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Cannibal Corpse exist in a strange place among the legends of modern metal. On the one hand, the Florida-cum-Buffalo death metal quintet is considered by many the essential band of its genre, personifying all things gory, grotesque, and brutal in both their outrageously violent lyrical things and their charging, spastic sound. On the other hand, it’s hard to picture the Corpse’s brand of grandiose atrocity as anything other than an ultra-modern response to society at large, a product of how utterly obscene and hideous the world outside our window has become. Metal in general rests on such a time warp, legendary and loved by vest-clad codgers but perpetually dangerous to the modern youth. And 20 years ago this September, Cannibal Corpse released Tomb of the Mutilated, the perfect amalgamation of their over-the-top aesthetic and their undeniably awesome sound, a balls-out gore metal record that is nothing short of a musical milestone within heavy metal as a whole.
Tomb of the Mutilated’s timing cannot be overstated. 1992 saw glam metal choking on its own blood, grunge shyly approaching mainstream interest, black metal coming to a rolling boil off in Scandinavian obscurity, and death metal riding high on its first wave of pure legitimacy. Bands like Deicide, Obituary, and Napalm Death were shaking off the sloppiness of the primordial pustule from which they were born and were turning their sound into something technical, refined, musical. Money was poured into the genre, but major labels had not yet turned it into an overglutted imitation of itself. Cannibal had already made a name for themselves as kings of degeneracy with their sophomore effort, 1991’s Butchered At Birth, whose themes of infanticide and sexual horror far surpassed the midnight-movie gore of their debut Eaten Back To Life. For the band—bassist Alex Webster, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz, guitarists Jack Owen and Bob Rusay, and vocalist Chris Barnes—it was time to create something that was not only a revel in heretofore-unimagined horror, but also a polished artistic expression of said bloodsoaked blasphemy.
Let’s get the words and pictures out of the way. Tomb’s cover, seemingly a modern interpretation of Alfred Kubin’s “Pocalunek” by longtime Cannibal Corpse cover artist Vincent Locke, still contains the horrific gore that made the band’s art famous, but takes it in a different direction, this time showing two ivory-skinned gutted lovers caught in an act of mortal cunnilingus, the ambience set with candles, a rotting severed head, and a butcher knife. The expression on the woman’s face is not one of agony, terror, or mania, but of despair and lust. A glance at the song titles on the back cover sees lyricist Barnes focusing on the overkill of sexual violence, specifically the utter repellance of violence against women (one wonders if death metal was as synonymous with violence against women and “cutting up girls” before the release of this album as it is now). Sure, some can be read as straight-up gross-out mindfucks—“I Cum Blood” and “Necropedophile” immediately come to mind—but others, like “Entrails Ripped From A Virgin’s Cunt” and “Addicted to Vaginal Skin” mix a Baudelarian sense of poetry and an almost alien observation of the human body. Tomb of the Mutilated is Cannibal Corpse’s first experiment with violence unknown; presenting a circuitous approach to murder that was as much a case file as it was a splatterfest.
But what sets Tomb . . . apart from its predecessors is the music. Every song on the album is a non-stop crusher, maintaining a stabbing rhythm that seems inherently conducive to awesome death metal. While Butchered . . . showcased the band’s ability to slow things down on tracks like “Vomit The Soul’ and “Covered With Sore,” Tomb . . . is swift and energetic from start to finish, even in its more strung-out moments. The guitar work on the album ranges from writhing Tesla coil leads to pulpy chugs. Barnes’ vocal rhythm and delivery are better than ever, and maybe than they ever would be again, blending bark, bellow, and howl with perfect precision. Webster’s bass lines peek through the guitar whirlwind with sagging eyesockets oozing pus and rage. Indeed, there’s a deep guttural rhythmic quality to the album not unlike a tribal drum or an excited heartbeat, from the accents of opener and death metal anthem “Hammer Smashed Face” to the slow sonorous fade of closer “Beyond The Cemetery.” Every instrument on every song is percussion, not simply laying down a series of notes or words but blending the various elements present into a distilled and completed sound. Though certain tracks do stand out thanks to the titles or riffs they contain—let’s all acknowledge that “Hammer Smashed Face” is an incredibly brutal and catchy song that deserves every bit of hype and praise it has received over these 20 years—they aren’t the record’s purpose for being. In this way, Tomb of the Mutilated is the kind of album our hippie parents liked to complain aren’t around anymore, one that can be consumed in a single sitting, a larger piece that isn’t simply a series of singles and filler tracks.
