Chaos Horrific

I'm going to say this up front: I like Vincent Locke's artwork, I like that the band is high on consistency, but would it kill Cannibal Corpse to explore some other color palettes once in awhile? It's not that the cover to Chaos Horrific is bad or unfitting whatsoever, but considering how the band is often criticized for some of the sameness of their death metal material, it might help a fraction to vary up the packaging. Other than that, though, I have few if any complaints about their 16th studio album, because their sound is not one I grow that weary of, and while it's got a lot of the predictable, hammering, gory elements, you can hear them occasionally trying to throw a few new hooks or patterns at you when they can spare the expansion. That said, if you're not a fan of the George Corpsegrinder era of the band, now the default at nearly three decades, if you're pining for those simpler times of the early 90s, Chaos Horrific is not going to change your mind.

This is the battering, clinical, darkly brutal death metal they've been releasing since Vile with few if many alterations other than who is in the lineup, what they can offer, and minor differences in production. I for one prefer this flurried, semi-technical style and I'm constantly exploring the substrate of gore for all the tasty, meaty little hooks, but there's no question that you could mix up a bunch of tracks off the last ten albums on a playlist and perhaps forget which album they came from beyond a few standouts. All of these tunes are almost obnoxiously consistent, packed with agile little palm-muted chops and evil tremolo picked rhythms that alternate against groovier, weighted hooks like those that set up "Blood Blind" and its roiling horror show. One thing that's great about Cannibal Corpse, you can almost always discern the thrash roots and propulsion through their material, where other bands in the more cavernous style seem to have distanced themselves more from those fundamentals, this feels like that genre armored up with more oozing entrails and a growling animal and set to non-stop headbanging. If only all our necks could endure this as much as George's can!

I wouldn't mind more leads to whirlwind about here, but with Erik Rutan in the fold, you know where they do appear they're going to kick ass, and they do, like the eerie harmonies and exchanges in the center of "Fracture and Refracture". Alex and Paul still mete out the rhythmic bottom end like players 20 years their junior, and Rob and Erik load every song up with too many chops to ever bore from, even if there is that slight monotonous sense that they're largely small alterations on past progressions. The album is totally ferocious, even where it breaks to let a guitar thrash out or slows into a cyclopean but loaded groove, there is no place for your heart to rest, you are going to be splattered for 40 minutes and you'd best be ready. Rutan's production is quite in line with other recent efforts, and there's no point at which my attention wavered when I was truly in the mood for this style. Favorites include "Pestilential Rictus" for its infectious death/thrashing opening and groovy verse, or the finale "Drain You Empty" for that cool atmospheric intro, but the whole thing smokes just as hard as a lot of their other output from the 2010s and beyond.

Is there still some fleshy masterpiece waiting on the slab, ready for carving? I think the band would have to endure a forced evolution into a more widely-written album, or perhaps a de-evolution to super catchy, simpler tunes with the same charm, but at this point, even if they make another half dozen LPs of this general pace, punishment and quality I'll be supplied with enough bruisings to last me the rest of my days. Nothing broken (except your bones), nothing to fix.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

This album is a step-up from "Violence Unimagined"...they seem to have more solid riffs as Cannibal has taken another 5-piece band with one of the top releases for 2023 in my view. They deserved it! Everything seemed to be right on here with no ounce of anything mediocre.

I think Rutan made more of a difference on here as well. Him and Rob make a good combination on guitars. More wicked leads and rhythms on here! The songs are way tighter and this is my favorite release from Corpsegrinder ever since he started with the band replacing Chris Barnes. He's got way more range than Barnes ever had for Cannibal Corpse. The great thing about this release as well is that it's got a lot of variations with the songs. Even though they were more in B-flat tuning to get that chunky sound it sounds great. All the tracks were good! I listened to the sample before I downloaded this and then bought the CD. I'm so glad I did!

This is one of the top 3 Cannibal albums I'd choose in their entire discography. The others would be "Red Before Black", "Torture" and "Butchered At Birth." This new one is going to get plenty of air time for me especially sharing this information to readers to assure them that this is the bands monument ever since some of their previous work that is worth mentioning. The mixing was top notch feature the guitars well in synch with the vocals. The only thing that I didn't hear a whole lot were Corpsegrinder's screams, they're mainly guttural. However, it suited the music!

