Gore Obsessed

Cannibal Corpse graces the new millennium with the thrashiest album that they’d done since the debut. Rather than further developing the manic sound that they had developed on Bloodthirst – which is like if Tomb of the Mutilated fucked Monstrosity’s Imperial Doom – they decided to go back to basics with this Eaten Back to Life-esque affectation with the intensity of Bloodthirst and then some. That’s about the short and narrow of the often-overlooked Gore Obsessed. Just one whiff of “Savage Butchery” and you’ve basically got the album in summary. This shit smokes everything around it with white-hot riffs like we’re back in the days of Morbid Angel and Demolition Hammer pushing the boundaries by playing Slayer riffs harder and faster with more brutality than the last guy. Add in Paul’s pounding percussion and Corpsegrinder’s savage rapid-fire vocals, and you got yourself an opening number that sets the stage for an intense barrage of death metal mayhem!

Bloodthirst was the first album since the early-90s where you couldn’t really go wrong with any of its tracks, but Gore Obsessed is the first great Cannibal Corpse album since Tomb of the Mutilated. Which is bizarre to say considering its lack of recognition it gets compared to their other albums, but it’s true! Just at a base level, every riff rips and tears, cycling between white-hot machine gun riffs and slightly faster break-y ones. That’s not even mentioning those few moments where it slows down to lay down the smackdown. Then you add in Paul’s punishing percussion amplifying things with his tight beats and surgically precise blast beats. Alex even gets a few slick basslines in, particularly during the break in “Grotesque”. Speaking of that song, Corpsegrinder’s increasingly alarming “DID I KILL THEM” (which I always thought was “THEN I KILL” until I looked up the lyrics for this review – and then there’s the common “misinterpretation” that is “TURTLE KILL”) cycles from his signature gruff growls to his signature ghoulish shrieks, and it about sums up his vocal performance. In general, it feels like Corpsegrinder’s vocals have really come into their own, best resembling exactly what you think of when you think of them. A hardier overall tone makes for more grinding vocals, adding so much to these compositions that it’s like poetry – it rhymes. There’s just a stellar overall package going on here, and it’s amazing that it took emphasizing the thrash influences of their sound, sort of going back a bit to the demo days where they were much closer to being flat out thrash but still maintaining the death metal edge that they’d developed since then.

Altogether, it’s something that often leads to it maybe sounding a little too consistent over the course of the album, with the major standouts being the punishing “Pit of Zombies”, the bone-crunching “Drowning in Viscera” and the slow and crushing “When Death Replaces Life” being the big points of differentiation. Then again, it also maintains that momentum set by its savage opening number. Yeah, “Hatchet to the Head” does have a slightly clumsy chorus and intro riff, but the rest of the song is packed with vicious tremolos, so it’s all good. Then “Pit of Zombies” comes on, melts your face off with white-hot riffs, a richly melodic set of verses, a brutal thrash break and a searing solo, and then bids adieu with a manic refrain of the intro. Its general push-pull approach – going from a mid-paced thrashy groove to a more pummelling composition – certainly helps it to stand out as a top track, all coming back around to being a well-developed and overall excellent thrash metal song under a death metal guise. It is Cannibal Corpse, after all!

After that... like I said, “Savage Butchery” does basically sum up Gore Obsessed. A ceaseless procession of thrash and death riffs coming right down your throat, all wrapping back around to a fiery assault on the senses that maintains that more hardcore… “laced” influence death metal’s generally got through its hardy rhythms, juxtaposed by the vaguely technical and more intricately-composed music those rhythms make up. Basically, this shit’s genuinely exciting to listen to throughout. It doesn’t fall apart at any point, nor does it even have that song or two that falls by the wayside, even on a relative note. Every song kicks ass! Even then, “Drowning in Viscera” tends to stand out the most at this point due to its build-up to some rather vicious riffs, though “When Death Replaces Life” channels it all into a slower, more deliberate assault. But the closing number, “Grotesque”, definitely seals the deal with more manic riffing, particularly as it draws to its conclusion.

So given everything that’s been said and done... why does Gore Obsessed find itself as the most ignored album in their discography – even to this day? It’s probable that it just came out at the wrong time as nu-metal was on a roll, particularly with the rise of Slipknot, and the New England metalcore scene was beginning to rise while death metal’s relative popularity was the fuck outta here by the beginning of the new millennium. But it could also be that they went back to basics just as they had developed their own sound over the past few albums, and especially well after bands like Gorguts, Dying Fetus and Necrophagist established fresher sounds to the death metal landscape, leaving this feeling a bit old hat by comparison.

I’d bring up that the highlights aren’t as high as the ones off their other albums, but frankly, “Pit of Zombies” is absolutely a top 5 Cannibal Corpse song (really only trailing behind “Hammer Smashed Face”) and the other highlights are quite the romps themselves. Really, it’s something Noktorn brought up in his review of this album – Cannibal Corpse’s ethos at this point was to do their own thing, which is them making flat out ass kicking death metal, and Gore Obsessed is proof positive of this.