Unlike many bands honored in these sort of “Remember The Classics” pieces, Cannibal Corpse have stood the test of time—many, this writer included, would say that the band is currently making some of the best music in its existence some twenty-odd years down the road. But Tomb of the Mutilated was the album that brought them out of the underground and into the public eye as the reigning kings of the gory side of music. The album saw the band making music videos, appearing in major motion pictures, and being touted as a corrosive force against the moral fiber of the United States, all of which stemmed from its impeccable timing, extreme yet artistic aesthetic, and indomitable sound. Where before the band had wallowed in a more simplistic, and in its own way incredibly enjoyable, sense of excessive violence, Cannibal Corpse came out of 1992 with something darker and scarier, a beast with a unified vision of horror from which it was impossible to look away.
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“Tomb of the Mutilated is the kind of album our hippie parents liked to complain aren’t around anymore” is a great line! one should make a t-shirt with it.
I always took this as an image of post-mortem rape, rather than two “gutted lovers caught in an act of mortal cunnilingus”. Look twice, but that’s her skewered twat to the left, depriving the victim of even the faintest consolation prize (I know that’s a screwed up way of looking at this, but then again, every way of looking at this has to be.) The “cannibal corpse” getting his jollies the only way he can. Maybe this is how Ted Bundy saw himself.
It’s a really good album, but I kind of wish the other songs were as catchy and straight to the point as good ol’ Hammer Smashed Face. My personal favorite CC album is actually The Wretched Spawn – it’s diverse and memorable by death metal standards, and I like Corpsegrinder’s vocals a lot better than Chris Barnes’.
Yep. While I know that the first few CC albums were tremendously daring and extreme for their time, I strongly prefer the Corpsegrinder era. Bellowed vocals > gurgled vocals.
I like the album, but I have always hated the cover. I’ll prefix this by saying that I had never seen the Alfred Kubin’s “Pocalunek” picture you reference above which was actually a pretty interesting insight.
I understand that CC artwork is mirrors visually the lyrical and musical themes, but I just don’t like the way it’s drawn or the sentiment. It’s not the gore – for instance the real autopsy/meat collages in Carcass art that preceded this are in many ways worse, and I have no problem with those. But here and often with CC in this period there’s images of women being brutalised for the sake of it. The lyrics are just as bad, but actually drawing it out and glorifying it in such detail is something I feel uncomfortable about.
Connected to this I’m not sure I understand your line “the utter repellance of violence against women”. To me Corpse seemed to be revelling in these ideas, rather than being repelled by them. Are you saying that they were trying to put across some kind of anti violence positive social message in the artwork? because I’m not seeing that.
I can do without this album cover and all the pronogrind, rapey misogynistic crap in metal for that matter.
Having said that I cant deny that musically this album kicks ass. Weird.
I guess my feeling is that when I listen to CC’s more misogynistically-themed stuff, I never get a feeling of, like, ‘YEAH! SHOW THAT BITCH!’ Among death metal bands, I actually find Autopsy do that WAAAY more (you seen the cover of their new comic? Ugh…). I’ve always found Cannibal Corpse’s female-centric lyrics to be really upsetting and dark, revelling less in violence against women and the fear and discomfort that such violence instills. For some reason, violence against women is just more affecting and repulsive than the same aginst men, and I think they have a handle on that in their horror story-telling.
I do see what you’re saying. They were trying to go the extra mile. Necrophilia and carving up women is disturbing subject matter for sure. Grotesqueness and ugliness is an aesthetic. That’s what’s fascinating about extreme metal as an artform. It’s one of the few artforms in which the grotesque can be represented musically – and in my opinion it’s better done in death metal than the visual arts.
And that’s the point about the cover I’m making. Personally I don’t think it’s very good art. CC don’t sound subtle, so I know it has to be gory and violent, and I don’t have a problem with that. But the only theme present to me is misogyny here. That’s the problem.
I don’t know, though. The “man” in this situation isn’t lording over this woman, he’s ALSO been gutted. Same with the severed head by the side, that seems genderless. I suppose I see what you mean in that the only identifiably sexual creature here is the woman. But I feel like that’s what I’m getting from Cannibal Corpse–more of a revel in extreme and absurd horror than sexist horror.
I have to disagree with Scab here, but it’s because I see a different narrative in this image then he does. The “cannibal corpse” has raided this tomb in order defile a female corpse. Since it’s the “cannibal corpse” performing the pseudo-sexual act, he’s pretty clearly a sexual creature. This is misogynistic in the extreme. As are their lyrics. I don’t see it as supporting that attitude, but this is clearly depicting it.
My take on the “revelling in the idea” of misogynistic themes is that the band were merely a reflection of the times where it took that kind of perverse extremity to shock people. It’s like looking at the world and saying “you people are so fucked up, you’re not outraged and offended by some of the shit that goes on in plain sight, what the hell does it take to rattle you people? The Undead? Cannibalism? Torture and murder? Killing and fucking your daughters? Done.”
As far as who’s defiling who? I never assumed either had any “dominance” of the situation, that they were partaking in some timeless ritual performed at different times throughout millennia for the sake of their unholy lord of darkness.
