Run of the mill gory goodness – 80%
April 5th, 2010, by mat86210
You know where you stand with Cannibal Corpse. Possibly the most consistent band in death metal, they have never wavered from the traditions that they were one of the proprietors of: gore, death, zombie-obsessed technicality that manages to be groovy and catchy as well, which is actually a rarity in death metal especially as they have been doing it for so long. Does this album do anything to reverse the trend and start afresh? Of course not. It’s violent and it’s aggressive, and it exhibits fine musicianship and songwriting that keeps things interesting without compromising the core values of the music.
The opener, ‘Severed Head Stoning’, was actually the first death metal song I had ever listened to, some 7 odd years ago, but I didn’t realize this until I had bought and listened to the album. Back then, this song would have been the fastest and most aggressive thing I had ever heard, and I remember being so intrigued by its odd chord choices and ferocious vocals. Hearing it now, it sounds like typical ‘Corpse. It’s fast and technical but with an ever present, underlying focus on rhythm, all rounded off by Corpsegrinder’s serrated-edged growls hurtling around like a demented Rottweiler. A great opener, and an unexpected trip down memory lane.
And luckily things don’t really change from here on in. Songs like ‘Festering in the Crypt’ and ‘Nothing Left to Mutilate’ are a bit slower and groovier, while ‘Cyanide Assassin’ and ‘Frantic Disembowelment’, as the name might suggest, represent the frenzied fret workouts we all know the band are capable of, but the point is it all feels like it’s on a Cannibal Corpse record. Perhaps the way they express their values is slightly different (as a whole, the album feels a bit more sludgy with a deeper, heavier guitar and bass production, and there is no doubting that they have grown as musicians as their career has progressed judging by the songwriting on display here) but as an ideology, Cannibal Corpse hasn’t changed since ‘Eaten Back to Life’.
Some might argue that such an approach stagnates after a little while, and it is a fair point to make. By the time ‘Bent Backwards and Broken’ thunders around you are very aware that there are going to be precious few surprises left an album whose intentions were laid out long before it was even written. Others might also accuse Cannibal Corpse of being too linear and one dimensional with their approach to death metal, and again begrudgingly, this is a valid concern. As mentioned, ‘The Wretched Spawn’ could just be ‘Vile’ with better delivery and musicianship. Indeed, arguments such as this beg the question of how far the band has come since the likes of ‘Butchered at Birth’ and ‘Tomb of the Mutilated’, because you could easily listen to one of those albums and point out the similarities between them and ‘The Wretched Spawn’ (disregarding the fact that Barnes was infinitely inferior to Corpsegrinder as far as vocals were concerned).
But these things are precisely what we all look for in such a band. To state the obvious, no one buys Cannibal Corpse because of the forward thinking progression. It is their ability to reinvent themselves with exactly the same material release after release that has earned them such a fan base, and ‘The Wretched Spawn’ exemplifies that tradition down to the letter. No unexpected twists, no progressive influences, not a melodic passage in sight…not a problem, and long may it continue.
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