One of the things I have
always loved about Cannibal Corpse was their consistency. If you’ve heard one
Cannibal Corpse album, you’ve pretty much heard them all. The vocals changed on
1996’s “Vile”although most people outside the death metal world would not be able to
tell the difference whatsoever, and their production has of course been improving
with the times. But stylistically, Cannibal Corpse forged a distinct and
signature sound that they have done very little to tamper with in 25 years.
This is one of the things that I love about them. They figured out what they
were early, and they stuck to it.
However, their newest
release “Torture” just doesn’t hit me with the same vigor as previous releases,
and for the very characteristic that I always held so important about them: This
album sounds like a bunch of Cannibal Corpse songs I’ve already heard before.
But not in the cool way, like this is a cool extension of what was going on in
the last album; it’s more like, I have heard this exact part before. The
particular offender is actually opening track and lead single “Demented
Aggression.” The first time I heard it, when it was a streaming promo for the
album, I noticed that it had parts that reminded me of both “Blowtorch Slaughter” and “Devoured
By Vermin” from earlier albums. I also just felt like it wasn’t HEAVY like
their past material but I shrugged it off to a lack of brutality in my life at
the moment or something. When I listened to the album in its entirety, however,
I felt the exact same way. That’s not a good sign considering I’ve long
considered this band one of my favorites in all of death metal.
The vibe of
overly-familiar material carried throughout the first few songs; trudging,
double-bass driven mid-tempo sections, randomly placed almost-grind parts,
groove-laden parts, Corpsegrinder’s trademark buzzsaw vocals. It just wasn’t
doing much for me. Not that I wasn’t enjoying it more than other midway metal
albums I’ve heard lately, but this is Cannibal Corpse forsatanssake. I’m
usually raving about everything they do.
The standout tracks for
me were “Encased in Concrete,” which elicits a very paranoid feeling
throughout, and “Caged…Contorted” which features an almost-melodic bass
backdrop from Alex Webster towards the middle of the track and sees the band in
a more interesting songwriting mode than some of the more familiar tracks
scattered throughout. “Crucifier Avenged” is another one, that although
reminding me of “I Will Kill You,” has a cool groove throughout that sees the
vocals acting as almost a percussive factor. Although pretty standard
rhythmically, compared to the kind of changes that are fundamental to Cannibal
Corpse’s sound, this almost makes for a more classic feel.
The song “As Deep As
The Knife Will Go” is nearly an anomaly for the band, as it sees them in some fucked-pop-structure, the chorus even being somewhat intelligible to the
untrained ear. Apparently it’s a loveletter from a psychopath or something, but
I don’t really take much time to go into the often-ridiculous lyrics these guys
come up with so I can’t speak much to that. The weakest track in my opinion was
“Intestinal Crank” if only because it seemed a bit forced at times, and there
were segments that seemed poorly planned or poorly executed or SOMETHING.
Webster has some cool bass solos in “The Strangulation Chair” and “Rabid” but
again, these songs on the whole just fade into the overall bludgeon that is
this album.
If you’re a Cannibal
Corpse fan, you probably won’t be disappointed by what’s here but you
definitely aren’t gonna lose your shit because of how dope it is. If you’re
looking for variance and subtlety in your heavy metal music, this was probably
never the band for you in the first place, but this album is definitely not
gonna help.
I think maybe the
problem for Cannibal Corpse at this point in their career is that there are
just so many bands in the overall death metal market nowadays that what once
made them seen as one of the more extreme, offensive bands in the world – or at
least a nefarious, almost cartoonish outlier in the death metal community – is now
just, in a word, generic. It’s like how it goes with other longstanding confections:
Their formula has worked for so goddamn long that there really isn’t a reason
to change it, but there are so many other brands out their now that even the
loyal customers are growing tired of the taste. That said, if all the other
brands go out of business, at least we have a quality confection that we can
always rely on to be exactly the same.
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