If you want to know one top album from 2023 this LP hits the pinnacle for the band! Everything on here is killer! The production quality especially since they've been on Metal Blade is great. I don't see any signs of them slowing down! Loving this whole release!

Nothing like a bit of the old Cannibal Corpse, right? They’re just one of those bands where you can’t go too wrong with anything that they’ve put out… for the most part, and Chaos Horrific is no exception - at least at a base level. It follows more in the vein of albums like Gore Obsessed and Red Before Black with how it leans more towards thrash, rather than the more crashing and bashing sound of its direct predecessor in Violence Unimagined. Still, there are those moments where they slow things down to get those more worming melodic riffs in there, and you get a more crushing joint in “Blood Blind”. Still, it’s definitely not shy when it comes to thrashing for much of its runtime, and it becomes a bit of a double-edged sword, depending on how hard they riff and how they wind up transpiring. Gore Obsessed generated gale-force winds but still managed to make an impact. Red Before Black… ehh, didn’t so much. Chaos Horrific is a bit more up-and-down to where it goes from being a pretty good Cannibal Corpse album to one that’s quite underwhelming, to say the least.

Its opening track has some energy like all their opening tracks do, but this is certainly no “Demented Aggression” or even “Murderous Rampage”. It’s less of a firecracker and more like it’s half-finished, like they got the general vibe and structure down, but none of the finer details that they’d normally have. It’s about the same for “Vengeful Invasion”, which has this lick that sounds like a horror movie motif to kick things off and it sounds really cool, then the actual riffs fail to build anything meaningful. It just sounds like a mediocre death metal track that pushes and pulls between its meandering slower riffs and nothing faster riffs. None of the mania of something like “Psychotic Precision”, although it does come across like that the basic skeleton of that song. The last few songs on the album do have a fair amount of energy to them with their thrashier riffs and faster percussion, but there isn’t much to those songs apart from “Drain You Empty” having a doomier intro and outro riff that promises something grimmer than what ultimately became serviceable death/thrash. I dunno man – they’re “good” in the general sense of the word, but there’s not much of anything that makes the songs really shout out loud. Definitely one of those times where Pat’s style is deeply missed.

What does keep Chaos Horrific over water are the other songs. Having “Summoned for Sacrifice” as the lead single was a smart move as it does what “Vengeful Invasion” wouldn’t by starting with a worm-infested slower riff before bludgeoning the senses with a mixture of high-impact thrashy death metal and those occasional mid-paced breaks! I mentioned “Blood Blind” before but seriously, you want a more crushing Cannibal Corpse tune, then you’ve got it right here! It’s just more of their standard issue suffocating crunch that nevertheless follows this rousing groove that kicks your ass and them some! But you want fast, right? Well, there’s “Frenzied Feeding”, which thrashes, gives you a couple of killer solos and rides off into the sunset with a more drawn-out refrain of the main riff… before kicking off that main riff again – hey, I said it was good, not great! But then there’s the highlight of the album, “Chaos Horrific”, with more downtrodden thrashing that nails you down and doesn’t let you down. The chorus definitely has Corpsegrinder’s harsher, ghoulish growls that strikes fear into the senses. In short, you’ve got half an album that’s just kinda there, and half an album that’s at least fairly good.

But above all else, there just isn’t anything about Chaos Horrific beyond a few moments and – realistically speaking – a few songs that makes it all that flash. Much of it is tried-and-true corpse, which is fine if that’s all you want. Cannibal Corpse are one of those bands where you can’t go entirely wrong with that. It’s just difficult to get all that excited about an album that basically does that, with maybe only a few songs going above that barometer.

Cannibal Corpse, like Cannibal Corpse, still do not give up in their old age and successfully release album after album, promoting them with intensive concert tours. Such a pattern, of course, is not new in their thread, but it's still worth mentioning in the context of "Chaos Horrific", the sixteenth longplay by Cannibal Corpse, especially when you take into account the current frequency and form of other veterans of American death metal - most of them incomparable to Mazurkiewicz's group. "Chaos Horrific" doesn't change anything much at this level, because the quintet is already used to such an impressive, releasing cycle, so the "Chaos..." - just like their predecessors - once again confirm that the veterans from Cannibal Corpse can write good albums in bulk and in their own recognizable style.

