Cannibal Corpse have been the face of death metal for almost twenty-five years. Since their debut full-length Eaten Back to Life was released in 1990, they’ve dominated the scene with their brand of in-your-face brutal lyrics and slamming death metal. They’ve also managed to make a name for themselves as one of the most commercially successful death metal bands on the planet. Metal Blade will release their latest offering, Torture, on March 12 — you can pre-order it here.

I  recently spoke with bassist/founding memeber Alex Webster about the new album and the band’s upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary, as well as tons of other Cannibal-related activities. Read our full chat after the jump!

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As I type this, I have just finished editing Dave Mustein’s interview with Ron Jarzombek regarding the new Blotted Science EP, The Animation of Entimology. And Mr. Mustein deserves a pat on the back or a lollipop or something, ’cause it’s a great interview and I learned a lot from it, and I hope you all read it when we run it (possibly even later today).

Please allow me to entice you with one of the cool things I learned: Jarzombek wasn’t a death metal fan until he saw Cannibal Corpse’s in-studio video for “Frantic Disembowelment,” the instrumental [Yeah, there are vox on the album. This is why you shouldn't write blogs at 2 am, kids! -AR] track from Cannibal Corpse’s 2004 release, The Wretched Spawn. That video, he says, demonstrated for him that it takes real skill to play death metal.

And it’s easy to see why this video impressed him so much that he ran out and hooked up with Alex Webster. I’m sure plenty of you have already seen this clip, which is obviously not at all new, but it’s so awesome that it’s always worth watching again. Seriously, Webster, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, and guitarist Pat O’Brien all deserve major props for this shit right here.

Kiler, killer, KILLER.

-AR

The old cliché goes that genius is the very simple idea that, for whatever reason, no one has ever had before. Assuming that’s true, then Cannibal Corpse are the Albert Einsteins of metal. For these dudes were not, at the beginning, great musicians. They were just some kids from Buffalo who basically listened to thrash and said “We wanna do that, but make it even heavier and more evil-sounding.” And so they did. And simple though it seems (Tomb of the Mutilated might be considered quaint if it were released today) Cannibal Corpse – particularly the original line-up of vocalist Chris Barnes, bassist Alex Webster, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, and guitarists Jack Owen and Bob Rusay – are undeniably one of the most influential bands in all of metal history. They are one of the key creators of death metal as we know it. As though he felt the words to Slayer’s “Angel of Death” just weren’t violent enough, Barnes practically invented pure gore as lyrical fodder; he also reinvented his craft (if you can call making it sound like your lungs are having violent diarrhea a “craft”). Producer Scott Burns, who was basically the sixth member of the band for years, obviously deserves his share of the credit for their accomplishments, too. Basically, if you’ve ever enjoyed to pretty much any death metal song ever, you probably owe Cannibal Corpse a handjob.

And that, of course, is precisely the problem.

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True story (not tr00 story): Vince and I have a friend who is definitely not into metal and, for a very long time, thought Killswitch Engage was called Kill, Switch and Gauge. Y’know, like the world’s most fucked up law firm or something.

Speaking of KsE, here’s what went down this week:

• Even new Killswitch album art makes you guys argue. Sheesh.
• We have an exclusive clip from the new As I Lay Dying DVD!
• We spoke to Cannibal Corpse’s Paul Mazurkiewicz and checked out the new release from Dååth.
• You accused Vince of being a pedophile.
• Best website ever?
• I thought Anso DF’s coverage of Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards was pretty funny, but apparently none of you agree with me.
• Could Slayer and Megadeth really be touring together?!?

Okay. We have a special 4/20 treat for you guys on Monday, plus the triumphant return of Unreadable Band Logo of the Week, so make sure you get your ass back here. ‘Til then, I bid you adieu.

-AR

Seriously. If you don’t know who Paul Mazurkiewicz is, you probably shouldn’t be reading this website.

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks so much for the Centuries of Torment DVD. It’s not only the best band DVD I’ve ever seen, but it’s also the best crash course on Cannibal Corpse anyone could have expected.

Cool, man. Glad you like it.

Yeah definitely, but I was wondering, how does an ambitious project like that comes to fruition?

We were thinking about possibly doing just a piece on the Kill tour and we knew of this Denise Korycki girl who ended up doing the whole thing herself. When we decided to do something in any regard, like maybe on the road with Cannibal Corpse for Kill, she was going to come out for a week at the end of the tour. So she did do that, but it turned into, upon talking to Metal Blade [Records] and talking to us, she actually came up with the idea: “It’s going to be your 20th anniversary, what do you think about expanding on this and making it more of a history of Cannibal Corpse? I can get more in-depth.” And we said “Hey, if you’re willing to tackle a project like this, then sure. let’s do that.” Metal Blade were down with it and all that. So when we decided to do that then she came with us on Kill for the last week of the tour and then it took off from there. Then it was like she’s going to be coming to Tampa a bunch and we were going to Buffalo and she’s going to do all the interviews and finding people and all that. So when it did come to fruition and it was a go, it was really all Denise that was the one. Obviously we had to compile some footage and things like that from our archives, but it was really all her just going here and there interviewing the people that needed to be interviewed and just taking control of the whole project. It was great that she wanted to do it because it might not have come to light if she didn’t really push it. So basically that’s what happened.

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