Cannibal Corpse-Evisceration Plague

Last Updated (Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:37) Written by Miguel Blardony Monday, 19 July 2010 19:09

Release Date: February 3, 2009

Label: Metal Blade

Genre: Death Metal

Rating: 8.5/10

Comments: Timeless brutal music for brutal minds.

If you’re thinking “Kill” was the heartwork (excuse us, Carcass) of a band that could no longer surpass its hallowed legacy, prepare for a rude awakening once “Evisceration Plague” gets underway. True to the textbook they’s etched in the souls of every death metal fan since time immemorial, matters begin on a seismic note as the gratifying grooves and thrashing pace that drives “Priests of Sodom” annihilates even the slightest misgivings about Cannibal Corpse’s relevance to today’s scene. Once the opening salvo has doen the initial battering, the job is left to the scalding tempos and decompsoed turns of “Scalding Hail”—an obiterating death metal anthem of the highest order—and its mercilless follow up “To Decompose.” Just three songs down and if you’ve stuck around this long, why, there’s much gore to go around. The pace slows (just a little) for the catchy “A Cauldron of Hate” and it could be one of the few songs on the album that aren’t up to standard. No worries, however, since excellence is what reigns for most of “Evisceration Plague”’s’ running time.

“To Decompose,” “Cauldron of Hate,” and “Evidence in the Furnace” all earn themseves a rightful place alongside Cannibal Corpse’s set list but the real meat here is George Corpsegrinder’s brimstone growls married to the churning vortex of riffs produced in excess by the Pat O’Brian-Rob Barret tandem. Besides the tracks already mentioned, further examples of the trio’s chemistry shines even during the album’s leaner cuts. It would be unfair to leave Paul Mazurkiewiz unmentioend as well; the man’s footwork behind the double bass will cause vibrations that travel up your legs and leave your balls tingling way past album finsher “Skewered From Ear To Ear.”

Gore-driven lyrics, hellish tempos thick with the crust of a 20 year concoction that hasn’t gone stale, not to mention an ageless verve animating even the most ridiculous songs on the album (“Beheading And Burning,” “Unnatural”), Cannibal Corpse are in excellent shape more than 20 years since they laid the groudnwork of metal’s latest evolutionary cycle. The current crop of today’s death metal practitioners may be rounding the wheel to oblivion, but to hear the originators themselves attack the genre with such vigour reassures longtime devotees that so long as these guys keep the fire alive, death metal won’t ever suck worse than power metal.