Gore Obsessed” showcases Cannibal Corpse (CC) doing what Cannibal Corpse does best. Caving in heads and massacring the masses with their style of straightforward death metal. As soon as you see Vincent Locke's artwork for this album you get a sense of what you're in for, gore-soaked brutality. But this album to me just isn’t as memorable as other records by CC, I find myself going back to this album the least amount of times. But that doesn’t mean it’s dog shit because goddamn is this album aggressive. It’s also because their discography is so ungodly consistent that there are other albums I prefer way more. So this album ends up dead last when it comes to ranking their albums. But now on to what is great about this album.

CC always seems to have amazing album openers, “Savage Butchery” being no exception. It’s so aggressive right from the beginning and never stops. It’s a very quick song that doesn’t overstay its welcome. This album is filled with all the charming qualities of CC, obnoxious hooky grooves/riffage, and unhinged aggression along with Corpsegrinder's powerful gutturals. “Compelled to Lacerate” and “Pit of Zombies” are notably heavy and groovy songs, you can easily bang your head to the beat and groovy sections of the songs. The Production is really good, not the best but still satisfying. It’s definitely rawer than the previous 2 albums to this. The guitars sound punchy and crunchy, and the bass is rumbly and prominent as usual. The drums also sound aggressive and barbaric, with Corpsegrinder’s vocals sounding fantastic.

“Hung and Bled” displays some great tremolo riffage and a sinister opening to the song. It also has some slow sections in the song, before immediately kicking back into the album's unforgiving barbaric attack. Along with a trademark Corpsegrinder long scream. “Mutation of the Cadaver” has a great groovy opening hook and grooves along for most of the song. I also love how a lot of the songs are shorter than usual, with only 3 songs breaching the 4-minute mark. With “When Death Replaces Life” in particular being almost 5 minutes long, it’s a sinister mid-paced song that doesn’t go as fast as much as other songs. With makes it an instant standout track. 2 other highlights for me are “Hachet to the Head” and “Dormant Bodies Bursting”.

The album title tells you exactly what this album is about, gore-obsessed depravity. It’s all about the gore, especially with that brutal album cover, depicting a guy getting ripped the fuck apart by zombies. Songwriting wise it’s aggressive as I mentioned earlier. Jack Owen, Alex Webster, and Pat O’Brien work excellently well together. They’re ungodly tight and precise, continuing to write crushing death metal. But Paul Mazurkiewicz is astoundingly relentless here. He beats the absolute shit out of his drum and blasts to his heart's content, which is one thing I think is great about this record. The unrelenting aggressive this album has, nothing is bloated or lacking.

But as awesome as some songs are on this album this isn’t as memorable as other CC records. This isn’t necessarily an album I instantly turn to when I’m in the mood for CC, but as I stated earlier this record is still great. I just prefer others. They definitely released way better albums that have more memorable songs and charms.

“Gore Obsessed” is another good addition to CC’s discography. As I stated this is my least favorite CC album. With their weakest album still being a beast I think that says something about this band. To me, CC could never write a bad album. They would make a much better album after this, one that I consider to be one of their best. But this is still worth your time. Another good piece of gore-soaked death metal. Check it out.

I have a strange conclusion while listening to "Gore Obsessed", because I like this album...much less than its predecessor "Bloodthirst"! It's puzzling because this time the interval between the next album of the Americans was three years, not one year - so creativity should be more than usual. However, anticipating the summary: yes, this cd is one of the weaker albums from Cannibal Corpse, but it should be noted that it's also far from failure or something that does not match to their discography. I get the impression that when they creating "Gore...", the quintet has just started to record typical and not too demanding death metal, not much else.

Of course, the fans who like absolutely everything under the Cannibal Corpse name will be the most satisfied with this approach. The rest of listening to the extreme music (I will not mention those from outside this group) - not necessarily. Well, "Gore Obsessed" really doesn't have "hooking points" and most of the songs (too often) play to a similar beat - even for them. In order to say something more about this disc, it's necessary to have cd placed on the player and it's so homogeneous and medium-remembered. Most of the tracks are based on a very similar feeling and patents, and the only more noticeable differences in them are... Alex Webster's bolder bass playing, strangely "muffled" sound (which should be treated as a disadvantage) and slightly more catchy choruses in the case of two songs, "Dormant Bodies Bursting" and "Hatched To The Head"! The rest of the components keep the level and come into typical, Cannibal Corpse songs, but - unfortunately - they do not come into "hits" like the previous albums.