It's not as gripping material that encourages repeated listening as "Violence Unimagined" or even "Red Before Black", but it maintains their characteristic level, shows no signs of weakening and - unlike many current death metal premieres - sounds natural, distant from excessive sterility. "Chaos Horrific", with one small exception (which I will talk about in a moment), has everything that is already well known, liked and even required by these Americans. This album is full of their characteristic heaviness, simple rhythms, a grizzly bear on vocals, Paul Mazurkiewicz's sprinting drumming, easy-to-understand and catchy patterns and small bass accents from Alex Webster. There is no wow effect or really any major surprise here, although such reproductive composing has its meaning, as exemplified by "Blood Blind", the title track, "Frenzied Feeding" or "Overlords Of Violence", in which you can clearly hear the power and good ideas for riffs, despite reviving old motifs and - as a result - moving through well-known areas. The mentioned exception on "Chaos Horrific" is the closing track "Drain You Empty" - full of the best vibes from Nile and - obviously - Hate Eternal! It's a pity that this type of accents didn't appear here more, because, as this song shows, it fits perfectly into classic, cannibal death metal. In turn, when it comes to solos, not much has changed since the previous album. Again, they remind of Erik Rutan's Hate Eternal, and at the same time they fit very well with the rest of their typical elements.

"Chaos Horrific" is therefore another confirmation that the Americans from Cannibal Corpse, despite such an extensive discography, still have the energy to record more music. And although the sixteenth album of this quintet is located in the lower part of the table of their newer releases, because it's not as exciting as the previous one, "Chaos..." also presents a satisfactory, high level and there is a lot of quite catchy songs that will work well on concerts. This is not common among old-timers.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

How do they do it? That's what I have to wonder every time a new Cannibal Corpse project drops. For over 30 years, these guys have been in the death metal game and I struggle to think of anyone who's been in metal, or music in general, for that long and managed to keep the quality up all this time. They do it without much stylistic experimentation, too: since Bloodthirst, this band has been very stylistically consistent, yet they've kept just enough variation in there to maintain their identity while keeping the carrot dangling for future releases. Every time it seems like they start to stagnate, they get a little kick in the pants, which most recently came in the form of Erik Rutan replacing longtime guitarist Pat O'Brien. They've released one album with this lineup already and it worked great, and this follow-up remains fresh. Neck-and-neck with the standard Violence Unimagined upheld.

Aside from Paul Mazurkiewicz's drumming being as basic and ham-fisted as ever and starting to sound strained and less blast beat-happy in its old age, every other instrument has aged incredibly well. I can't describe it any better than just saying that whatever you know and love from Cannibal Corpse is still here. Alex Webster still has hammers for fingers, and George Fisher's voice has not lost a bit of its intensity or tone, a remarkable achievement for someone who has been performing this style of vocals for as long as he has. This time around, the guitars feel a bit more laid back, though. Not as technical and crazy as Violence Unimagined, and certainly not as much as when Pat O'Brien's twisted genius was still in the band. The riffing is a bit more basic, but it's good basic. And, of course, for stylistic variation, Erik Rutan still has a very distinct songwriting identity within the band. His solos are more melodic and his songwriting is slower and more atmospheric, demonstrated best on Blood Blind, a song immediately recognizable as his with its slow pace and dissonant harmonies. It sort of feels like a sequel to Chaos Horrific's Condemnation Contagion. The placement of songs like this, along with Summoned for Sacrifice and the thunderous closer Drain You Empty, demonstrates Cannibal Corpse's skill at not just riff creation, but also sequencing. They never let themselves get too fast for too long, giving themselves room to breathe with slower stuff and simultaneously making the album's songs more identifiable. The album ends and it doesn't feel like it has dragged. If anything, it feels shorter than it actually is.

