Once upon a time, you simply couldn’t see Cannibal Corpse in Australia. Nor could you easily listen to them, unless you had a friend of a friend who had a couple of Cannibal Corpse albums dubbed onto a TDK C90 from a copy of a copy. Their lyrics and album artwork were deemed too brutal for Australian consumption. Now, of course, those censored days are long gone and the band has wreaked their particular brand of musical malevolence upon us regularly, last visiting in 2012.
Until you’ve witnessed it in person, nothing can quite prepare you for the heaviness, brutality and chaotic precision that is Cannibal Corpse. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz puts on an inhuman performance, never once dropping a beat or missing an opportunity to pummel the bloody hell out of his kit in ways that, frankly, freak other drummers out. I would know; I heard a few of them muttering words of awe at the bar. This dude performs musical feats of strength that wouldn’t be out of place at a Festivus gathering. Ditto for bassist Alex Webster, who matches the guitar work of Rob Barrett and Patrick O’Brien note for note, but on huge fat-arse bass strings and without the aid of a pick to prevent his fingers from being worn down to bloody stumps. And vocalist George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher… Well look, the dude only really has two notes – a guttural growl and a blood-curdling, urgent, tormented scream – but they’re the two most perfect notes you could imagine for this kind of music: like if a distorted guitar had a human voice.
It’s been a long, long time since Corpsegrinder replaced original vocalist Chris Barnes (and he had a pretty funny put-down to a fan who yelled out for Chris about three quarters of the way through the show, punishing the dude’s area of the crowd by throwing bottles of water to the other side instead), and he remains the perfect fit for the band in sound, attitude and presence.
The set list was packed with classics – Fucked With A Knife, Evisceration Plague, Edible Autopsy, Addicted To Vaginal Skin, I Cum Blood, Hammer Smashed Face to name a few. We were even treated to Icepick Lobotomy, Sadistic Embodiment and Kill Or Become from their new album A Skeletal Domain (released this week), and it was great to hear how well the band’s new slightly darker, eerier material was able to fit in amongst the classics.
Here’s the thing, right? Cannibal Corpse is not for everyone. The imagery is fucking brutal, the sound abrasive, and the moshpit was genuinely bloody. But if you’re into heavy music even a little bit, you owe it to yourself to see them at least once. The level of musicianship is genuinely world-class and they’re giants of the death metal genre.
BY PETER HOGDSON
Loved: The wide-ranging set list and Alex Webster’s freakish bass playing.
Hated: Being too much of a pussy to get into the pit.
Drank: Chalice of blood.