I see the function of "Gore Obsessed" primarily as a collector's cd. Because this lp itself can be listened to, but somewhere at the end of the queue of learning about Cannibal Corpse's discography. After all, the band had composed similar topics before, and at the same time they could present themselves from a much more interesting and thrilling side. Here, this approach is very average.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/03/cannibal-corpse-gore-obsessed-2002.html

This just picks up where the previous 'Bloodthirst' left off, despite its release 3 full years after the last. It's interesting because 'Bloodthirst' itself was released just one year after 'Gallery of Suicide' and it brought about quite a bit of change after just one year between them. One would've therefor thought after three years the band would further change things quite a bit. So this shows the band had found a comfort zone on 'Bloodthirst' and were eager to pursue that exact sound and were convinced this was the best version of Cannibal Corpse for that time. 'Gore Obsessed' pulls the listener in and shoves their face right into it with 'Savage Butchery' and its below-two-minute format, an intro-less burst of energy to greet the audience and help them feel at home. It's as if there never was a break between it and 'Bloodthirst'. Onward to 'Hatchet to the Head', a classic off the album with the band's trademark hook riff ("Hat-Chet !... To, The...").

Generally, we're given the usual onslaught of bomb blast/abrasive power chord sections, the low-tuned riffing with its clinical precision backed by Webster's tight bass presence with its occasional extra decibel peaks (chorus to 'Drowning in Viscera', 'Hung and bled' intro), the headbangable heavy grooves, and more of those darker moments. The album is laid out a particular way, whether that was intentional or not is hard to tell. The album starts off on full blast, as a riff happy death metal fest; with Track 5 - 'Compelled to Lacerate' right in the middle as the most imposing and remarkable song so far, positively huge and extra-heavy; and it's not until the second half of the album the songs turn to a more obscure side. The songs feel less "festive" and extroverted, and more darkly resentful and malevolent. 'Drowning in Viscera', 'Hung and Bled', 'Sanded Faceless' or 'When Death Replaces Life' all share that central attribute. So it's like Act 1 of 'Gore Obsessed' is wild open festival fun with friends and Act 2 the weird contemplative solitary experience on the record. Something to that effect.

All in all it's creatively written and solidly executed Cannibal Corpse death metal with every song typically short and hyperactive. In all of its 38min it's difficult to find more than a couple of parts that linger for too long. What doesn't help it is it's sandwiched chronologically between two of the band's most memorable and popular records, 'Bloodthirst' and 'The Wretched Spawn', and in the context of C.Corpse's prolific discography it loses some of its due credit as people can only remember so many songs, so many albums. It would've helped, needless to say, if it had had one or two tracks that stood out more above the rest, like 'From Skin to Liquid' on the overtly busy album 'Gallery'. 'Gore Obsessed' lacks that peak in its song catalog, that one all-star player in the lineup that would make it stand out. But as far as solidly written, consistent death metal, this is still top notch and probably deserves its 4 stars out of 5 rating. It's not of genius inspiration, but it's damn well made stuff and one couldn't ask for a whole lot more, for this style, than what is served here song after song.

Having listened to Cannibal Corpse for something like 2 decades already, I have realized that Gore Obsessed is a landmark in the band's discography, it is an album that marked a breaking point because with it they stepped up to a new level of musicianship and performance, yet it is usually overlooked by the fans aswell as the band itself.

Prior to this record the music of Cannibal Corpse usually had a feeling of urgency and borderline chaos, I mean, for example, the freight train sound of songs like A Skull Full Of Maggots or Split Wide Open, or the frantic syncopated mad riffs of songs like Raped By The Beast or Relentless Beating, all of them great songs, don't get me wrong here, it's just that in Gore Obsessed suddenly everything became more focused, you still get the rush feeling but now every transition seems more into place, the riffs are still syncopated and frenzied, but they just feel more mature, overall everything sounds more well thought.

The album opens with Savage Butchery and inmediately all the points I mentioned before are displayed in full, the song explodes into a relentless riff at full speed, the production sounds more balanced than previous records, amazing job by Neil Kernon, the performances are tighter, Corpsegrinder voice sounds more in shape than ever, holding lows and highs so easily it is astounding.

And so the album advances with no mercy, unleashing hit after hit, it is almost criminal than many of these songs have not been played live often or have not been played at all! Dormant Bodies Bursting, Compelled To Lacerate or the fantastic Mutation Of The Cadaver, which sports a killer bass intro by Alex and also has an insane 12 seconds scream by George Fisher, how haven't they tried to play that song live yet is beyond me.

I have mentioned before the performances and this is a point I would like to elaborate a bit more into. We all know how good Alex, Pat and Jack are, but Paul Mazurkiewicz usually doesn't get the love other members get and I think it is quite unfair. Nowadays drummers tend to be flashy and they hit everything at insane speeds, but their sound is often nameless, they have to trigger their kits to be able to play with consistency at such speeds and because of this they all sound the same. Paul in the other hand has always sounded quite organic and "triggerless", because of this he tends to be a bit on the back of the mix but this also means you are listening to the real deal and when we see it that way, one realizes he does sports some fancy fills and moves.

