Cannibal Corpse

One of the most influential and contentious death metal bands of all time, Cannibal Corpse emerged in 1990 with a furious musical assault marked by blastbeats, throaty vocals, and highly violent lyrics. Reveling in splatter-horror imagery, the group’s graphic cover artwork and sordid song titles have attracted a fair amount of controversy over the decades and sometimes resulted in their albums getting banned. However, their ghoulish and unrepentant esthetic has won Cannibal Corpse a rabid cult following, with LPs like Gore Obsessed (2002), Torture (2012), and Violence Unimagined (2021) helping to make them one of the top-selling death metal acts of all time. This trend continued with 2023′s Chaos Horrific, the band’s 16th studio set.
Cannibal Corpse were formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, their lineup composed mostly of musically active scenesters: vocalist Chris Barnes, guitarists Bob Rusay and Jack Owen, bassist Alex Webster, and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz. Musically, they were closest to Slayer, although more extreme metal bands like Death also played a role in their sound. A 1989 demo helped the band secure a contract with Metal Blade Records, which released their debut album, Eaten Back to Life, in 1990. A cult following began to build behind the group with albums like 1991′s Butchered at Birth, 1992′s Tomb of the Mutilated, and the 1993 EP Hammer Smashed Face. Bob Rusay was fired in 1993 and replaced with ex-Malevolent Creation guitarist Rob Barrett, who joined the group in time to appear as a club band in the Jim Carrey film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Barrett debuted on record with 1994′s (relatively) more accessible The Bleeding, which proved to be Barnes’ final album. 1996′s Vile featured ex-Monstrosity vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. Cannibal Corpse soldiered on through the decade, returning in 1998 with Gallery of Suicide. Bloodthirst followed a year later, and in 2000 the band issued both a film and album titled Live Cannibalism (their second concert video but first official live LP). Gore Obsessed arrived in 2002, followed by the obsessively packaged box set 15 Year Killing Spree. Their ninth album of all-new material, Wretched Spawn, was released in 2004, followed by Kill in 2006. In 2008, the band went back into the studio with producer Erik Rutan (of Hate Eternal), emerging early the following year with the band’s highest-charting album, Evisceration Plague. Two years later the gore-metal masters released the concert film Global Evisceration before returning with the all-new studio album Torture in 2012. A Skeletal Domain, the band’s 13th long-player, followed in 2014 and entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at a respectable number 32.
After some rigorous touring, Cannibal Corpse’s members pursued other projects. Fisher formed Serpentine Dominion with Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam D, and ex-the Black Dahlia Murder drummer Shannon Lucas. Guitarist Jack Owen joined Six Feet Under, led by vocalist (and former CC bandmate) Chris Barnes. Cannibal Corpse reconvened in 2017 with longtime producer Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) at his Mana Recording Studios in Florida and tracked their 14th album Red Before Black. A video single, “Code of the Slashers,” directed by Zev Deans, was issued in September with the album following in early November, the same day a national tour with Power Trip and Gatecreeper began. In addition to his production duties, Rutan officially joined the band as their new guitarist and made his studio debut on 2021′s typically uncompromising Violence Unimagined. 2023 saw the band release a limited-edition reissue of their 1993 EP, Hammer Smashed Face, followed in September of that year by Chaos Horrific, Cannibal Corpse’s 16th album. Rutan again handled recording sessions which began shortly after their previous release. ~ Steve Huey & James Christopher Monger