavier parts, while emphasizing the unsettling nature of the more creeping, obscure moments. If you look at these musical merits in the context of a single entity, undead and deranged, existing only to destroy consume and defile, waiting for the moment of death to reach an otherworldly climax, before returning once more, it all works together as a seamless work of narrative art, as well as a classic chunk of shocking death metal madness. This is one unique and extremely disturbing slab of death metal, offering something much deeper and more cohesive than you might notice on the surface, and a hell of an album start to finish.

This album is heavily considered the best album Cannibal Corpse has ever made. However, I disagree. This album is the best they've made when Chris Barnes was still involved. Either way, this album is still amazing. The lyrics are not afraid to be over the top and gory. As someone who can't stand censorship, it makes me happy that even in the early 90s, people were spitting in the face of those who deemed anything offensive.

The guitars and bass are tuned low, giving it crushing sound. It uses a lot of chromatic notes, tremolo riffing, and sounds like death metal done right. The drumming is fast, but it's not anything you wouldn't hear in another death metal album. It's basically just blast beats throughout the entire album, with some stop and start rhythms here and there. The guitar solos, I'm not really a huge fan of. They sound too much like whammy bar insanity. The bass is the most impressive thing in this album by far. The fact that the bassist can play at speeds like this is insane to me. Everyone playing instruments in this album does a good job, as someone who plays bass guitar a lot, I can really appreciate the work of the bassist.

There is not a single riff in this album that doesn't make me headbang. The guitar tone is amazing. It uses scooped mids and average treble. The tone of the bass uses high bass and treble, along with a lot of compression. I don't mean the audio files are compressed, I mean that they used a compressor during recording, which basically makes the bass sound super crispy. The production quality, for the time it came from, sounds pretty damn good to me.

I mentioned earlier that this is best album during the Chris Barnes era of Cannibal Corpse. That doesn't necessarily mean that Chris Barnes did a good job. In fact, his vocals in this album are nowhere near as good as they were in Eaten Back To Life, their first album. I believe the riffs are what makes this album the best during the Chris Barnes era, because Chris Barnes basically just sticks to low growls and a fry scream that sounds like something you'd hear in grindcore. His vocals just sound lazy and the same as any generic death metal vocalist.

If I had to pick a favorite track, it would either be I Cum Blood or Hammer Smashed Face. Overall, the best thing going for this album is the guitars and bass. The worst part of the album is definitely the vocals. The average part of the album is of course the drums. Regardless, it's no wonder this is a classic among death metal, and it will always hold a place in my heart for containing the first guitar riff I ever learned to play: Hammer Smashed Face.

In the midst of my excitement and anticipation of Cannibal Corpse's upcoming Red Before Black, I'm taking a look at and reviewing their older albums, seeing as I haven't personally given the first four a close look in many years. But first, a backstory...

Cannibal Corpse was the first death metal band I had ever heard. I was a 15 year-old edgelord who thought bands like Slipknot and Lamb of God were the heaviest thing on this earth. Then a friend suggested I listen to this death metal song called, "Hammer Smashed Face". So that night I get on YouTube and look up that one video of the death metal classic, the one that's been viewed millions of times. The screen is just the logo. As a teenager who'd never heard anything heavier than Slipknot's Iowa, the gory, blood-dripping words CANNIBAL CORPSE freaked me out a little. I started playing the song, amazed at the heaviness. The melody in the chorus sent shivers down my spine, and Chris Barnes's guttural vocals were completely foreign and demented-sounding to me. When I looked up the lyrics, I was officially scared shitless. "Draining the snot, I rip out the eyes. Squeeze them in my hands, nerves are incised." I remember sleeping with the lights on, because I was genuinely terrified to sleep in the dark with that riff stuck in my head. I looked up some of their album covers, and...well, it's Cannibal Corpse so you know how that went.

But skip ahead several years, and death metal is practically breakfast for me. Had Tomb of the Mutilated not been an amazing album, I would've immediately dismissed it as horrific noise, and I would have never loved death metal like I do today. But what kept me coming back to Cannibal Corpse was the fact that I did enjoy the music. And even today - at the 'grand' age of 22 - this album still unnerves me to a point. Tomb of the Mutilated is unarguably the sickest and most violent out of all the CC albums, and even quite possibly their best.

Enough of my metalhead life story. Let's talk about Tomb. As soon as "Hammer Smashed Face" opens up from the first split second, you're hit with a wall of drum blasts and the absolutely dirty, thick, and bass-heavy guitar tone. That guitar tone ends up being both a blessing and a curse throughout the entire album - which I'll get in depth on soon enough. Unlike the previous album, Butchered at Birth, this album wastes no time trying to build up into a climax. "Hammer Smashed Face" hits you right away like a sledge, which sets the album's pace as non-stop bludgeoning blast beats and brutality to the max.

As I was saying about HSF's chorus, Tomb does manage to, despite its focus on heaviness, incorporate frequent moments of slight melody, most of which are eerie, chromatic scales and buzzsaw-esque grinding tremolo riffs. These moments aren't very complex or super-innovative, but the way in which these spooky-sounding licks are written prove effective at adding flavor to the writing without sacrificing the brutality. The downside is when you combine these moments with the guitar tone. The guitars are way too distorted, and end up blurring away a lot of the melodies. In many other spots, the distortion also drowns out the vocals, and those are one of Tomb's best qualities. But as far as writing is concerned, the guitarwork remains interesting the whole way through, having a nice melting pot of melodies, almost-technical riffs, breakdowns, and the occasional solo.

The bass here is much more prominent than on Butchered at Birth thankfully. Where the lack of bass was Butchered's weakest link, the abundance of it on this album becomes the make-or-break, and it makes it alright! Alex Webster separates himself from the guitarists by writing basslines that are not only different than the rhythm guitar, but actually enhance it. Much of Tomb's heaviness is supported by Webster's basslines and tone. He shines his brightest on slower, rhythmic moments and breakdowns such as in the beginning of "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" and the choruses in "Necropedophile".

Paul Mazurkewicz on drums...oh man, oh man does he slay it here. His kick patterns are my favorite part of the kit, as he uses the double bass in a very tasteful fashion, alternating between groovy and interesting, and balls-out blasting in sporadic fashion. The blast beats come without warning on most occasions and never fail to catch me off guard every time.

And obviously the real star on Tomb is Chris Barnes. Like goddamn, those gutturals are something else. As far as I know, he was the first death metal vocalist to do vocals that gurgly or low-pitched, so there's a huge historical importance in that. But even more historically significant is the lyrics. Lyrically, Tomb of the Mutilated is the definition of Cannibal Corpse. "I Cum Blood" and "Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt" are especially disgusting. Now, I didn't listen to this back in '92, but I'm sure someone who did will say that this was like nothing ever heard before. You thought Slayer's "Angel of Death" was bad? Wait until you hear this song! It's about ripping guts from a woman's vagina and fucking the corpse! In this day and age, with bands like Devourment and Infant Annihilator doing their crazy shit, sure, Tomb isn't really the worst. But would those bands have existed, or would have Aborted, Cattle Decapitation, or any other band like that have been what they are without the massive influence of Chris Barnes and his jolly gang of sickos? Of course not. Lyrically, this album is the holy fucking bible of death metal.

I can't call this album perfect because of the often muddy guitar tone, and the fact that it is highly overrated. Cannibal Corpses best album though? Possibly. It's a crucially important album to the genre, and to me personally. I hail it as a masterpiece.

"Excuse me, is Greg here?" - Jim Carey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

When I was but a wee little lad, growing up on safe, lilly-livered pop music and glimmers of awesome via my Dad's classic rock collection, I never thought I'd ever think about that band playing in that Ace Ventura movie and think of it as BORING, of all things. Now, years later, that's exactly what I'm thinking. This album, nay, this entire band's history, is nothing but a group of manchildren wielding plastic weapons covered in fake guts and gore and saying "HEY! LOOK AT US! WE'RE EDGY! GET OFFENDED BY US! WE'RE SICK AND DISGUSTING AND YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO US! CONTROVERSY!!!"