Closing this record we have yet one last suprise, a Metallica cover, the band playing No Remorse with virtually no mayor changes and yet absolutely killing it, to make it their own they just needed to play it, just insane.

The album features the mandatory Vincent Locke artwork, this one looks more cartoonish and maybe it is one of the reasons this album didn't hit as hard with the fanbase as previous records, kinda what happened with The Gallery too I believe, but still, this is overall a beast of a record, with great songs, superb production and paved the way for the monster that was the album that followed, which is where I believe Cannibal Corpse reached a peak that up to this day they have never left.

Okay, I'm definitely known to accentuate the negative, and there's no denying that I have a ton of fun tearing a bad album to shreds and that I love stirring up controversy and get an erection so hard that I could feasibly concuss a kitten with it whenever people talk about me or my writing. It's just kind of what I'm good at, and I always criticize bands for not playing to their strengths, so what kind of hypocrite would I be if I didn't do the same thing? But with that said, I personally feel I'm at my best when I'm being very positive (my personal favorites of my own are almost universally positive reviews), and so today I'm going to indulge everybody by putting an album up on a pedestal while berating everybody on the way up. Yeah that's right, it's finally time for me to tackle Cannibal Corpse (just pretend I never reviewed Evisceration Plague four years ago).

I know it's odd to claim that what I'm damn sure is the most commercially successful and perpetually relevant death metal band of all time is underrated, but man you'd be amazed. The metal underground seems to have this strange aversion to Cannibal at times, particularly the Corpsegrinder era (with a notable universal exception with Bloodthirst).

But BH, it all sounds the same! They've been releasing the same album for twenty years now! They were only good with Chris Barnes!

I'll never understand this fascination with deifying the Barnes era of the band. Yeah, he was a much better lyricist than Alex and Paul (the two who have mostly taken over those duties since his departure), but as a vocalist he only managed to get through about an album and a half of the deep growl before just turning into this side-splittingly comical grumble on The Bleeding. If nothing else, Corpsegrinder has managed to stay just as vicious and vitriolic as he always has been, even dating back to his time in Monstrosity. And Gore Obsessed is no exception. I love everything about Corpsegrinder, I love how he resembles a thumb, I love how he's one of the most recognizable faces of the band despite writing almost nothing since joining 18 years ago, I love how he sings as fast as a death metal version of Sean Killian, I love how his high vocals sound like a hardcore vocalist fucking a garbage disposal, I just love all of it. He's pretty much the archetypical death metal frontman, and his vocal ability leaves nothing to be desired. He gives it all in the studio and Gore Obsessed showcases his ability just as well as any other album, possibly even better than most. In fact yeah, screw it, this album has the best vocal performance the band has ever given. Seriously, the lows are more hellish than usual and the highs are more vicious than usual, Fisher really went above and beyond for this one, and while he has been incredible before and since, this one is pretty much the apex of his ability.

But of course, George is just one cog in the machine that is Cannibal, and the rest of the band is definitely at the top of their game here. A wise man once posited this (and was largely ignored, like most geniuses in their time (though he wound up actually being a freakin' lunatic, so it's a wash)), but Cannibal Corpse really is the last bastion of that pure death metal sound from the early 90s. After it had finally waded away from that primordial splooge of just being extraordinarily heavy thrash metal, around the time the guttural vocals became the norm and the blastbeat became less of a flair and more of a base; when song structures got more complex and melodies became darker and more twisted or just thrown out altogether in the name of atonal madness. This is the exact moment that Cannibal has been relishing in since 1991. Really, slap an old school production job on Torture and that release date could be 1993 and nobody would bat an eyelash. They've never felt the need to drastically reinvent themselves, and they have been completely correct to not do such a thing. They've struck gold in staying constantly relevant by helping to shape a seminal style of extreme metal and then waving that flag everywhere they go. There's no need for them to take the Deicide route and start adding in neoclassical solos ala Necrophagist, or take heaps of influence from Devourment or something and just get super brutal and crushing. No, they know what they're good at and they continually keep it fresh by simply just being incredibly talented songwriters. That's not to say they haven't evolved, because any fan can tell that they clearly have. With each new album, the compositions get slightly more developed, more well thought out, just a bit speedier, tighter, and more complex. But even so, they keep themselves grounded in that style they helped found, and that alone makes them more interesting than the legions of DDR bands who just continually do the whole "Like Incantation, but... uh, Incantationier" thing a million times over.

