Being chosen to review a Cannibal Corpse is going straight to my Metalhead resume!

A band that needs no introduction to folks even outside the realm of extreme metal, Cannibal Corpse has enjoyed over 30 years of uninterrupted majesty, and deserve every single acclaim they receive. Even if Death is attributed to be the first death metal band (the genre title borne off the band name), Cannibal Corpse would undeniably be the most popular, as popular as the abrasive genre can allow. Spawning an entire legion of hundreds if not thousands of bands trying to capture the sheer brutal vitality the band has spewed forth through their career, it surely looks like the band shows no sign of slowing down. The Violence Unimagined (pun) continues with their fifteenth offering, Chaos Horrific.

Cannibal Corpse has never shied away from leaning fully into gore and violence, in their graphic imagery, lyrical content, and musical direction, and Chaos Horrific is no different. Some would say that the overt display of this kind of extreme content is damaging to their own fame and prevents the band from garnering mainstream success, many would argue that the notoriety of such unblemished creativity is its own art form, not unlike the appeal of the horror genre in various other media.

Okay, so is Chaos Horrific¸ BRUTAL? Absolutely!

The surge of intensity kicks off with a tasty bass line, and “Overlords of Violence” is frenetic and a great way to kick off a record, only to be ramped up by the anthemic chorus on “Frenzied Feeding”, which is exactly as charming as the title alludes. Cannibal Corpse does unbridled fury as well as controlled menace with equal heft. Tracks like the single “Blood Blind” lean into sonic themes of plodding evil, while “Vengeful Invasion” is much more technically intricate, with note-laden riff arrangements that serve as beautiful punctuation to the standard fare of continuous pummeling that Cannibal Corpse champions. The title track “Chaos Horrific” leans into the more thrashy territory featuring yet another iteration of a singalong (or rather growl-along) chorus.

With such an extensive body of work through the decades, it is not impossible to fathom that many tracks will be consigned to the mulch of “great sounding death metal but largely unmemorable”. Tracks like “Hammer Smashed Face”, “Frantic Disembowelment”, “Decency Defied”, “Evisceration Plague” etc. rise to fame through the sheer weight of their memorability. As enjoyable as Chaos Horrific is when it comes to “in the moment” listening, I sincerely fear that this record doesn’t feature a lot of sections or tracks that you just know will be absolute heatseekers and be permanent fixtures on their live setlist. Furthermore, the back half of the record does begin to blur together making an honest and academic study of the record beyond “damn, that’s some brutal metal!” a challenging prospect. Tracks like “Fracture and Refracture” and “Pitchfork Impalement” do provide moments that go beyond the background red mist, in the form of punctuated chugs or groovier sections like on “Pestilential Rictus”, but the mist is ever present, and sadly works to the detriment of the record. It is then thankful that the album closer “Drain You Empty” follows the example of “Blood Blind”, and slows down and takes on an evil leer with the intro section before kicking you in the throat in classic Corpse fashion, but I really found the slower melodies to be points of relish and I sincerely wish Cannibal Corpse explore different sonic textures on future records, of which I hope there will be many!

The juggernaut weight of musicianship that forms Cannibal Corpse is without question. Death metal songwriting is a grueling prospect even at the best of times, and for a band to be pumping out record after record for longer than a huge chunk of their fans have been alive is truly a testament to the caliber of their being. It is also commendable that the band has so many original members, which is evident in just how consistent their product has remained through the years. Longtime guitarist Rob Barrett creates the classic Corpse backdrop with his low-end tremolo-picked riffs and staccato elephantine chugs, whereas new member (yet veteran to the death metal genre), Erik Rutan (of Hate Eternal fame, ex-Morbid Angel) , first featured on Violence Unimagined, continues to bring his own technical flair to revitalize an often predictable “staying within their lane” sound. The guitar solos on Chaos Horrific are particularly delicious and cut right through, forcing the listener to take note, both of the technical prowess as well as the innate sense of control the guitarists have over their tools. Bassist Alex Webster is truly a death metal god in his own right, and every extreme metal musician worth his weight in blood acknowledges that he is THE low-end bulwark of the entire genre. A frequent primary songwriter, both musically and lyrically, Webster is still the energetic four-stringed beacon we so know and love. As with all extreme metal records, it is our collective wish that Webster be given more “airtime” to show off his goods, with the bass intro on “Overlords of Violence” giving us as close to a rush as “Hammer Smashed Face” can in present times. Nobody can neglect the almost comforting security that Paul Mazurkiewicz brings with his death-thrash skank beats and punishing double bass. Unfortunately, I do remain among the naysayers that believe Cannibal Corpse could benefit from some of the newfangled drum wizardly that even snotnosed-core bands employ, I would be foolish to deny that his flavor of drum work IS an integral part of what fans expect from a Cannibal Corpse record

So that leaves vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. More institution than man by this point, the very fact that his vocal delivery is just as powerful and downright crushing on Chaos Horrific as it was on his debut Vile, should be evidence that he just IS the granddaddy of all death metal vocalists. As with the drums, some upstarts would argue that the band could use some diversity in the range of vocals, but that’s just me being a silly little pedant!

Chaos Horrific employs production values that appear quite the direct continuation of Violence Unimagined, in no small part due to the presence of Rutan who is as accomplished a studio engineer as he is a stellar extreme metal guitarist. While running the gamut of standard Corpse and “old school” death metal production, Chaos Horrific does devolve into the aforementioned “red mist” more often than not, especially on the tremolo-picked sections, with the bass often being drowned out by the horrific chaos of the rest of the soundscape and songwriting.

Chaos Horrific continues where Violence Unimagined left off and is a consistent, brutal, and menacing death metal record. It is a Cannibal Corpse record, you know what you expect, you get what you paid for, and if that’s your cup of flesh and blood, you will be a happy customer!