Well, actually, that's what they wanted to say, but it came out in an indecipherable mush of burped, gargled, growled vocals that are impossible to understand.

Anyway, yes. This album is mind-crushingly boring. Hey, that concept might actually make for a good song. Hmm..."Crushed by Boredom"...uh, where were we? Oh yeah, this snoozefest.

Before there's no turning back from totally alienating my metalhead brethren, I will give these guys credit for playing their instruments hard, fast, and with quite a bit of talent. The bass especially is funky, getting a few deserved spotlight moments here and there, and the riffs are definitely headbang worthy. The one gripe I have about the sound is how clipped the guitars sound. I know some 'khhhhhhhhh' noise is unavoidable when going this heavy on the distortion, but it sounds like mud way too often. It's also lacking in variety; each song basically being the same riff/blast beat formula. It's backed by pretty good talent, but it gets kind of old quick.

Now, my biggest blood-spattered bone to pick. The lyrics. I'm not some moral crusader calling them unholy or immoral. Well, they are immoral, but I'm not about to tell people to not listen because of that. I'm telling people to avoid it because it's dull as hell. Everything, even lyrics about rape, torture and necrophilia, get old and tiresome if you repeat them enough. And CC repeats them ad nauseam. Hey, there's a good CC album title. They could do a whole concept album of songs about people dying inside due to boredom and ennui. Ironically, that would be way more interesting than every song being about a sadist describing his nightly activities. There's so much that can be done with the horror genre, and yet song-in, song-out, it's all about entrails and graves and bodily waste. Yeah, I get it, you shit down the throat of a dead teenager before copulating with said throat. It was darkly funny the first time, now it's just annoying. Actually, does all this even matter? Because you can't understand a damn word Chris Barnes is grunting here.

I'll readily admit right here that this brand of garish, scratchy, grindy death metal is not my cup of tea, but I wanted to give this renowned group a fair shake and review what is often considered their seminal work. heh heh...seminal...see, because they have lyrics about semen...nevermind. Anyway, it's not the worst thing I've ever heard, and I could actually see myself getting into this if the grunter were more coherent and the concept/aesthetic mixed it up every now and then. But I could never shake the feeling that all this band does is waste my time by doing controversial music just to be attention whores. But there are glimmers of awesome scattered at remote points in this album, so if CC is your thing, rock the fuck on, fellow metalhead. As for me, they just bore me to death.

There it is again; death by boredom. Excuse me, I have a concept album to write.

Cannibal Corpse, one of the most important and at the same time, controversial death metal bands in the world, given their explicit lyrics and album covers that probably caused some gag reflex to some people. What we have here is the masterpiece of Cannibal Corpse, an album filled with horror, necrophile and more shit. No album made by the band after this album has the horror and sick touch that Tomb of the Mutilated had and still has to this day.

The most important thing in this album are the vocals, made with no effects or modified with a computer. I couldn't believe it when I started to hear this. Other good point in this album is the ambient of the songs. Clearly based in horror, cannibalism and mutilation. This album contains most of the classics: Hammer Smashed Face, I Cum Blood, Addicted to Vaginal Skin, and many more, all of them preferred by the death metal fans (myself included).

"Hammer Smashed Face" became immediately one of my favorites, mainly due to the riff made after the "My blood runs cold" part. "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" is an amazing song, starting with a killer's confession and then the song starts slow until Barnes starts to sing. "I Cum Blood" is... I don't know what to say of this, another of my preferred songs." Split Wide Open" starts to show some bass skills, just like "I Cum Blood". And then we have another masterpiece called "Necropedophile" (man, what was Barnes thinking or smoking while making this titles?). Then we have "The Cryptic Stench", another display of bass skills and terror riffs. Then comes "Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt", and the bass doesn't seems to get tired of playing. After that we have "Post Mortal Ejaculation" which starts very slow with both guitars (first one, then another) and keeps slow until Barnes starts the singing. And the album ends with "Beyond the Cemetery", the last display of bass and guitars.

As stated before, the vocals are the best in this album, especially the little screams in "Hammer Smashed Face" and "I Cum Blood" that are mixed with those deep guttural vocals that everyone who hears wonder "is singing or what?". The guitars really tried to create an atmosphere of terror, and they did it. This was one of the first album I heard which showed the bass, examples are: I Cum Blood, Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt and Necropedophile. The drums are really amazing as well.

Special mention to the album front cover, showing a cunnilingus made by two undead. Well done Cannibal Corpse, well done indeed.

"Tomb of the Mutilated" is a must-have for every brutal death metal fan, a choice you'll never regret to make. If you have money, buy it. If you don't, download it, but you must have this album, now!

Highlights: Hammer Smashed Face, I Cum Blood, Addicted to Vaginal Skin, Necropedophile.

What do you get when you mix one the best bass players ever, probably the best production job ever recorded, the most guttural vocalist of all time, insanely heavy riffs, and horribly disgusting lyrics? “Tomb of the Mutilated”. While I know that sounds like a lot to have in one album. Cannibal Corpse seemed to pull it off like nothing. Well, I shouldn’t really say that, it took them 3 albums to get it down to perfection and were never this amazing again but they still did it dammit.

First off, when I say probably the best production ever, I mean it. There is not a single flaw I can see in the production. The guitars are heavy as hell. The drums are loud and sound amazing. The vocals are insanely guttural. Then comes the bass…flawless. Which takes me back to saying Alex Webster is one of the best bass players to ever play (besides Cliff Burton), but that’s a different story. The guys at Morrisound recording really deserve their legendary status solely because of this album.

“Hammer Smashed Face” is the song everyone first thinks of when Cannibal Corpse is talked about amongst metalheads and some non metalheads. There is a very good reason for this, it is amazing. Extremely heavy opening riff that sounds as if you are actually about to have your face smashed by a hammer. Very few songs can bring up a feeling of death but this is one of those songs. “I Cum Blood” is fast as hell and has some of Chris’ best screams. “Necropedophile” is an underrated song that is probably my favorite from this album. The chorus is surprisingly catchy and has some awesome thrashing going on here. “Addicted to Vaginal Skin” has a creepy speaking intro and then comes an equally creepy riff with insanely heavy guitar and drum work. If you want really creepy, listen to “Post Mortal Ejaculation” at around 2:00; some of the creepiest parts in any song with an amazing scream to add to the feeling.

The riffs on this album are a major improvement from “Butchered at Birth”. The riffs here are much more technical. They still contain the same chugging that Cannibal Corpse has made famous in my opinion. The drums are also much improved from their previous efforts. They are much more controlled and have a much better sound. They are still very unique because of Paul’s sideways style of cymbal work. How no matter how fast he hits the snare, he has to hit the cymbal twice as fast, insane and sometimes annoying on the previous albums, it is perfectly acceptable on this album just because the drums sound so good. The vocals are an acquired taste. Personally, I think Chris Barnes sounded the best on “Butchered at Birth” which I’m sure most people would disagree with. They are ridiculously guttural and mostly indecipherable. You get a few words out of there occasionally but hey, that’s what lyric sheets are for. The bass performance is flawless. Follows the insane riffs but manages to stand out at all times.

The lyrics are kind of a step up and step back at the same time. They seem more mature yet so immature at the same time. They are much more sexual orientated this time around whereas before it was ripping out guts and eating them. This time, he not only rips out guts, he rips them out of young virgins and has sex with the corpse afterwards. When I was around 13, I nearly vomited while reading “Entrails Ripped from a Virgins Cunt” which by the way is the most disgusting song title ever made. I guess this is exactly the kind of reaction Barnes was hoping for and I’m glad he achieved it.