All of that comes into play here on Gore Obsessed. It'd be misleading to say "you know what this sounds like already", because that implies that Cannibal hasn't had a new idea in ages, but on the other hand, all the elements they've always employed are here in full force. Paul's incredibly tight drumming with a deafeningly powerful sound pervades like always, and his performances are a huge part of the band's sound. Really, his blasts may not be as impressively fast as somebody like Mauro Mercurio or any ridiculous tech death band, but they are almost infinitely more powerful. And even so, he's still a very good death metal drummer and never feels like he's in over his head. The accusations of him being the Lars Ulrich of death metal and complaints about him being too slow will always baffle me. Not only are they demonstrably false (check "Pit of Zombies", "Drowning in Viscera", "Dormant Bodies Bursting", et cetera), but by that logic, Mike Smith, Steve Asheim, and Pete Sandoval are also terrible drummers because they don't play as fast as the dudes from Brain Drill or Decrepit Birth. Pull your heads out of your asses, kids, Paul Mazurkiewicz is a damn fine drummer, and anybody else behind the kit would simply change the entire dynamic of the band. His groove heavy style is just as important as Asheim's relentless blasting in Deicide.

On one hand, I feel like there aren't as many standout riffs here as there are on some other releases (especially ones that would come later, like "Purification by Fire" from Kill or "Demented Aggression" from Torture), but on the other hand, the cliche holds true where Gore Obsessed makes up for the relative lack of standout moments by just having potentially the tightest and most consistent collection of tracks the band has ever put together. In a way, this is kind of a "back to basics" album, since little flourishes like Webster's ridiculous bass runs are all but absent here apart from the closing track, but the songwriting continued its upward progression around this time, so what we have are a collection of songs that are marginally thrashier than what they'd done for the decade prior, but still managed to get tighter and more complex in the process. Really, something like "Pit of Zombies" or "Compelled to Lacerate" showcases this brilliantly. It's simpler than the blisteringly complex Bloodthirst that preceeded it, but I almost feel that it's a better representation of what Cannibal stands for. And even with that said, there are still neat little quirks like that backmasked intro to "Sanded Faceless" or the impressively lengthy screams in "Mutilation of the Cadaver" and "Hung and Bled". Their trademark slow song this time around ("When Death Replaces Life"), is also potentially the best the band has ever released, even above classics like "Death Walking Terror" and "Festering in the Crypt". And unlike those, it even builds to an exhilarating climax, and the whole song just gets faster and faster as it goes on. Even the Metallica cover is incredibly fun. They really just did everything with this album, and all of it hits bullseye.

Gore Obsessed may not be the apex of their career, but it's pretty goddamn close, and it's potentially my personal favorite from the band. It's in the top three at the very least. It may not have something as instantly recognizable like "Make a Sandwich", "Fucked with a Knife", "Hammer Smashed Face", "Skull Full of Maggots", "Death Walking Terror", "Pounded into Dust", or "Stripped, Raped, and Strangled", but the overall quality is freakin' astronomical, and if you can't lose your mind to "Savage Butchery", "Hatchet to the Head", or "Grotesque" at the very least, then I don't know what to say to you. "Grotesque" is seriously a top ten all time song for the band, and it needs more love, most definitely. That chugging part at the end of the verses when Corpsegrinder is just hollering TURTLEKILL TURTLEKILL over and over again? Sublime! This is easily one of Cannibal's best, and I'd genuinely recommend it as a starting point when looking to get into the Corpsegrinder era of the band.

If you don't like Cannibal Corpse, you don't get to pretend you like death metal.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

I once heard someone compare Cannibal Corpse to the Saw movies. Personally, I do not find this to be accurate. If anything, cannibal corpse is more akin to Faces of Death. Their lyrics shamelessly depict images of gore, violence, mutilation, murder, rape, and a plethora of other horrible atrocities found in the darker half of the human condition. With Gore Obsessed, the band continues their tradition of shockingly obscene lyrical content, fast/heavy riffing, and machine gun drumming. This is not a stand out album; although, it is a good addition to the band’s catalogue and does bear some (two) unique tracks. Overall, this is a good middle of the road album that stays fully in the familiar.

One song of particular note is “Pit of Zombies,” one of the album’s faster songs. With the monotony of the current zombie craze, this song should be far more popular. The lyrics depict a hoard of zombies in a pit dismembering and devouring a live victim…and that’s pretty much it. Of course, considering the theme, there doesn’t really need to be any more. The “story” is told from the perspective of the victim who elaborately describes the images and feelings of being eaten alive. Descriptions range from images of ripping flesh to total disembowelment. This is a scenario of a man watching himself being eaten. Enough said! The music is fast paced with thrash style drumming that compels the frantic nature of the song’s content beautifully. The guitar work is pretty standard Cannibal Corpse fare but fitting for the subject matter. As with most of their songs, the theme is what makes the song interesting.

Another notable track is “Hatchet to the Head,” yet another song in which the title speaks for itself. What makes this song stand out is the fact that it is one of the rare Cannibal Corpse songs with decipherable lyrics. Corpsegrinder provides his usual guttural vocals, but oddly enough, the detailed accounts of taking a hatchet to someone’s head (splintered skull fragments flying through the air are referenced early on) are strikingly clear. This may be on account of the vocal quality. The guttural sound is there, but the singer’s voice sounds tired as though this were one of the last tracks recorded for the album. Interestingly, this does not detract from the overall quality of the song. While the guttural depth is lacking, the intensity remains both in the vocals and in the instrumentation. The content works well for fans of the slasher genre but does not have the unique qualities of “Pit of Zombies.” Once again, the music is pretty standard and does not provide any new techniques in guitar work or drumming. Ever familiar, it’s still good when played loud.

