Cannibal Corpse - Kill
- Released: 2006
- Label: Metal Blade
- Rating:
I was a little bit scared that Cannibal Corpse would mutilate themselves and go to grindcore heaven, aka hell, when they announced the departure of longtime string-butcher Jack Owen. But the fear of Cannibal Corpse becoming gay dancers playing Euro-disco was not needed. They filled the gap with another gore-grinder that served some time in the Corpse slaughterhouse before, Rob Barret.
Cannibal Corpse deathgrind; they deathgrind slow, they deathgrind heavy, they deathgrind fast, they deathgrind even faster. They have done it for 11 albums, and at least 15 years now, and Kill shows that they are still among the best bands in this genre. Their 2004 meatpiece The Wretched Spawn was, as some of you might know, produced by Neil Kernon, co-inventor of the Nile sound. Everyone who knows me knows that when you mention Nile I go ape-dancing, shitting my pants and go down on my knees in worship. When I saw that Corpse had put Eric Rutan, of Hate Eternal fame, in charge of the production duties I was a little bit disappointed. But that changed about a ½ second into the album when I realized that Cannibal Corpse actually comes more to their right with a little thicker, rawer and not so overproduced sound. Switching producers didn´t harm the album at all, production-wise, as I first thought it might do.
In the arrangement area Corpse continues chopping up their songs in the same manner we are used to; slower parts mixed with a lot more high-speed grind parts. The thing that attract me the most with Cannibal Corpse is that they manage to integrate a thrash sound into their deathgrinding. Don´t get me wrong now, I know that most death and grind bands have much of their roots in the 80’s thrash and speed scene, but Cannibal Corpse kinda melt it into their sound in a way that only a few of today’s death metal acts manage to do. I guees it is the way they create their riffs; very often it´s classic thrash riffing with a fatass death production on the guitars. I love it!
The album consists of 13 songs (at least the promo copy I have in my possession for this review). My favorite song is “Five Nails Through the Neck,” which is fatass! One of the baddest songs ever by Cannibal Corpse. It really shows their whole register of bloody, gory death metal. The other songs are pretty much just as good, on any other day I might just have choosen another song as my favorite. Kill might just be one of my picks when it comes to sum up 2006 at the end of this year.
Pils | 06/23/2006