Most reviews, I usually don’t talk about the album cover but with Cannibal Corpse I feel like the album art is part of the experience. It’s horrifyingly beautiful and is probably the second greatest album cover ever, the first being “Butchered at Birth”. Just looking at it you can tell that the sexual lyrics will be present as stated above.

I think it’s a shame this album doesn’t have a higher review. This is truly a masterpiece and Cannibal Corpse will never be this good again. It’s an unfortunate truth but oh well, I’ll just listen to their first 4 albums over and over again. If you don’t already own this album buy it right now, you’re missing out on a true death metal classic.

Best tracks – “Necropedophile”, “Hammer Smashed Face”, and “Post Mortal Ejaculation”

There is a sort of mystique attached to Cannibal Corpse, dredged up from the most abhorrent imagery concocted by the sickest author of the most graphic horror film ever. So much so that denying the historical significance of the band’s early work with the vomiting ghoul otherwise known as Chris Barnes at the helm will get one laughed out the death metal hall, and rightly so. Having said all of that, like with the foundation of a building, the necessity of its function does not necessarily make it an aesthetic wonder, such became the now largely archaic, poorly produced and underwhelming sophomore effort that was “Butchered At Birth”. On a positive note, much of what went wrong on the outwardly disturbing studio venture of 1991 was rectified when “Tomb Of The Mutilated” was constructed, though some glaring issues still remain.

The formula at work within the twisted psyche of these 9 odes of murder and mayhem is yet another expansion on the riff happy formula pioneered in the most horrifying extremes of thrash metal ala Slayer and company. Pounding power chords, flurries of tremolo picked lines, wildly elaborate shred solos and fast paced drumming all combine together to form a template of cohesive yet frenzied violence. But unlike its predecessor, there is a much more varied framework at play here, forsaking the seemingly endless stream of blast beats with nearly interchangeable riffs for some pretty solid breakdowns and some occasional returns to the more riff happy style that dominated “Eaten Back To Life”. The refinement of ideas gets pure enough that certain songs such as oddly catchy “Hammer Smashed Face”, the sickeningly brutal “Addicted To Vaginal Skin” and the riff happy death/thrasher “The Cryptic Stench” actually go beyond leaving a repulsive impression and work their way into the long term memory in the most vivid of fashions.

But in spite of a stronger overall template, a thick as hell guitar tone that far exceeds the band’s latter down tuned sound in its brutality, a much more present and raunchy bass, and a consistent display of bear-like vocalizations out of Barnes, this entire album fails to free itself from some stubborn production issues and an apparent reluctance to fully realize its own potential. Apart from the guitars sounding extremely chunky and somewhat similar to the distorted glory that characterized Dark Angel’s “Time Does Not Heal”, the cumulative sound on here is very dry and thin. Nothing has been augmented to simulate the stage and auditorium format that tends to work well for both thrash and death metal, particularly the mundane drum lines which seem content to play support all day while the guitars have all the fun. But even absent the denser atmosphere that gave “Eaten Back To Life” its superior charm, the songwriting is pretty formulaic and unadventurous. Apart from differing intro material, a good number of these songs run together and unintentionally come off as being filler, despite being fairly strong individually.

In a sense, “Tomb Of The Mutilated” could be seen as an essential listen from both a historical and stylistic standpoint, but as an overall listen it really comes up short in comparison to a lot of other albums put out at the time in this style, and also compared to later works out of this band’s own creative well of decrepit corpse fodder. “Hammer Smashed Face” is an undeniable classic with a set of infectiously good riff work that no guitar player should go without learning, and there are a handful of additional songs that are quite good on their own, but collectively this album just can’t seem to fully get its act together.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on July 5, 2010.

Seriously, just think about that song title. "Hammer Smashed Face" has got to be the most brutal song title ever written down (I guess Devourment has come up with some pretty sick ones too, though). I mean, a face fucked up by a hammer? It's so simple, yet so catchy and awesome. It fits the simple-yet-clever song structure, as well as the simple name for the band as well. And that's just the first song!

In reality, every song kind of has this formula. Look at "I Cum Blood". In a similar way, the song title fits the song and band. You won't see any pretentious "medical" song titles or lyrics here. Instead, they are all straight and to the point. The music fits well with these titles, as the titles aren't more memorable than the title (as is the case with Carcass). For instance, "Beyond the Cemetary"'s opening riff is a sticker. It's not insanly brutal, but that's okay. Also, we have the somewhat more melodic riffage on "Postmortal Ejaculation", which are a huge change of pace on here. I love how they don't just stick to one feel on the whole album, and actually change it up sometimes.

The vocals aren't at the front of the production here. Instead, everything is equally loud. I love this album's production so much for that. Everything from the snare tone to the guitar tone was done perfectly. By the way, vocalist Chris Barnes's vocals are mind boggeling. He truly has one of the deepest growls of any vocalist (Will Rahmer of Mortician might have a deeper one though). He sings slower most of the time, with his vocal patterns crafted perfectly to fit his lung capacity. While the fact majority of his vocals are done in the inhuman death grunt style, every now and then he'll let out a high pitched shreik, which can be startling or annoying. I personally don't have a big beef with his screams, as I think the idea of countering extremly deep growls with the ocassional extremly high shreik is a good idea. I mean sure, on "True Carnage" (Six Feet Under) they sucked, but that's a different album.

The guitar riffs are all memorable as fuck, as previously stated. These guys don't just randomly "shriff" like some bands do, nor are there any filler riffs. Instead, each riff has been crafted to the point of complete (or near) perfection. We also have an interesting use of different focuses in the guitar department. Some songs like "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" and "Split Wide Open" make more use of chugging, while "Necropedophile" and "Beyond the Cemetary" are more tremelo picking based songs with their main riffs. It truly keeps you interested. Once again, this album is the DEFINATIVE "riff album". There are almost no non-riffs on here. The bass is high in the mix, although not quite to Cryptopsy standards. It plays a big part in these songs. For instance, the infamous bass fill in "Hammer Smashed Face", or the perfect chugging riff in "Addicted to Vaginal Skin", where he opens that KILLER riff with a little bass intro. Most of the time he appears to be following the guitars with his bass however, so it's hard to pick out any specific moments where he is shining, other than his bass fills.

The drums are an interesting thing. Paul [big word here] is a really good drummer, although his style is different from most other drummers. He makes constant use of the blast beated style of drumming (being among the first to use it), and uses constant fills. He's not Brann Dailor though. I guess he's not showing off alot like Brann does, but at times I wonder if he is truly a competent drummer. A good example being the random tempo changes in the intro of "Beyond the Cemetary". I'm not sure if he's fucking up and trying to hide it or if that was actually intentional. There are numerous other fuckups on this album too, usually by Chris Barnes or Paul. I actually saw on the "Centuries of Torment" DVD where he claimed that there WERE in fact a few "human errors" on these albums, so I'm wondering if that's what he was talking about. However, fuckup or no fuckup, they really help to make this album seem more raw and evil (somehow, I'm still trying to figure out).

So, what we have here is a classic death metal album that's flaws aren't even flaws. That's how awesome this album is. If you're reading this I'm going to assume you like death metal, but trust me man, there is no death metal without Cannibal Corpse. Sure, they aren't the best death metal band ever, but they are definatly among the most memorable, and "Hammer Smashed Face" is easily one of the genre's best moments. Go pick up your copy today!

From the incredibly seductive cover artwork, to the stronger balance of the songwriting and a mix which slices and dices, Tomb of the Mutilated shows all the signs of a band who probably didn't like what they had to offer on their previous splatter platter, and took steps to ensure that #3 would be a charm. The riffs are tighter, in part because the guitar tone is the audio equivalent of a sharpened surgical tool parting skin and sinew directly down to the bone, and in part because they are simply better plotted. The breakdowns here are a lot more satisfying musically, and the once could even sense a slight increase in 'melody', though it's the kind of melody that makes you feel like you're in an emergency room late in the AM hours after trying to cut the pain out of your life one vein at a time.