So, I've established that the music hides the band's age all right, but now I have to talk about the way that they show their age very clearly: with aesthetics. Erik Rutan's only recently come on board as Cannibal Corpse's guitarist, but he's been involved with them since Kill as their producer and sound engineer. Only for A Skeletal Domain did they switch it up with Mark Lewis behind the board, and lo and behold - that album sounds the most different out of all Cannibal Corpse albums since Kill. Not that I would prefer it if Mark Lewis came back - I don't like the processing and sample usage he did to the drums on A Skeletal Domain and Rutan does sample replacement and drum processing much more tastefully. Regardless of his ability on that front, his mixing and engineering is starting to get old. Same oversaturated Mesa Rectifier scumbag tone for every album, super dry Those Once Loyal-like drums, and quite loud bass sound. I actually really love the bass sounds he gets, and he's probably helped on that front no end by Webster having hammer-like fingers, but I feel like the rest of the instruments would really benefit from a distinct aesthetic for each new album. Like, switch up the gear a bit, try a different mixing approach. Change the process, change the outcome. And while they're at it, get a new cover artist. They've gone to Vince Locke for every album cover they've ever needed art for, and his cartoonish gore is starting to get old. It doesn't help that his color pallets have been getting narrower, and this one is largely just the same dull reddish tint without much contrast. It looks generic at this point, and I would welcome a new cover artist with open arms. But, you know, this is a music review, not an art review, so I'm still gonna score this thing decently high because they continue to do the music well.

At the end of the day: good job, guys. One more good album under your belt, and here's to many more. If you're a Cannibal Corpse fan, you know what this record is gonna be, and you're not gonna be disappointed by it. And not that this is a high bar to clear, but you can be certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that this record is going to wipe the floor with whatever Chris Barnes and his cronies in Six Feet Under have been teasing for the last couple months. That's gonna be a more brutal bloodbath than anything Cannibal Corpse wrote in the lyrics on this album.

Despite its gruesome image and imagery, American death metal pioneers Cannibal Corpse have been spreading creativity, energy and joy with their amusing, dynamic and entertaining live shows that should not be missed. However, the legendary quintet has been firmly establishing its trademark style for three and a half decades and counting which has logically lead to a certain stagnation in quality. Chaos Horrific is nonetheless one of the band's greatest most recent releases but it can't compete with the groundbreaking early records of yore.

''Overlords of Violence'' kicks the record off on a high note. The guitar riffs are fast, fierce and technically skilled, the bass guitar is dominant, energetic and vibrant, the drum play is precise, quick and rhythmic and the vocals are brutal, charismatic and low. The organic production adds some welcome additional oomph. The song gets to the point in just three minutes and doesn't take any prisoners.

''Blood Bind'' slows things down a little bit without losing any intensity. It's quite the opposite actually as the smoother parts sound brooding, menacing and sinister while the faster passages feel brutal, sudden and violent. The balance of these two sides is particularly excellent on this album highlight.

Title song ''Chaos Horrific'' goes for a different approach and sounds like an overwhelming sensory overload at first contact. Once you have digested the fittingly chaotic approach, there is some excellent technical musicianship to be discovered. The guitar riffs for instance are employed with clockwork precision and the drum play is so accurate that it almost sounds robotic. This is certainly a song that needs a few spins to unfold and grow on most listeners.

While this record includes no stinkers and has a perfect length of thirty-nine minutes, Cannibal Corpse obviously doesn't reinvent technical death metal here. The group keeps recalling its own back catalogue as well as influences from genre pioneers such as Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel and Suffocation throughout the record. This is why this release as a whole can have a few moments that feel dragging, formulaic and repetitive. Genre enthusiasts certainly won't mind but occasional listeners might have a valid point when bringing up said issue.

In the end, Cannibal Corpse's Chaos Horrific is a very good release for anyone craving contemporary high-quality death metal. If you are however more interested in influential genre records, going back to the band's first five full length efforts and early extended play shall certainly prove to be more entertaining than discovering this somewhat formulaic new release. Cannibal Corpse's Chaos Horrific is good for what it is but won't leave much of a lasting impression to be honest.

For a moment, I thought Cannibal Corpse was not going to recover from the departure of Pat O’Brien in the songwriting department. While 2021’s ‘Violence Unimagined’ wasn’t bad, something just felt off about nearly every song not written by Rob Barrett – my other favorite songwriter in Cannibal Corpse. Fortunately, ‘Chaos Horrific’ is a lot better. O’Brien’s replacement Erik Rutan seems to have found his take on Cannibal Corpse’s songwriting and bassist Alex Webster appears to have been more inspired this time around, resulting in what is probably the band’s most vicious, thrashing set of songs since 2006’s ‘Kill’ album.