But for these two examples, there is not much in the way of development. The remainder of the album follows the same pattern of fast paced thrash riffing and speed drumming heard on previous albums while the lyrical content is, by this time, quite predictable. The value of the album is that it is a middle of the road album. The songs are not unique and the musical style is the same, so for those who like this particular sound/style, there isn’t much to offer disappointment. It’s Cannibal Corpse quality at it’s most familiar.

After their best album with George Fisher on vocal’s, their seminal “Bloodthirst” and a successful live album recorded from that album’s tour; the famous NYDM best-selling band came back in 2002 with “Gore Obsessed”. This album marks a turning point to the definitive stage of the band’s evolution, focused in complexity and technicality and a sense of progression their classic albums didn't had. The first glimmers of this “new” Cannibal Corpse appeared on “Gallery of Suicide”, “Bloodthirst” had a technical but still very memorable and catchy edge that didn't let the complexity blur them. On this latter stage of CC there are some passages where the decoration of the riffs themselves is put over the flow of the song, resulting on very syncopated and oddly timed rhythmic patterns.

The production of this album is very particular, it emulates the live sound they had on their last tour. Cymbals sound incredibly vivid, the crash cymbals sound almost liquid, they have a lot of breathing space because of the strong and firm trebles. The same goes with the ride and the hi hat, even if they aren't as noisy and splashy as the crash cymbal the treble oriented equalization puts them in the front. The strings sound melted, bass and guitars can be fully heard and understood individually but they form one single piece of matter. This massive string attack has the realistic raw and unpolished sound of a live performance, there are no feed backs of course or weird noises but the general tone is very live. They did such a nice work recording this, it sounds like the band in the rehearsal room really. The intensity of the music was fully captured, something very difficult to do with heavy metal in general I'd say.

Corpsegrinder vocals are angry and pissed off as always, guttural in a mid-high ranged fashion, not as deep as the band’s previous vocalist. Guitars' tone is acid, heavily distorted and treble oriented, sharp and thin but not hollow in any way; pretty solid. 7 strings add a darker edge to it, not necessarily heavier but the band’s music puts the weight so it’s all right. It gives them more control over the low end too, so important in death metal. Bass guitar has a slight distortion, precisely to evoke the live sound this record has... It’s a compressed but very dirty tone at the same time; not placed to loud on the mix but still very present, a wise decision. Drumming is very accurate, simple but relentless and very effective. The heartbeat of the Corpse, it dictates the attitude and speed of every riff played. It's not very creative, there aren't offbeats or outstanding fills. It doesn't matter though, the mechanic precision of the band’s drummer and the aggressive nature of the beats themselves give a very contusive and frantic edge to songs.

In terms of composition is where this album stands over its predecessors, it features a more complex riffing. They got better with the years and decided to implement their skills at the limit on every album and then they got here, it’s not like they got stuck in "Gore Obsessed" but the technicality shown on their latter albums is just a further exploration from what they did here. Those other albums however, didn't featured Jack Owen, alongside with Webster and O'Brien; there’s some mystic edge on his playing that defined CC’s music and I think they lost it with his departure, that’s one point in originality for this record. Songs like “Hung and Bled” and “Mutation of the Cadaver”, for me the album’s highlights with “Hatched to the Head”, show a more refined perspective on songwriting. Their new brand of riffing is more conscious than intuitive, more designed than improvised. Slow passages like the intro of “When Death replaces Life” set a different atmosphere to be band’s chaotic and merciless onslaught but still sickening and dark. They combine more distressed and relaxed but equally evil and corrosive chords and grooves to their brutal assault, making it more “musical” and textured.

I might be in the minority for thinking it, and I couldn’t care less: Corpsegrinder-era Cannibal Corpse has been the peak of their career, a long pattern of excellence marred by only a few average, inoffensive offerings. Sure, the days where this was a novelty act used to scare your parents and sicken your girlfriend were long past them, exiting the band with Chris Barnes, but lyrically and musically they have been no less maniacal, no more forgiving. If Gore Obsessed, the band’s 2002 offering and 8th full-length overall, suffers from anything, it’s that it followed their masterpiece Bloodthirst, and partially feels like more of the same methodical, battering carnage.

The difference is primarily through the production. Where Bloodthirst benefited from a fulfilling, choppy, thick Colin Richardson production of surprising depth, the band turned here to the equally well known Neil Kernon. Gore Obsessed thus has a drier, more level tone to it, if no less punishing. On the one hand, this might seem lackluster in comparison to the Y2K flesh monolith, but on the other, it actually helps distinguish the songs somewhat from that monstrous work in the overall scheme. It’s also a bit longer, and has an overall lesser ratio of flawless riffing. Tracks like “Savage Butchery” and “Hatchet to the Head” are not exactly catchy, bursting past the listener in a stream of flailing, separated limbs, yet their energy and authenticity is certainly worthy of passing off the bonesaw to the rest.