I'm not about to praise its virtues to the high heavens, of which the members of Cannibal Corpse will surely not be allowed to partake, but this is far closer to the band that I know and love today. Tomb of the Mutilated features the same lineup as the previous two albums, but there is a far more noticeable presence here from Alex Webster, whose busy lines are anchoring the savage thrust of the guitars like a popping mortician's aid prepping the corpses for examination on the meat block. Barnes is pretty much as dull as ever, but his vocals benefit from their guttural counterbalance to the knife-like guitar rhythms, once again a plus to the production. Stylistically, not much different than their prior efforts. Just flat out superior...

Everyone knows "Hammer Smashed Face", and it delivers an opening rhythm worthy of the name, as the chords pound into you like an oncoming train. The breakdown at around :50 proves instantly that this band has arrived at an understanding of how NOT to bore you when its time to break out those palm mutes, with a sinister Slayer-like melody threading through them. "I Cum Blood" continues the band's knack for memorable song titles, and the track itself is a grinding surge with another neanderthal breakdown which is, admittedly, not one of the strongest on the album. "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" (and who isn't?) is sexy, with a fucked up cannibal sample and a truly surgical, ghastly lurching rhythm that rolls forward into brief bursts of splattered giblets, the guitars bursting out into a deep thrashing frenzy that will nearly decapitate the listener.

'Even though now I'm dead within
My mouth drools, as I slice your perineum
My body smeared with the guts I've extracted
through her hole, came swollen organs'

Yes, it is utterly fucking disgusting. Yes, it's not the kind of thing you want to go repeating at parties, unless you have some really cool friends. And yet, for all the repressed serial killer perversions and desires, Cannibal Corpse would be the band that launched a million ships, or rather, other bands who clumsily ground against each other to see who could come up with the sickest, humorous song titles and lyrics. These gentlemen may not have been the first, but they were clearly the most influential, since they provided a gateway for many new metal fans not previously aware that the genre even existed until they happened upon a certain Jim Carrey film.

"Split Wide Open" continues to jab and thrust, the vorpal edge of each guitar line weighted with a concrete climax. "Necropedophile" must be like getting the best of both worlds, at least if you are a sick demented fuck who thinks of such ideas as anything more than ridiculous posteuring. I enjoyed the way the bass chords popped alongside the bridge riff, but it's not one of the stronger songs on the album. "The Cryptic Stench", however, sticks immediately with a massive, thrashing wall and some devastating, old school sensibilities. After all, it WAS the old school. A brutal and effective track that sadly doesn't get a lot of love in the band's set lists. Cannibal Corpse will next one up themselves yet again with the exploitative torture orgy "Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt", and "Post Mortal Ejaculation" sorties through another of the band's clinical riffs, putting the listener directly on the operating table at the local malpractice. "Beyond the Cemetery" is another of the band's criminally overlooked songs, with ripping guitars that pretty much terminate anything off the first two albums. Bloody and beautiful.

Tomb of the Mutilated falls just short of greatness, because a few songs slack behind the rest in terms of the writing. But it's the first 'good' Cannibal Corpse record, and deserves respect for refining the band's prior meddling into a force to be reckoned with. It's the warning siren of a lethal banding finally shifting into gear from park, and strangely foreshadows a lot of the excellent future albums the band will write with George Corpsegrinder in the fold. Today it sounds nearly as livid and razor sharp as it did when the vein was first tapped 18 years past.

Highlights: Addicted to Vaginal Skin, The Cryptic Stench, Post Mortal Ejaculation, Beyond the Cemetery

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Cannibal Corpse is on of the biggest death metal names in the metal scene today, and in my opinion one of the most overrated. They seem to have one goal; to play as loud, as brutally, as heavily and as fast as possible. Their third album Tomb of the Mutilated is no exception to this rule, with raw growling vocals, machine gun drums and blast beats and phenomenally heavy guitar riffs.

When you think Cannibal Corpse, you immediately think Tomb of the Mutilated. When you think Tomb of the Mutilated you immediately think of Cannibal Corpses biggest hit, album opener Hammer Smashed Face. Despite everything I’ve written abut Cannibal Corpse already, and everything I’m going to write, I actually love this track. Its heavy, and I love the bass solo at the end of the intro. The growling vocals fit perfectly with the guitar and the riffs are amazing. This truly a classic death metal track! However after you’ve listened to this, the good points of the album stop dead. Once you’ve absorbed the brutal classic of Hammer Smashed Face you are bowled over by pointless blasting riffs and repetitive vocals. Absolutely awful!

I’m going to devote a whole paragraph to Cannibal Corpse lyrics. They’re absolutely ridiculous! Admitted the first time I read them I was shocked, however they quickly lost their shock factor, now when I read them I actually find myself laughing. Chris Barnes has tried so hard to be brutal and shocking that he has achieved anything but brutality. Just read the lyrics to I Cum Blood, or Necropaedophile. He’s tried so hard to be shocking, but quite frankly they sound like something a twelve year old wrote to shock his parents! Absolutely appalling, they should take a lesson for Obituary or Carcass who can actually write lyrics.

Chris Barnes growls aren’t bad. I’m not the biggest fan, however I have nothing against them. The growls are incredibly raw, but if you listen hard enough you can still make out the lyrics. His screams are appalling. Chris Barnes screaming complete kills the whole point of death metal screams. This is one of the major downsides of this album.

After all this having a go at Cannibal Corpse I’m going to say something nice for a change. The guitars are awesome. Jack Owen and Bob Rusay are extremely talented musicians. In my opinion their brutal riffing is one of the major selling points for this album. This album probably has the best guitar sound on any Cannibal Corpse album, it really does rule.

The production on this album isn’t bad, however I’m not sure if that wasn’t a lucky fluke. The sound is rough and is not of the highest quality, but it works with album. Like I said, I’m not sure if this rough sound was intentional or not. I also find the drum kit (specifically the snare drum) to be slightly overpowering. The bass is well balanced with the rest of the instruments, however in the more brutal parts it can be quite tricky to make it out.

When I’ve added up the good points and the bad points I came to the conclusion that this was an OK, but incredibly overrated album. Seriously, if your thinking about checking out Cannibal Corpse, buy Eaten Back to Life, or one of their later releases, there’re so much better.

For as long as I can remember, apparently no further back than 2002, I’ve been the only one who doesn’t like this album (apparently GoddessOfDeathMetal doesn’t either. How’d I miss her review?). Proclaimed almost universally as a legendary slab of Floridian death metal, Cannibal Corpse’s Tomb of the Mutilated is to be hated only by poseurs, PMRC officials, and, up until June 2006, prudish German art critics. And me, apparently. Despite appreciation for Cannibal Corpse albums both earlier and later, I still think TotM is a chunky, monotonous piece of shit.

But before getting into the negative specifics, I think it’s important to first acknowledge the aspects where the album succeeds. Firstly, the guitars sound pretty damn good. Arguably the best sounding guitars on any Cannibal Corpse record (despite a rougher production), they bear a certain visceral distinction to them that their later, down-tuned efforts exchange for that thick ‘wet’ sound that the modern crowd likes so much. Additionally, the bass is quite audible for most of the album’s duration (naturally you lose it during the busier parts, the snare drum being loud and all), which replaces the low end that the guitars vainly tried to accommodate on Butchered at Birth. Secondly, Alex Webster and Paul Mazurkiewicz are incredibly talented musicians. The former actually matches the technicality of the guitarists instead of providing some simpler, muddy low-end (not to mention those infamous fills in “Hammer Smashed Face” and “Addicted to Vaginal Skin”) while the latter’s near-mechanical fortitude is enviable. Finally, the track “Hammer Smashed Face” is tits, plain and simple. Every riff is a critical piece in one mystifyingly badass puzzle, the drums are devastating, and Chris Barnes guttural growl actually adds to the beast rather than detract from it. These things are good things; things that I like about Tomb of the Mutilated.

