By Chris Dyck
When I was like 15 I first heard this crazy band called Cannibal Corpse and they literally changed my life. The riffs were so sick, the drumming was over top and those vocals!…I sat there looking at the album cover, lyrics and credits on Butchered At Birth for hours, scary shit when you are a kid and there wasn’t 10,000 bands doing the same thing. I bought their records and t-shirts, got a Butchered At Birth tattoo and then proceeded to buy every death metal record I could after that. I was hooked and my life was consumed for quite a while there with partying, playing in my little band, air guitaring, skateboarding, making out with chicks, smoking cigs, not going to school, etc… all while listening to this fucking awesome new band.
There are only a handful of bands that are as good at writing and playing death metal as Cannibal was/is. This is still true today in my opinion, they are still in the top 5, are still relevant and are still crushing all posers. Live Cannibal is untouchable, I have seen many a metal band in my day, but none as punishing and all around shitkicking as Cannibal Corpse and after listening to this new record many times it does not seem like they are letting up in the slightest. Fucking awesome!
It’s tough for me to rate anything Cannibal has done since Vile, I don’t think I have ever been more stoked for a record to be released then the days leading up to it. That record defined the new Cannibal sound for me and to be totally honest everything they have put out since then I find myself comparing to it. I’m gonna try to avoid any comparisons to that record considering when it came out, etc. That being said, here goes.
Torture is a crushing record. Wicked production care of Erik Rutan(so you know its gonna rule). “Demented Aggression” starts things off with nuclear bomb of wicked riffs and sets the bar for the rest of the tracks. I’m really digging how both “Sarcophagic Frenzy” and “Scourge of Ion” start off, doomy and crushing half time bass drum is always a winner…pummeling as usual guys. The more I listen to this the more I realize that this review is fairly moot, if you like death metal then you will already be picking this thing up, clearly…and Cannibal is kinda beyond review. They rule and are the masters, so its almost pointless, but lets continue anyway…haha. The next couple jams are fast as hell and its cool because Paul Mazurkiewicz(drummer) seems to be getting faster?…which is crazy considering how long these guys have been at it! Alex Webster is still the best bassist in metal in my opinion and it shows on the faster songs for sure, as per usual. “Followed Home Then Killed”(haha) is kicking ass for me right now, total old school Cannibal, the vocals are punishing and there are some wicked solos care of Pat O’brien(the guy is an animal). The next few songs are killer also, no need to ruin it for you. By the time we get to the last song “Torn Through”(another sweet old schooler) its pretty clear these dudes are still killing it and setting the bar for pretty much everyone else. This album fucking destroys and I wouldn’t have expected or accepted anything less from my favorite Death Metal band of all time.
I’m just gonna give up now and throw in the towel. You win guys, you always do. Still awesome. Make sure you get this record when it drops and pay your fucking respects to the lords of real Death Metal.
(Metal Blade)
