Cannibal Corpse Tomb of the Mutilated

Cannibal Corpse 'Tomb of the Mutilated' (Metal Blade, 1992)

"Includes 'Hammer Smashed Face', 'Split Wide Open', 'The Cryptic Stench', 'Beyond the Cemetery' and more. For additional song titles see inside", so proclaims the back cover to Cannibal Corpse's third and perhaps most famous album. The song titles can actually only be found on the vinyl labels and are so extreme that this album was banned in Germany where the band are still not allowed to perform some of its material live. An overreaction? Almost certainly.

Cannibal Corpse are nothing more than a particularly gruesome horror movie in musical form. Obviously it's filled with pretty horrible imagery and misogyny, but that has been the formula for at least 50% of horror movies since 'Psycho'. Besides, the lyrics, which aren't even included in this addition, are totally indecipherable due to Chris Barnes' beyond guttural performance and the artwork is laughably cartoonish.

Cannibal Corpse are certainly in on the joke and performed 'Hammer Smashed Face' in the Jim Carrey vehicle 'Ace Ventura - Pet Detective'. Having now seen them twice, I unintentionally avoided them for nearly two decades, it is also clear that they revel in the grossness of their imagery/song titles as much as a band like GWAR and the ever increasing amount of females who attend death metal gigs seem to enjoy the on stage banter as much as the muscle bound clowns standing next to them.

Ah, the muscle bound clowns, like Slayer, Cannibal Corpse have a sub group of fans whose love for their favourite band is only outstripped by that for WWE or Tapout clothing. They are fans of the old school brutal mosh which involves running at each other and falling over a lot. Generally they are reasonable, if slightly overweight/on steroids, people who just seem to lose their sh*t to three bands in particular - Slayer/Pantera/Cannibal Corpse. It's a strange phenomenon and it seems increasingly popular, particularly in yonder land of Da Weeg.

One of their biggest fans, who Pringle and I met on the way to Dynamo one year, originated from that fair city and he had both his legs entirely covered in the artwork for their first four or five albums; it was amazing. What made it even more amazing was the fact that he'd had his legs done so his ma wouldn't find out! Quite a fellow was our Derek (?) who spent the entire 24 hour bus journey to Eindhoven congratulating his mate's flatulence by announcing 'Good Ar*e!' every time wind was broken.

I was never into this band during their rise to prominence, I just couldn't take in all the Death Metal that was coming out at the time, but they are the biggest of all the survivors of the genre and can easily headline any smaller European metal festival which is very impressive given the extremity of their material.

Along with Suffocation and Baphomet, Cannibal Corpse are probably the originators of 'Brootal' or 'Slam' death metal which often features amazing musicianship (check out the excellent bass work on this LP) and massive grooves but was almost totally unrelenting. It's a very popular sub-genre, on labels like Sevared, where musical brutality is often accompanied by bands trying to be as grotesque and obscene as possible, another aspect of death metal which Cannibal Corpse are almost totally responsible for.

It's like listening to the aural equivalent of 'Evil Dead 2', if that's your bag then enjoy.

If you want to hear more thoughts on the wonders of metal then please have a listen here.

Peace