However, there are many more things about the album that I do not like. Originally this could be chalked up to a young thrasher simply not yet desensitized to death metal’s aesthetics (in ’02 I considered this the worst metal album of all time, a stance I’ve clearly recanted). With experience under my belt and a bit more self-awareness, I’ve reconsidered my thoughts on the album and I think a lot of my dissent comes from differences in the things that I find sacred in death metal that others either do not bother with or with which they would simply disagree. Firstly, I like variety in death metal. All blasting simply will not do, neither will all sluggishness (funeral shit doesn’t count, it’s a different genre and thus has different aims). “Hammer Smashed Face” has variety. Mechanical blasting to killer half-time to a merciless, slow grind near the end (with atonal solos to boot), it’s a great song. The next track is…well, the same sort of thing with the same sorts of riffs. And after the spoken intro, so is the next. And so it goes for the entire album. Any single track isolated will reveal itself as a fulfilling use of your time (indeed, I’m certain the only reason I like a certain song involving hammers and faces is because it earned pole position), but in series, the riffs and vocals blur all the songs together. I’ve listened to the album plenty of times, and outside of the period of time that it’s playing, I can only ever recall a handful of riffs, where that number should be higher and with less time invested. I have a feeling that if any of these riffs (outside of intro riffs or guitar breaks) were played out of context of the album’s run, even devoted fans would have great difficulty naming their location within the album. It’s just not memorable whatsoever. Some say that death metal isn’t supposed to be memorable. Some, of course, are a handful of saps that have confused memorability with overt catchiness. Death metal isn’t supposed to feature obvious, poppy hooks. However, if it’s supposed to be forgettable (the closest synonym of ‘unmemorable’), then why the hell else would you listen to it again?

Another thing I like is for death metal vocalists, regardless of talent or depth of pitch (the higher rasp and the subhuman gurgle can both be good), to display some sort of enthusiasm in their craft. Despite how low and distorted it may get, a singer’s voice is responsible for presenting the human element in music: nothing affects the mood, pace, and general emotional atmosphere of a song more than the vocals. One can of course argue that one of the purposes of death metal is to abolish an emotional presence altogether, exchanging it for a cold, unfeeling, systematic air of oppression. This I disagree with: I do not enjoy such ‘music,’ yet I do enjoy quite a bit of death metal. The reason being that death metal is not devoid of emotion; rather, it is usually limited to the harsher spectrum. Emotions like anger, pain, regret, disgust, and fear: these are some underlying drives behind death metal, often felt through the deliveries of vocalists as diverse as Chuck Schuldiner, Kelly Schaefer, Glen Benton, and Chris Reifert. Though I don’t prefer the ultra-low guttural vocals that Chris Barnes chooses to utilize on this album (his delivery is noticeably different on every CC album), that he chooses to use them are not the problem. That he chooses to use almost nothing else is the basis for my complaint. Just like on Butchered at Birth, he chooses exactly one pitch and sticks with it for the album’s entirety, as though his voice was simply another rhythm instrument chugging on open E-flat (except rhythm instruments usually stay on time; Barnes’ inability to do this is incredibly annoying). The only step up from Butchered is the occasional blood-curdling scream, which Barnes doesn’t use nearly often enough. It’s like a tub of vanilla ice cream with a pinch of sprinkles. You’ll like it at first, but you’ll probably tire of it fast, and you’ll surely vomit if you somehow manage to eat the entire thing.

Finally, the lyrics, despite every intention of pushing the boundaries of unsavory subject matter to the next level, come off as painfully childish. Sure, “Necropedophile” might send a shiver down your spine the first time you read it and the opening clip from “Addicted to Vaginal Skin” will probably catch you off guard. For the most part, though, you’ll just be using the sleeve to gross out your kid nephew, later getting an angry lecture from his mother about exposing her kid to crappy death metal when there are perfectly good Gorguts albums sitting on your bookshelf that he could be listening to. I mean come on, Reek of Putrefaction easily trumps this in both cover and lyrical grotesqueness and that album came out three years prior, so no reaching for historical value that isn’t there either.

On a lesser note, I also hate the sloppy, atonal solos of Jack Owen and Bob Rusay. When done properly, dissonant leads can be a chaotic kick to the teeth. When done by these guys, just as when done by the Hoffman brothers, they’re a pointless distraction from the riffage and apparently only enjoyed by fans who use the word ‘brutal’ in every other sentence when describing the death metal that they like. If you aren’t going to play good guitar solos, best not to include them at all.

In conclusion, I’ve honestly listened to this album dozens of times over the better part of the last decade, the most recent at the writing of this review, and try as I might, my indifference to it stands. It’s monotonous and shitty and everyone likes it, making me feel as though it’s one big joke that everyone else is in on. And the more I think about it, the more the thought rings true, it seems. Except the joke’s on you.

This album is a true classic and deserves its place in death metal history as one of the greatest death metal albums ever. People who are critical of the album will often say: "But the songs' lyrics are gross" or "The song titles are so disgusting that they're absurd" or "This is sick, juvenile death metal that has no merit apart from brutality", and, in all fairness, they do have a point. They are still incorrect overall though, especially the last criticism which is totally false, as there's far more to this music than just brutality, even though that is the main focus. However, the first two criticisms may hold some water; indeed, the songs on this album have some of the most gross lyrics in death metal ever, with only bands like Carcass coming close. Indeed, the song titles are so disgusting that they borderline on (supposedly)self parody and absurdity.

But that does not affect the music itself, which is a vicious, unrelenting barrage of brutally heavy guitar riffs, fantastic drumming, excellent basswork and incredibly guttural death grunts and growls. That is what makes this album truly great. Most of the time the lyrics are almost completely impossible to understand even after you've heard the songs several times, because Chris Barnes' vocals are so guttural and low. Look past the disgusting lyrics and(at times)absurd song titles, and hear the real brilliance of this album: the music.

This album has several elements that make it stand out from Cannibal Corpse's earlier releases in particular. First off, while this is not clearly said anywhere to my knowledge, I would consider this album to be actually a brutal death metal album, and by that I directly mean the subgenre of death metal called brutal death metal. This means that this album is on the same level(pretty much, at least)as Suffocation, Cryptopsy, and the like. Cannibal Corpse did not have this level of brutality and technicality before this album.

Eaten Back to Life was a brilliant album, there is no doubt about that, and it was pretty brutal for its time too - but Butchered at Birth was in a lot of ways a huge step up in terms of brutality alone at least. The guitarwork on that album, while slower overall, was still brutal, and that album broke several boundaries too: the vocals of Chris Barnes went from moderately low to extremely guttural, the guitars got a heavier and thicker sound, the drumming remained as good or got better, and equally as importantly the song titles, lyrics, and album artwork went from normal death metal horror stuff(a zombie eating its own guts on Eaten Back to Life)to totally disgusting, obscene, and horrific gory brutality. A zombie eating its guts is one thing, two zombies carving up a pregnant woman and cutting out her unborn fetus is quite another. The artwork alone made Butchered at Birth incredibly controversial in a way Eaten Back to Life never was.

And then, unbelievably, this album managed to be even more controversial. The song titles went from the already horrific topics of baby slaughter and cannibalism to even more gross and now also sexually perverse topics including gross bloodthirsty rape, a woman dismembering her newborn children because of her insanity, and, well, you get the picture. That's how far this album took the lyrical insanity and horror. And its artwork managed to be incredibly shocking yet again. But did the music also take the next step to become even more brutal than Butchered at Birth had been?