The album really starts to pick up with “Pit of Zombies” and its slamming, thrashing verses which bounce the listener back and forth as if his/her corpse were strung out on a surgical ping pong table, two mad doctors paddling his/her innards back and forth to one another. “Dormant Bodies Bursting” is another bruiser with its churning mid section, and “Compelled to Lacerate” turns to another of those escalating, winding mute rhythms that so dominated Bloodthirst. Other favorites here would include the corrosive bombardment of “Sanded Faceless”, the compelling structure of “Hung and Bled”, its grooves yet again recalling the more atmospheric roiling sequences of Bloodthirst, or the head caving blunt instrument that is “Grotesque”. In fact, once you get past the first two tracks, its quite solid for the entire remainder, never alleviating the audience from its savagery.

The cover of Metallica’s “No Remorse” is quite well done, but then, Cannibal Corpse have always taken such tributes seriously (just listen to their version of Razor’s “Behind Bars” and smile). In the end, I’d probably place Gore Obsessed directly betwixt its nearest neighbors in the band’s discography. It’s not so much perfect as Bloodthirst, which is simply one of the best death metal records I’ve heard in some 20-25 years of the genre; but it’s slightly more cohesive and carnal than Gallery of Suicide, even if there are individual tracks on that album I might like more than these. Cannibal Corpse seem to take a fair share of undeserved heckling for whatever political scenester nonsense is hip this week, but they’re a fantastic band who have only grown more reliable with age. The riffs, the power, the brutality, all intact here, all sharpened to precision and prepared to box in the ears of anyone actually listening.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

If you stop viewing Cannibal Corpse as a sort of dynasty and just look at each individual album as its own entity, it's pretty easy to see why they're so successful. Consistency is a part of it: in all honesty, do you dislike certain Cannibal Corpse albums because they genuinely suck, or simply because they're not as good as others? Probably the latter, because it's not like Cannibal Corpse ever changes its style or delivery very dramatically: the notes just get arranged and rearranged in different configurations, plus or minus a bit of technicality or whatever minor element they're playing with this time. 'Gore Obsessed' is one of the lesser spoken of Cannibal Corpse albums, but that doesn't mean much since Cannibal Corpse isn't discussed much at all. They're just omnipresent and so huge that there's no real point in even discussing them. It's like talking about the nature of your lawn: it just doesn't change much, and you're probably happy with it because of that. On that note, I won't sit here and bore you with yet another description of 'brutal riffs' and 'sick vocals', but rather take a look at some of the elements of Cannibal Corpse that I don't really hear spoken of:

1. Cannibal Corpse still sounds EXACTLY like all the early 90s death metal. The production has gotten better and the riffing has gotten somewhat more complex, but it still sounds right out of 1991. The production, though clearer, is pretty much a perfect representation of that style of early 90s death metal: big, thick bass presence, cool, brutal guitar tone, lucid yet somewhat raw drum sound, and vocals right in the thick of it all. The instrumentation is still pure early '90s DM, despite the increased complexity of the compositions in general. Cannibal Corpse really is one of the last bastions of the original style of death metal; most of the other bands have modernized and lost the style that defined pure death metal, but Cannibal Corpse is still, and probably always will be, plugging away with the original form of the genre.

2. Even at this late stage of their career, Cannibal Corpse still has a lot of thrash influence in their music. The most clear and obvious example on 'Gore Obsessed' is 'Pit Of Zombies', which is, minus the blasting and most overtly death metal elements, a very brutal thrash metal song. The original incarnation of Cannibal Corpse, particularly in the demo era, was highly thrash influenced, and that heritage hasn't been forgotten, though it has grown more subtle with time. Just listen to the riffs in 'Pit Of Zombies'; each one is a thrash riff, though some are faster and more distorted than normal. It's weird that so few people notice this really substantial part of Cannibal Corpse's music, and it's an influence that everyone should pay more attention to.

3. Conversely, there's a lot of brutal death influence, or perhaps Cannibal Corpse influenced a lot of brutal death. Listen to the first few riffs in 'Compelled To Lacerate' and tell me they don't sound like 'Pierced From Within'-era Suffocation. Perhaps they're a bit bouncier and the notes aren't quite as tightly constricted, but it's clearly a Suffocation-inspired riff set. Hell, the drumming alone is hugely similar to Mike Smith, particularly in the completely precise and machinelike blasting. Even a lot of the atonal soloing on this disc is pretty similar to Suffocation. In general, I think that the variety of influences on Cannibal Corpse's music, and indeed, their influence on other bands, is very unappreciated, and I feel that the band is a rather ignored part of the death metal scene today.