I think you hit the nail on the head with “the only identifiably sexual creature here is the woman.” being the main thing I’m saying
Actually looking at the other CC covers again, this one is the worst for this. Maybe I’m overstating it. Cannibal Corpse is self consciously comic style, over the top absurdness, and not a lifestyle manual. So – anyway, see my “this album kicks ass” comment above.
Its a long afterlife without any blowjobs, the guy is just being courteous. He’s gotta get her back for the other day.
I’ve never understood why Cannibal Corpse were labelled seriously misogynist. Sure, they must have seemed like it to alot of people, particularly women: I remember reading that there was (I think) a female Metal Blade publicist who refused to work with the band on the basis of this album’s song titles. And if you read magazine profiles on the band from the early ’90s written by female journalists, you can often detect the writer wrestling with her distaste for the lyrics versus her love of metal or committment to free speech.
But in the context of that time, it always looked to me more like an obvious subversion of the then-emerging political correctness around gender issues for shock value; an approach which Anal Cunt would later take to further extremes. (Which is probably why one of the Corpse’s most contentious song titles, “She Was Asking For It”, isn’t gory at all.)
And for the justification? Well, it is called “extreme” metal, isn’t it? Don’t forget that Satanic themes and standard Z-film horror were already becoming old hat by that point, so bands like Cannibal Corpse and Pungent Stench (as well as Carcass in their own way) were simply upping the ante as all cutting-edge artists must attempt to do. As was often said in relation to the liberal-baiting efforts of Steve Albini or the Butthole Surfers, offending the squares is like shooting fish in a barrel. If you can get a rise out of progressive types who are self-consciously “open-minded”, then you’ve really scored.
That said, a few years after this album came out, I read an anthology of women writing about Rock (you know – think-pieces about Madonna, Riot Grrl, etc.) and what really struck me is how practically all of the self-described feminists featured in the book who mentioned heavy metal felt compelled to defend it from charges of sexism. They did so mainly on the grounds that it’s no worse an offender than any other rock, pop or soul genre (even John Lennon had his misogynist moments, after all), and since that time, with Eminem and whatever else, nobody can congratulate non-metal music forms for cleaning up their act, while metal lyrics & cover art remain as largely concerned with escapist fantasy as they ever did. So in today’s context, I don’t think Tomb of the Mutilated would rile up anywhere near as many feminists as then. You only need look at how feminist attitudes toward pornography have developed over the past 20 years to concur.
Allow me to make one critcism of this otherwise great album by a still-going-very-strong band: the production is terrible. I can’t think of a better example of Scott Burns’ kick-drums-resembling-knitting-needles-on-a-laminex-table methodology than this. The rest of the band suffers a similar lack of bass. I know you’ve got to hear things clearly in death metal, but they took it too far with the treble on this one.
To the band’s and producer’s credit, their next record “The Bleeding” sounded much warmer and punchier without sacrificing any of that clarity. And kudos to Cannibal Corpse for being one of few bands where a) you can hear the bass guitar at all times, and b) it’s not just playing the same lines as the rhythm guitar.
I wish I could upvote this comment.
Never thought I’d see Chris Barnes compared to Baudelaire. I think you might be reaching a little there.
On the other hand, it’s hard to picture the Corpse’s brand of grandiose atrocity as anything other than an ultra-modern response to society at large, a product of how utterly obscene and hideous the world outside our window has become.
Well, maybe you find it hard, perhaps because you spent too long taking the wrong sort of classes in college.
Me, I think it’s pretty easy to just see it as a desire to shock, or perhaps a personal reaction to the world, that does not require it to actually be obscene or hideous.
Because the world at large? Actually not that obscene and hideous, especially to anyone with historical knowledge; remember that if that kind of gore is meant to be a reaction to a hideous world, we’d have to explain why it’s relatively novel, despite hideousness being as old as Man.
(One could even argue that it’s a reaction to the sanitization of general experience; the streets are no longer filled with shit and most of us never see a corpse that isn’t already embalmed, in person, more than a few times in our lives, let alone public executions or coroporal punishment as was common as anything in the pre-Industrial world.
But I’m still going to bet on “to shock people”.)
Great article, great comments. It’s why I enjoy this website so much. I saw Cannibal Corpse once and it was like being in a washing machine, really cool.
Best article I have read on here for a long time. Kudos.
Cannibal Corpse are the lamest early 90s death metal band I can think of, their last show was utterly boring especially compared to the Cianide/Autopsy show I saw the following weekend which was full of enthusiastic bangers and moshers. The CC show was full of fat guys staring into their tablet phone things (still won’t get one). I think Cannibal Corpse in a way ruined death metal by making it utterly generic, void of atmosphere, memorable song writing, everything else that made bands like Asphyx, Massacra, Gorguts, hell even Impetigo so unforgettable. CC have the power of hype and being the only thing most people see when they seek out DM and its a fucking shame.