The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is yes it did, in every way imaginable. The voice of Chris Barnes, amazingly, somehow became even more guttural than it was previously, the guitars and drums got even heavier, and the bass got more prominent; and the technicality, speed, and overall brutality was even greater and heavier than their first two albums. The whole tone, from the guitar riffs, to the drumming style, to the intricate basswork and finally the incredibly low and guttural death growls, is definitely that of a brutal death metal album, in an even more overt way than Butchered at Birth(which was already going down that route)had done. This is what Cannibal Corpse set out to do on this album, and I would say that they achieved it magnificently.

The opening song is a perfect example of this style done well - it is incredibly heavy and brutal, not showing a hint of mercy for the unwary. Chris Barnes growls and grunts his way through the song sounding like zombie, a demon, or a twisted monster, or whatever have you. It keeps on smashing your in the face(pun intended)until your ears are bleeding, right up until the end of the song.

The guitar riffs sound extremely brutal and heavy, the tone being thicker, heavier, and just plain better sounding than the riffs on their previous two albums. In particular, the guitar tone of Butchered at Birth sounded like it had the treble turned up way too high. Thus the guitar tone on that album really wasn't very good. It should have sounded brutal, and it did in some ways, but this album has a far better guitar tone. Everything here, every instrument has been fairly well recorded, yet not over-recorded to the point that it becomes over-polished. The sound is still vaguely raw, and yet better sounding in almost all respects than the first two albums - thus maintaining the full brutality of the band while still being better produced in a way that makes it sound really fucking heavy, which it is.

There are plenty of standout songs here. The sometimes almost absurdly disgusting song titles may sound so over the top that they seem more like black humour and horror than pure horror, but when you listen to the songs, they sound just as brutal as any of the songs with less disgusting song titles. The song "I Cum Blood" is a good example - regardless of the ridiculously disgusting nature of the song title, it is just as heavy and brutal as the opening song and the following songs.

There are no weak songs here. In fact, I would say this is one of the biggest reasons why this is often regarded by fans as Cannibal Corpse's finest hour: the songs are all strong. No song shows a hint of weakness or compromise, or attempts to become more popular. Everything is brutal, heavy, and in your face.

This album is easily one of the greatest death metal albums of all time - it has everything death metal should have and nothing death metal shouldn't have. It has the grinding, brutal, crushing guitars, the brutal drumming, the excellent and intricate basswork, and extremely guttural death growls and grunts from one of the greatest death metal vocalists of all time, Chris Barnes. It represents everything death metal is meant to be - brutal, heavy, skullcrushing, vicious, nasty, horrific, disgusting, terrifying, malevolent, and completely uncompromising. Any true death metal fan should definitely have this album in his collection, or forever be a weak poser who cannot handle real death metal.

I picked this album earlier this month. I'd read about it in Decibel, and because it's widely regarded as Cannibal Corpse's best album, I picked it up. Music wise, it's great. Great early 90s death metal, they don't make death metal like this anymore. The lyrics, as expected, are ghastly, repulsive, nauseating narratives of murder, necrophilia, mutilation, torture and reads like a tribute to sadism wirrten in a creative writing class gone horribly wrong. Taken in a certain context, they can be hilarious. Brutality and violence for the sake of brutality and violence. The album art is something you just need to see to understand how utterly crass and lowbrow and violent Cannibal Corpse was back then, but that's part of the fun, isn't it? Politicians and parents were scared shitless of this band for inspiring psychopaths and conveying hateful, violent messages to children. But I don't understand how anyone can take something so ridiculously over the top so seriously.

Anyway, the music is tight, very technical, and benefits a lot from a smouldering production courtesy of Scott Burns. "Split Wide Open" has this killer main riff, something you just need to bang your head to. "Hammer Smashed Face" is a decent song, but kind of overrated, I don't get why it's such a fan staple. "The Cryptic Stench" also has a sort of thrashy opening, and "Post Mortal Ejaculation" is one of the more darker songs on the album, complete with a slow, sinister riff towards the end and Chris Barnes hitting the high notes I thought he did rather well. My only gripe is his OTHER vocal approach; the grunting. It's virtually monotone throughout the entire album, and the lyrics are rendered indecipherable. But he does have a very fast delivery, and his high-pitched squeals are a hight point, when he uses them (not often enough, to be honest). Personally, I prefer George Fisher's vocals. They're far more varied and maniacal than Barnes. "Necropedophile" has perhaps some of the most disturbing lyrics Chris ever wrote, and the song ends with a bunch of kids screaming and playing. "Addicted to Vaginal Skin" is opened with a disgusting voiceover of Arthur Shawcross, a serial killer who murdered thirteen women in Rochester, NY. I might not like Barnes as a vocalist, but as a lyricist he had a knack for writing truly deranged material.

In a nutshell, if you want some well-played, tight, brutal death metal with some hilariously disgusting lyrics, "Tomb of the Mutilated" will satisfy your... bloodthirst?

This was THE album that got me listening not only to Cannibal Corpse, but death metal in general. Granted, I was only 5 years old when the album came out, and my parents (being the crazy Christians they are) would have never allowed something so foul to enter their household. Hell, they never will.

That didn't stop me though.

As I grew older, I attained a fondness for horror films. Not cheesy slasher flicks, but cheesy zombie flicks. To me, there was nothing more grotesque and awesome than seeing a man hack a mansion full of zombies apart with a lawnmower (thank you Peter Jackson's "Braindead"). Hence why I found the artwork on the cover of Cannibal Corpse's "Tomb of the Mutilated" particularly appealing (appalling rather). So I bought this album with some allowance when I was 12 and here I am nearly 10 years later still unable to put this masterpiece down.

Of course, back then I didn't have the respect for, nor was I at all educated about the subtle art of, death metal. I was just a snot-nosed fucking kid. Now I respect the hell out of these musicians.

Words cannot begin to describe the sheer raw-ness of "Tomb of the Mutilated". When the first track is titled "Hammer Smashed Face", you know your eardrums are in for one hell of a beating. Now, all of my friends (avid death metal enthusiasts, mind you) say that "Hammer Smashed Face" is the essential track off of "Tomb of the Mutilated", which simply is not true in my opinion. "Hammer Smashed Face" was brutal, there's no doubting that, but in my honest opinion I think that "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt" is the song that makes "Tomb of the Mutilated" what it is - a golden death metal masterpiece. The song title (and the lyrics) encompass everything Cannibal Corpse is about: taking the sickest, foulest, most grotesque and violent images you can conjure up and turning it in to a work of musical mastery.

Plus, this is my favorite Cannibal Corpse line-up. I loved Chris Barnes being at the helm, plus you had the all-time great death metal guitar duo Jack Owen and Bob Rusay the bass slaying talents of Alex Webster, and the great Paul Mazurkiewicz on the drums. Don't get me wrong, George Fisher has done an amazing job with Cannibal Corpse, and they've been churning out death metal gold ever since he's joined, but nothing and nobody will ever overshadow the monolith that is "Tomb of the Mutilated".

This, my mutilating loving friends, is the main reason Cannibal Corpse are so goddamn infamous. As soon as you push the play button, your face gets blown to Satan.

The opener “Hammer Smashed Face” is with no doubt the greatest “Cannibal” song ever conceived. The first thing that is noticed is the speed of which the guitars are being played. Jack Owen is the master of this genre, while not ripping it out like on later releases like the bleeding, where he joined with Rob Barrett. No, here he plays it very simple, and does not do much solo rifting but, is a nice change for what happens later.

Bob Rusay on the other hand, is completely useless! This is a man who could not tell a rift from a sandwich, he just hangs out in the back and lets Jack do most of the work. Gladly he is replaced for the next album by someone who knows what he’s doing.

