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Cannibal Corpse were writing songs for their twelfth album last spring when guitarist Pat O’Brien got the call of a lifetime: come play for Slayer. O’Brien had written several songs for the upcoming album Torture, but his bandmates weren’t about to hold him back.
“It happened right in the middle of writing,” drummer and founding member Paul Mazurkiewicz said recently. “The first two songs were Pat’s songs. He has four songs on the record and got the call [from Slayer] in April. We were in the thick of writing, but we continued until he got back. We knew he’d be fine and get back in the swing. What an experience for him and the band.”
Mazurkiewicz said that Torture – recorded at Sonic Ranch in El Paso, Texas, starting in early September 2011 – is a combination of “the energy of Kill and the precision of Evisceration Plague.” The focus: the right mix of power and dynamics. A simple, direct approach governs the album, again produced by Hate Eternal founder and guitarist Erik Rutan.
“Kill was a one-word title,” Mazurkiewicz said. “We also had Vile and Bloodthirst. We like the one-word titles. We don’t want things to feel obscure. Kill was a great title, simple as can be yet effective. We thought, Torture sounds good and has so many meanings.”
Artist Vincent Locke, who has illustrated every Cannibal album cover since Eaten Back to Life, is back yet again. Mazurkiewicz said the Torture artwork is a throwback to early ’90s Cannibal, compared with the slightly more understated covers of late. “It definitely fits the title,” he said. “It’s a torture scene with bodies hanging and a main torturer right in the middle. It’s a step more in the ‘Cannibal’ vein than the last two records.”
Kill (2006) and Evisceration Plague (2009) were recorded at Erik Rutan’s Mana Recording. Cannibal returned to the Sonic Ranch, the world’s largest residential recording complex, to eliminate daily stress and focus. The last album Cannibal recorded at the complex was The Wretched Spawn (2004) , when guitarist and founding member Jack Owen was still in the band. “We wanted to use Erik again but we wanted to move,” Mazurkiewicz said. “When you’re home you have to commute to get to the studio. At Sonic Ranch you are living on the grounds and it’s all-inclusive. You wake up and eat and go to the studio. It’s a great environment for work, and we wanted to do it again.”
Cannibal worked in Texas throughout September on guitars, drums, and bass. The band returned to St. Petersburg in October to work on final guitar tracks, solos and vocals. Torture was finished at the end of November, just after Thanksgiving.
Mazurkiewicz said one of the biggest challenges as Cannibal’s career progresses is playing one song from every album at concerts, as the band tries to do. “There’s not an album where we just went through the motions,” he said. “There’s always going to be something that somebody loves on one of our records.”
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Torture Track Listing:
1. Demented Aggression
2. Sarcophagic Frenzy
3. Scourge of Iron
4. Encased in Concrete
5. As Deep as the Knife Will Go
6. Intestinal Crank
7. Followed Home then Killed
8. The Strangulation Chair
9. Caged…Contorted
10. Crucifier Avenged
11. Rabid
12. Torn Through
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Torture will be released March 13 on Metal Blade Records.
Pre-order Torture and stream a new song here: Metal Blade
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One of my buddies in high school was a big Cannibal Corpse fan, and he thought the title “Kill” was pretty weak in the weeks leading up to its release. “Kill what?” he would say. “Kill who?”
Then, the day after it dropped he ran up to my locker, in a “Kill” tee shirt and said
“I get it man. I’s just the imperative command: Kill. Kill everything.” And he handed me a burned copy.
Loved that record and “Evisceration Plague.” Hope “Torture” keeps up the winning streak.
The band amazes in their ability to keep releasing good records. I love almost everything they’ve ever done. Cannibal’s record for consistently solid if not excellent albums is pretty amazing.
“Kill” is a great title and I like this new title as well. Way better than all the Carcass-isms people try to use.
WOW, the blood on that cover is low res?! i hope that isnt like that in the printed version
Pretty sure thats the censored version. There was a link somewhere on metalsucks to the real one.
Nope. We have a high-res version now — working to swap out.
I don’t exactly love CC’s records, but they are incredibly solid in general. The last two in particular were pretty impressive. Definitely prefer Corpsegrinder over Barnes, though some of those early tracks are classics — which makes them all the better live!
Seems we’re on the same ship, mate. When I heard Cannibal’s first albums I was knee deep on Godflesh, Obituary and Napalm Death, and felt Barnes’ voice as the weak link.
Love Kill and Evisceration plague…
Song for song, I feel ~The Bleeding~ was their best album, but I probably listen to ~Evisceration Plague~ more than any other. Love the tone, love the hooks, love the riffs, love the vocals…
Very excited for this new one to drop. They have more bits of real estate in my iPhone than any other metal band, which says a lot about their incredible consistency.
On a side note regarding their live show: I am usually pretty passive at concerts, including metal. Glad to throw the occasional horn, steady-but-subtle banging head, pushing people back into the pit when I permeate the border of chaos, but rarely do I enter the fray myself. December 2009, St. Louis. Pops Nightclub. Cannibal Corpse. Cheap Stag. I entered the fray. And entered the fray. And entered the fray. Basically, I was ‘that guy,’ the mix of cheap beer and primal, motorboat chug of “Stripped, Raped and Strangled” possessing my mindless Corpse to, um… KILL. After sustaining facial and hip (hip? still don’t know how that happened…) lascerations, but well before before “Hammer Smashed Face,” I found myself in the parking lot, freezing, in nothing but a sweat and blood soaked Morbid Angel t-shirt (hey, this was pre ~Insanvs~, people) and jeans, alternately talking to some Latvian kid who was, amazingly, drunker than me, and arguing with the bouncers and, eventually, cops. It’s as close as I’ve ever come to incarceration. And, potentially, evisceration. The scars have since healed and I’ve seen CC play twice since then, both sober. That I still entered the pit each time speaks to the power of this band. What a great group.
PS: Check out the just-posted, in-depth MetalSucks inverview with CC bassist Alex Webster. Super cool dude and the riffmeister behind many of their greatest tunes: http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/01/31/cannibal-corpses-alex-webster-the-metalsucks-interview/
I think it’s a shame the artwork hasn’t kept up with the consistency of the music. Maybe it’s a case of me being stuck in the past but I don’t think any of the covers from Kill onward are that inspired. Vile was their last insanely good cover, though Wretched Spawn has it’s charm. Fully agree with the Bleeding as song for song the best CC album, I’m somewhat in the Barnes camp, but I still love their work with Corpsegrinder.
Cannibal don’t even need to have a killer album cover to put a classic CD.