It's probably weird to describe the best selling death metal band in the history of the style as being incredibly underrated, but that's exactly what Cannibal Corpse is. Not only do Cannibal Corpse consistently put out great, traditional death metal albums, they've stood by the genre and contributed to it massively over the many years of their existence. It's not even so much that the band is underrated as a whole; they're probably the most popular death metal band in the world today. But among the underground metal scene, the band seems shunted aside in favor of other, somewhat more erudite artists. I think that's bullshit. Metalheads deeply involved in the underground like to pretend that bands like Morbid Angel or Suffocation form the status quo for what death metal is or should be, but in reality, the average death metal fan listens to Cannibal Corpse, slam death, and other 'low' styles of the music. It's most certainly elitist, and it's elitism where it really isn't warranted at all, and many of the people that denigrate a band like Cannibal Corpse are those that want to exclude people from their philosophical club for the purpose of exclusion alone.

The band musically is one of the most accomplished in death metal. The music that Cannibal Corpse plays is not extremely technical, but it is fast, it does have many rhythm and tempo changes, and is pretty precisely written. The band, while obviously not ever going to outdo Necrophagist in pure technicality, has other, more important features: tightness and cohesion. I can't name many more death metal albums than 'Gore Obsessed' which are so precisely played and perfectly composed. Above and beyond their skill in playing, the band are some of the best SONGWRITERS in death metal. Cannibal Corpse doesn't write filler riffs or filler songs; obviously some are lightyears beyond others in quality, but how many Cannibal Corpse songs have you thought of as being genuinely shitty because they feature poor songwriting? There's none. All Cannibal Corpse songs are at the very least listenable and feature some cool riffs or vocal lines, and 'Gore Obsessed' is no different.

Okay, so you have your usual sub-two minute opener in 'Savage Butchery', which is really cool, as always. 'Hatchet To The Head' is a bit awkward, but the tremolo riffs are excellent. Mid-paced thrasher 'Pit Of Zombies' is excellent as well, and features one of the best thrash breaks the band has ever written. But there's other, much more underrated and unknown tracks as well that are just as great: 'Hung And Bled' is a personal favorite of mine (George Fisher is one of the fastest death metal vocalists on the planet), 'Drowning In Viscera' has great, brutal riffing, and 'Grotesque' is a fantastic closer to the album. There are really no weak tracks: Cannibal Corpse demonstrates their remarkable consistency throughout 'Gore Obsessed', and consistently writes strong compositions. It's all obviously direct music, but the less obvious point is that, for all their consistency, Cannibal Corpse HAS progressed as a musical entity; they just don't feel the need to do it in an overly clear fashion. They haven't added weird time signatures, sweep arpeggios, or any other clear 'progressive' leaning, but the music has gotten progressively more developed and complex with time.

The fact is that Cannibal Corpse is a great band, and it seems that the metal scene has forgotten that in its frantic clamor towards more 'intellectual' music. Cannibal Corpse is intellectual, but again, feels no need to advertise this fact to the entire world in the way Dream Theater does. Cannibal Corpse reflects the intelligence of early death metal: a band keeping to themselves, quietly plugging away with their music, and feeling no impulse to appear scholarly to anyone but themselves. This is not 'stupid people's music'; it's just unpretentious and suggests a sort of light-hiding bushel for the metal scene. I'd still rather listen to Cannibal Corpse than Arsis or Portal or whatever trendy new death metal band is taking the scene by storm simply by virtue of them not having to storm at all. I respect these guys a lot more than most bands, and I think more people should: while other bands have faltered, Cannibal Corpse has stayed true to their roots and clearly always will.

Additionally, the hidden cover of Metallica's 'No Remorse' is a thousand fucking times better than any other band could ever do.

When Gore Obsessed kicks off with the terrifying “Savage Butchery”, it is only a taste of the brutality that is held within this album. This album is standard Cannibal Corpse, complete with all the blast beats and hyper-fast technical riffing that all of the fans love.

There is room for improvement though. In the previous Cannibal Corpse records, it seemed as if the band put forth more of an effort to have diversity in their music. Not that all the songs sound identical to each other, but some parts of songs (the intro to “Pit of Zombies”, similar to “Devoured By Vermin” off of the Vile album) sound like they were taken from songs of off previous records. The production could use a slight tweak. The solos on this record are great (check out “Drowning In Viscera”), but they sometimes get buried under the other instruments.

All the band members deliver the goods on this record, Alex Webster still rules on the bass (check out “Mutation of the Cadaver”) and George Fisher has one of the best voices in death metal. He is a much better vocalist than Chris Barnes (see Six Feet Under) ever was and ever will be. He sings with more clarity and seems to put more feeling into his singing. And *gasp* you can understand what he is saying most of the time!

Gore Obsessed is not only the best Cannibal Corpse record with Fisher, but it is also one of the better Cannibal Corpse records. I definitely think death metal fans should pick this one up!