Another reason this is a killer song, is the audible use of the bass guitar. Alex Webster is a bloody god with the bass. He has an intense bass solo about 20 seconds into the song. He continues to lay it down through the entire album, his signature the three finger walk across the strings, sounds perfect on this song. He blends in so well with the drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, who does a damn fine job with his drum blasts they practically crush you.

But, as well as the music is being played, what stands out are the vocals. Chris Barnes at this point was the best of the best. His exhaled deep guttural growl is phenomenal, so much that many people accuse him of using a pitch shifter for “Hammer Smashed Face” which is total bullshit. The only problem is that there is not enough variation in his voice.

The lyrical themes in this album are disgustingly fantastic. Mainly about sexual perversion, which is a big change from “Butchered at Birth” which were very gore focused. Many of the songs on this album are what made “Cannibal” so notorious, with tracks like “I Cum Blood” ”Addicted To Vaginal Skin” and the most foul “Necropedophile” in which, he talks about having sex with freshly deceased children. All of these together would make Jesus Vomit.

The cover art is another reason this album is so near perfect. The fact that it was banned in Germany until June 2006, says something about the sheer brutality of this cover. So, for all these reasons “Tomb Of The Mutilated” is the best death metal album ever released, even influencing the great Severe Torture, so this is a must have for Cannibal Corpse fans.

Cannibal Corpse was formed in 1988 in Buffalo, New York. Up till this record, they had 2 previous full-length albums, "Eaten Back To Life" (1990) and "Butchered At Birth" (1991). i can say that basically everything about "Tomb Of The Mutilated" is far superior than the first 2, and the 7 others. Cannibal Corpse was one of the very first brutal death metal bands around. They get criticized everywhere they go, everywhere, not even kidding. They have a lot of guts and love for music to stay around through peoples mis-understandings.


When you first put on this album, you will hear the beginning track, "Hammer Smashed Face" as an opener. Perfect way to start one of the greatest death metal albums of all time. Heavy as fuck, that intro tears you to shreds. Everything is so clear, is sounds great. Production is at its heaviest, also. You heard Rob, Pat, and you can even hear Alex really well, like some death metal, it's not anywhere and everywhere, it's right where it should be, and it makes it so good to listen to it, because it's so well done. Chris' vocals are at a highpoint, and were just perfect. Some of the deepest vocals in death metal, he was a great vocalist. There was lots of variety in the album as well. You weren't hearing Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Outro. You got a piece of music from every angle, from all members. With the heaviest, fastest guitars known to CC at the time. Like, in the intro to "I Cum Blood", you have one of the fastest riffs I have ever heard, where Pat plays I believe 16 notes in 4 seconds, it then goes into a huge Death Grunt by Chris into a slower, powerful-as-fuck pre-verse, then a heavy, yet slow sense of stomach-pounding bass-beats, and it is perfect. With terrifying vocal intros like in "Addictied to Vaginal Skin" into that scary-ass fucking riff, this album will definitly be on "Your Favorites". Give it a listen, it's a great death metal album.

Cannibal Corpse, possibly the most well know death metal band to date, is familiar to nearly everybody, metalheads and non-metalheads alike. And this particular idea is based on the fact that this album is a masterpiece, containing possibly their two greatest songs, "Hammer Smashed Face," and "I Cum Blood." Tomb of the Mutilated, though not the most brutal of death metal out there, has such an angry tone to it that makes you want to listen to it over and over again, though if you are a beginning Cannibal Corpse fan, may be hard to do if you know their lyrics to the songs. Even the names of the songs may be enough.

The opening track to Tomb of the Mutilated, "Hammer Smashed Face," is known to be one of the greatest death metal songs in history. It is pretty hard to say why this is, considering that it is a pretty simple song, guitar wise, drum wise, etc. The lyrics to this song are not the greatest I have heard, but still...this song just sounds great. Some say that simplicity can sound the best, which is possibly true with this song. I have to say the thing about this track that I like is the changes of tempo, which were timed perfectly, and sounded quite perfect. They just made the song. The guitars in the song, though simple, had quite a good sound as well, though they don't really compare to Cannibal Corpse's other songs.

The second track, and possibly, at least in my opinion, the most disgusting, is the song "I Cum Blood." Though "I Cum Blood" did not get as much attention as the previous track "Hammer Smashed Face," overall has a better sound. The guitar riff in this song is what really crafts it very well. The guitars are fast paced, not too simple, and are crafted perfectly for the mood for the song. The lyrics as well are quite brutal, and are enough to make any mainstream music listener puke is horror, which is one other reason why I like it.

Overall, I give this album a 95% instead of a 100% because the album seems a little simple instrumental-wise, but I still gave them a great rating because of the fact that they pass by with an exelent and brutal sound that is great to mosh by, and to just listen to when you are angry. If you have never listened to Cannibal Corpse, and are interested in listening to them, check out this album first. You will not regret listening to it.

'Tomb Of The Mutilated' proved to a waiting world that C.C. were more than worthy of the hype surrounding them after 1991's splatterfest that was 'Butchered at Birth'.

Opening with their most successful single ever, Hammer Smashed Face, the album just pummels in that crude, but effective way only C.C. do so well.
This particular track is possibly one of the best DM songs written in the 90's. Its just so dynamic, with the snap changes in tempo, the stop start guitar parts and pinched cymbol crashes.

Chris Barnes's growls are so low you wonder if the man is in pain? If I have one gripe about Barnes, its the fact he didn't really lift the words off the page as much as he could have done. Sure he had a viciously low and evil growl, but it was a little too monotone. This is a tiny gripe though, and he made up for it on his final (and best) record with C.C., 'The Bleeding'.

The track list reads like a disturbed sex offenders wish list. If itrs one thing C.C. are not, its subtle. Lyrically its the same old stuff. Murder and mutilation, sexual violence and human hatred. C.C. don't really try to think of new avenues to explore lyrically. But then again if you sold as many albums as they have, you'd not break something if it wasn't broken.

Even the cover art, likes its predecessor, has been purposefully thought out to offend, but more importantly, to catch the interest of the would be metal teen thumbing through the discs in the shop.

But its not just about "Hammer...." there are some other absoloute crackers on here. 'I C*m Blood' has an infectious opening sequence with the all now famous C.C. stop start riffing they open so many songs with.
Blasts of riffs for 10 seconds, a pause, then the same again but with gutiars heaped on top and the drums pounding an ever more incessant beat.

'Necropedophile' (you see where C.C. are coming from lyrically now?) has a thoroughly memorable riff, more of that crash bang drumming and the Barnes long and protracted gutteral voice. Interestingly this track contains on of the two "samples" added to the album. Both particularly unpleasent when you link them to the pretext of the songs they feature in.

If you think you may be offended by the lyrical content, but want to listen to the music, have no fear, if you don't read the lyrics sheet, there are possibly a total of 20 words on the whole album you can pick out. Again, for me its not about the lyrics, its about how the vocals compliment the music. Being at the age I am now, butchery, death and murder are a little bit juvenile as subject matters.

A monsterous Old School death metal album of titanic proportions.
On the enhanced version you also get a live version of 'I C*m Blood', with George Fisher on vocals. Now there is a man who has bottomless lungs!!!

intense rumours going on at early -90's about Cannibal Corpse were atleast interesting because the band have been connected to censorship, politics, moralizations etc. which was wierd because Cannibal Corpse is just a death metal band that happened to push this music to its extremes. Their third album, Tomb of the Mutilated, was important step to band because of the ever-growing reputation among metalheads along the globe and success of their second album, Butchered at Birth, but really after this album Cannibal Corpse were a concept, band that you most likely hear when people talk about death metal.

