I’ve always loved Cannibal Corpse. For all that the band deals in outrageous violence; like the slasher movies of the 80s, the song titles and lyrics are so over-the-top, the blood so obviously fake, that you’d have to really miss the point to take it all seriously. The band, of course, revel in the carnage, their music the sonic equivalent of the gory gags dreamt up by Tom Savini and here, on their sixteenth album, the band continue to delight in pushing buttons, dealing in some of the darkest, heaviest death metal out there with giddy determination.
With ten tracks on offer, Chaos Horrific takes the ferocious Violence Unimagined as its starting point and pushes things up still a notch further. Aided and abetted by producer-turned guitarist Erik Rutan, who has overseen six Cannibal Corpse albums since 2006’s Kill, finally bowing to the inevitable to join the band as a full-time member in 2020. His contribution is invaluable and, as intuitive as Rutan is as a producer, the fact that he’s now so intimately involved has allowed him to coax even greater performances from the band.
Crank the volume, hit play and Overlords Of Violence hurtles from the speakers, a berserker gesturing at your unprotected cranium with a blunt-yet-weighty implement. This is the Cannibal Corpse effect – their music delivered with the rapid-fire-rage of a zombie attack, the razor-sharp guitars providing a suitably jagged bedrock for Corpsegrinder’s inimitable grunts. It’s over in a mere three minutes, but in that time, you’ll feel you’ve gone three rounds in the ring with an opponent thrice your size, but there’s no respite in sight just yet. Frenzied Feeding simply explodes, the precision assault of the band nothing short of breath taking. It’s got one hell of a groove, too – Corpsegrinder’s rhythmic delivery in lockstep with the band, all leading to a series of blistering lead runs reminiscent of Slayer at their peak. The band adopt a doomier outlook on Summoned For Sacrifice, which opens with a hulking great mid-paced riff. Beautifully produced, it’s heavier than a sack of concrete, with Alex Webster’s grimy bass runs given plenty of space in the mix – if ever Corpsegrinder werr to produce a head banger’s neck workout video, this would surely be the soundtrack. Next up, the chunky Blood Blind, driven by Paul Mazurkiewicz’s relentless double kick, is Cannibal Corpse at their most vicious, the sludgy riffs seeking to batter the listener into a bloodied pulp. The dark groove, at which the band are so effective, returns for Vengeful Invasion, simply a great death metal song, turbo charged by Erik’ devastating production.
Opening the second half, the title track earns its top billing by being harder, faster, and just plain meaner than everything else around. With a thrash dynamic giving the song a frantic edge that really stands out, even amidst all the sonic carnage found elsewhere, Chaos Horrific definitely makes its mark. It’s followed by the solid Fracture And Refracture, but it’s the blazing intensity of Pitchfork Impalement, complete with its refrain of “penetrate the skull” that really ignites the album’s second half. It clearly fires the band up too, because the incandescent Pestilential Rictus sees the band continuing to up the ante, Corpsegrinder spitting out his lyrics with remarkable clarity, despite the extremity of his delivery. Once again, Erik’s crystal-clear production serves to emphasise the band’s exceptional delivery and, as he trades licks with Rob Barrett, the track feels like a bloody duel to the death. Chaos Horrific reaches its breathless climax with Drain You Empty, a stunningly heavy finale that evolves from the doom-laden sludge of its introduction to a deathly outpouring of unspeakable rage and violence. A brilliantly dynamic conclusion to a brilliantly dynamic album, Drain You Empty is a towering masterpiece of malevolence.
Cannibal Corpse’s symphonies of sickness may not be for everyone, but for those whose tastes take in lurid comic books, gore-soaked slasher flicks, and the heaviest of heavy metal, Cannibal Corpse is an institution guaranteed to satisfy. From Erik Rutan’s peerless production to the band’s increasingly impressive musicianship, Chaos Horrific hits all the right buttons but, and this is all too often overlooked, it’s the song writing skills the band deploy, which make for such uneasy listening. Over the course of the ten songs on offer here, the extremity is tempered with subtle dynamic shifts and, more often than not, a potent groove that ensures these gory vignettes remain long in the mind. There’s a reason Cannibal Corpse have reigned supreme this last three-and-a-half decades, and they’re showing no signs of slowing down yet. All hail Cannibal Corpse! 9/10
