Published on Jan 4, 2000
I had better warn you: this review might not be for those with
sensitive constitutions. Then again, I probably lost them once they
saw the cover art.
Chances are, there are some people who won’t be able to read
this review — and even if they can, they might not be able to
purchase the album in question. For Cannibal Corpse, one of the
bands who could rightfully be called the godfathers of grindcore,
have been banned in many countries due to the brutality of their
lyrics and their graphic cover art. (I’ll even admit that the cover
of their latest release,
Bloodthirst, made me a little ill — but that was after I
took some time to actually study the cover. On a passing glance, it
didn’t bother me that much.)
Why so many people make such a fuss about this band’s lyrical
content, I don’t know. Truth be told, I’ve heard more brutal and
graphic things from other bands. But what I will say for Cannibal
Corpse is this: they know how to keep the energy level high for a
good portion of the album. If only they could inject some more
variety into the songwriting, ’cause
Bloodthirst was a little hard to keep interested in near the
end. But more on that in a minute.
Give vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher some credit in that
you can often understand him without having to consult the lyric
sheet. (Hey, maybe
that’s why they get banned in some places; you can’t speak
out against what you can’t decipher.) Also, props are in order to
the rest of the band — guitarists Jack Owen and Pat O’Brien,
bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz — for actually
daring to inject some melody into a genre that isn’t always noted
for such niceties.
Now, I’ll admit I’m biased in the fact that I happen to enjoy
the occasional slice of grindcore in my musical diet. I fell in
love with Napalm Death the first time I heard avant-garde
saxophonist John Zorn play them on a college radio show. I’ve
partaken in such delicacies as At The Gates, The Dead Youth and
Morbid Angel from time to time, and I wasn’t afraid to go back for
seconds. But I’ve got to hand it to Cannibal Corpse in that, after
a decade in the industry, they know how to keep things sounding
fresh.
As for the brutal lyrical content… Christ, some of this could
have come from the Viking metal that I seem to have been inundated
with over the past few months. Sample lyric, from “Unleashing The
Bloodthirsty”: “Decapitate the man / They hold his head aloft /
Headless body slumps / The blood is gushing out.” One word:
Beowulf. (Yeah,
that should bring back memories from your high school
literature courses.)
Okay, I’ll concede that some of the lyrical content might not be
for the little kiddies — but I don’t think many of them would
immediately be drawn to songs like “Raped By The Beast” anyway —
and I still stand by my assertion that I’ve heard worse from bands
that don’t get nearly half the bad press that this group does.
As grindcore goes,
Bloodthirst is a pretty solid half-album or so. The problem
comes in arond the three-quarters mark, where the songwriting seems
to fall back on the same styles used to success earlier in the
album. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, but when you have an
album of this nature, you don’t expect to hear re-runs so quickly.
As a result, it’s harder to stay focused on songs like “Condemned
To Agony” and “Blowtorch Slaughter.”
By no means is
Bloodthirst a bad album; if anything, Cannibal Corpse shows
that the grindcore genre is still alive and kicking — and is a
genre worth keeping an eye on when metal makes its return to
commercial popularity. But if the album commits any real sin, it’s
that it’s not quite cutting edge enough for my tastes, and needed a
touch more development in the second half of the disc. Otherwise,
here’s the album you’ll want to keep hidden from the minister when
he comes over for Sunday dinner.