If you listen to Butchered at Birth, you can hear that it was kind of an add on to Eaten Back to Life but this album is really full sequel to their one-of-a-kind death metal at 90's and so damn good that you can't really describe it with proper words. Cannibal Corpse was making their themes to more extreme every album but now it really got into next level when guts could really be crushed and thrown into walls, literarily. Tomb of the Mutilated's extremely grotesque and filthy themes added to multi-level and techical death metal is so good mixture that even Cannibal Corpse themselves haven't been able to do so crunchy album again although they have done some good albums after this one. Besides from instruments, you shouldn't forget Chris Barnes' career's best vocals and really good filthy but breathing sides of producing which really made this record what it is now.

When album begins with the legendary Hammer Smashed face it is immediately certain how this blood bath is going after this one and it wont stop before every corpse has been hacked and sawn apart. I Cum Blood, Addicted to Vaginal Skin, Necropedophile and Split Wide Open are other classic songs and these ones are already enough reason to get Tomb of the Mutilated but when you get continually different views from the songs like Entrail's Ripped from a Virgins Cunt, Post Mortal Ejaculation and Beyond the Cemetary, this album is a must-have to everyone who listens to death metal. even some death metal listeners don't understand the brilliancy of this album, but those who understand, know what this album's magic is. it's really hard to put in words but some Cannibal Corpse's albums has it and others don't and Tomb of the Mutilated is living dead proof of the album that has it.

September 1992 was when Cannibal Corpse's "Tomb of the Mutilated" hit music stores across the world. To a certain extent this album is in part responsible for the birth of Brutal Death Metal. The music is a timeless virtuosity with a profoundly heavy sound emanating from an impressive production. Each instrument is audible in a mix filled with shifty guitar riffs, a creepy bass sound, and hair-trigger drumming. In this recording,

Cannibal Corpse reached a technicality that arguably was never achieved again. The musicianship is nearly flawless in a violence that only slows down long enough to entice the listener onto the battle field before being cut down by a rapid barrage of growling from Barnes, insane thrashy guitars, incisive solos, incredible rolling bass, and ricocheting drums. Seriously, hearing this album is comparable to forcing a morbidly obese person to run 3 miles. Everything jiggles and bounces in lightening motion, the stench is reminiscent of decaying bodies after the 2004 Thailand tsunami's, and the lyrics, while not the most poetic, were about the sickest thing possible in 1992. Even sound samples, that today are a bit overdone and repetitive, where creepy enhancements for the songs "Addicted to Vaginal Skin," and "Necropedophile." Hell, this album is sick enough that it got banned in Germany, a country that has made bukkake a staple of everyday activity.

Adding to the overall nausea of the album is the art of Vincent Locke. The cover image is a mutilated female corpse spread out against the short end of a sepulcher like a slut in Hustler magazine. Buried between her foul legs is another carcass ravaging her gory pussy as she swoons in sublime ecstasy. Truly disturbing, but absolutely beautiful.

I was 21 the first time I heard this disc and it almost made me scared. Instead, I played it over and over with a malevolence envied by one of Stalin's hit-men. Through the years I have found that few albums equal to this one in originality or brutality, but that may be due to the fact that this album was released in 1992 making it what is now considered "Old-School." It has been my experience that this album can be used for something other than breaking your neck with headbanging. Buy it and play it for the squeamish hottie whose only experience with Cannibal Corpse is the lousy Wretched Spawn disc. Odds are good that she will dig the "Old-School" vibe this album offers and you'll be doing a mimic of the album cover as a just reward... BUY SICKO'S!!!!

Cannibal Corpse is the biggest selling death metal band, which I think is somewhat attributable to this album. Jim Carrey, a big fan so we are told, requested the band to appear on Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, on which they performed "Hammer Smashed Face" with which this, their third musical defecation opens. This is a solid piece of brutality, and here their plain and straight up brand of death metal is at its most potent.

Perverse melodies, disease ridden crushing riffs, the throbbing bass and the low monotone grunts all come sharply into place to work up a pretty effective song that sticks to you afterwards. Similarly, the album continues strongly with the equally good "I Cum Blood" (hah!), one of my favourite CC cuts. The bizarrely sickening riffs that introduce the song, right up to the chugged up groove riff that slows things down before the lyrical distastefulness starts up, again just works. The down tuned oozing guitars are at least enough here to make a lasting impact. They give the song something for the listener to grab onto.

And well, that’s just about it. That seems to be the case with the majority of Cannibal Corpse albums, they have two or so songs that I can identify whenever I hear them and the rest is just a blur of blast beats and grunts. But when I listen to this continually and still have no idea what the majority of songs on here sound like afterwards, then I feel there’s no point trying with it further. It’s good as background death metal, but goes little further than that. It gets rather irritating to try and concentrate on the rest of the songs here. Only “Beyond the Cemetery” which finishes up deserves a mention for a riff or two that show any unique character. There’s nothing else that really rises above average and workmanlike: the drumming lacks variety, the bass playing is more or less typical, and the vocals are marred by both of those problems. Sure, Chris Barnes is murderously deep and guttural and all, but he just doesn’t leap out at you with any sort of force and the vocals stay where they are about 90% of the time. Sometimes he’s so low in the mix you can hardly hear him.

Though, with the new publicity and ever present controversy of their nasty artworks and extreme gore lyrics, Cannibal Corpse began to sell albums thick and fast. I confess to not being a big fan of this band, but this is at least one of their better moments. Nothing here is really bad, but they never really improved on anything or progressed past this stage.

Recorded in 1993, tomb of the mutilated is witness to the fact that cannibal corpse were way ahead of their time. This was a pioneering album in the sense that, for its time,it had all the essence to inspire a style that a bazillion death metal bands would try and ape.

This album is one of those rare albums that are released just once during a bands entire existence. Setting new standards in brutal death, "tomb of the mutilated" is a masterpiece. This is the gauge by which I measure the "brutality" of a band.
The production is average. But everything feels right. This album has the best sounding guitars compared to ALL their other releases- raw and heavy as fuck. The drums are well sounding, though slightly low in the mix.
The bass is clear and can be heard most of the time.

Chris Barnes is at his ALL TIME career best. This is the lowest, sickest growl Ive ever heard in all my life. The words just boil through in that growly voice that so many death metal singers hope to achieve. But as you can make out you'll need the lyrics booklet to hear what hes saying.Rarely,he does break into a sick high pitched scream but doesnt make it a habit as you may hear on "the bleeding" and six feet under albums.

Every song is a masterpiece.A lot of guys claim that the songs are monotonous, but I think Ive headbanged to this album so many times, I am quite familiar with all the riffs. The riffs rip, shred and hack in every song. The vocal patterns vary from song to song. Standing out on some tracks and on the rest just a regurtitation of lyrics on the rest. Either way, no song is incomplete. They all are packed with monstrous riffs and ultra low vocals gaurenteed to send half of the death metal bands around to the scrap heap, including the present day incarnation of cannibal corpse themselves. Take my word for it...Its that fucking good.
(Note : A poll on cannibal corpses official site some time back suggested that this album was a fan favourite beating out all their other albums by a considerable margin. Now, that tells a story does'nt it?)

The highlights of the album are:
"Hammer Smashed Face" : Known for some killer riffing and some of the best vocals ever heard in death metal. Also has a cool bass solo. The Undisputed heavyweight champion of 'em all.
"I Cum Blood" : Mid paced riffing.Some really really disgusting lyrics.Has a nice sludgy feel to it.
"Addicted To Vaginal Skin" : Starts of with a sick spoken word intro. Has some fast and furious riffing.The rythm section in between is the best.
"The Cryptic Stench" :One of my personal favourites from cannibal corpse.This song has a cool bass line in the start.
"Beyond The Cemetery" : Really fast and possesses a good riff.And the bass really stands out towards the end. Nice vocal patterns. And the ending part before the fade out is the best.Gaurenteed head banging.

"Tomb of the mutilated" is a must have for fans of the genre. Even the cover art is the sickest Ive seen. If you havent heard it yet, shame on you. Go get it and you'll get an idea of what standards death metal bands should follow.