While I quite like Cannibal Corpse, I find them fairly difficult to review, as they are a band I tend to enjoy on a riff by riff basis rather than song by song. This usually means that the Cannibal Corpse albums I like are the ones that heavily lean towards O’Brien’s twisted dissonance and Barrett’s intense thrash riffs. ‘Chaos Horrific’ is quite heavy on the extreme thrash turned up to eleven from everyone involved and it simply works. The energy injection the band has gotten while writing and recording the album pushed them to make something I didn’t think they had in them anymore.

Despite his wealth of experience writing, performing and producing death metal, Rutan did not quite fill the void O’Brien left behind on ‘Violence Unimagined’ in my opinion. However, Rutan’s ‘Blood Blind’ is exactly the twisted, semi-doomy grind that the album needs and his closer ‘Drain You Empty’ has similar sections alternating with probably the most intense death metal on here. ‘Fenzied Feeding’ is my favorite of his compositions here though, feeling like a steam train gone out of control with its pummeling, speedy riffs, which have their impact enhanced by the dark, ominous vibe of its slower middle section.

‘Vengeful Invasion’ is carried by one of the catchiest riffs ever produced by a non-melodic death metal band before morphing into a highly effective mid-tempo groove. ‘Pitchfork Impalement’ sports the most hilarious title, but also some of the most deliciously in-your-face riffs of the album. ‘Summoned for Sacrifice’ is reminiscent of Slayer’s best slower material, while ‘Fracture and Refracture’ and opening track ‘Overlords of Violence’ are excellent death thrashers. I would also like to commend Paul Mazurkiewicz. He may not be the most technical drummer in death metal, but his excellent sense of groove keeps the music from spiraling out of control. His drum sound is also perfect for this material.

Sure, Cannibal Corpse does not do anything revolutionary on ‘Chaos Horrific’, but complaining about that would be missing the point. What the album does do is play to all of the band’s strengths in a way I frankly think they haven’t done since ‘Kill’, enjoyable as some of the records released in the intervening seventeen years have been. Barrett, Webster and Rutan have found a fantastic way of weaving technicality into a set of energetic death metal tracks that might come across as straightforward, but remain surprising over repeated listens. Not many death metal bands of their ilk and era are able to do that quite as well.

Recommended tracks: ‘Vengeful Invasion’, ‘Frenzied Feeding’, ‘Fracture and Refracture’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

Only two years after Violence Unimagined guys from Cannibal Corpse are going to release their 25th studio album Chaos Horrific. I guess they used the Covid-19 lockdown times very productively, otherwise I cannot explain the short time period between the two albums. For me Violence Unimagined was a quite okayish Cannibal Corpse release, I feel very different about Chaos Horrific.

Starting with a casual The Bleeding - in memoriam bass riff, 'Overlords Of Violence' (damn, the title reminds me of an old Playstation game) goes into a very interesting direction. Although the song sounds pretty much like a "normal" Cannibal Corpse song, it has some nuances that make the song a very catchy and with a few other ones the most accessible song on the album. The guitar solos are pretty sick and the whole thing is a high speed neck breaking trip that leaves no room to breathe. That's a very good start for sure. With 'Summoned For Sacrifice' the band has released their second single a few days ago and this one may be the most outstanding and catchiest song on the album. The lyrics are pretty sick and Corpsegrinder's vocals sound as malevolent as possible. The song is a pretty much a mid-tempo stomper, only here and there the Floridians increase the tempo to severe some body parts. 'Blood Blind' starts with some slow lava-flowing Morbid Angel-like riffing (not the only parts where you can clearly recognize Erik Rutans influence on the song writing) but soon turns into a slow galloping avalanche of massive death metal riffs. That's a pretty simplistic but brutal track. But as I mentioned before not all songs make it that easy. Let's take the title track as a very good example. The beat of the song is very confusing and the term "chaos" matches pretty good to the song. Okay, not right from the start but when the vocals start Paul Mazurkiewicz's drumming sounds very unusual and very technical. Same goes to the sick guitar solo which again reminds of Morbid Angel or early Hate Eternal. But there are also some really typical CC songs to find here like 'Pitchfork Impalement' (hell yeah, the fall and the harvest will come soon!) or 'Vengeful Invasion'. Oh, and with 'Pestilential Rictus' they do have written a very punkish one with some fantastic thrash borrowings, too. Just check the song structure and you will know what I mean.

There are a lot of cool surprises in the songs. In comparison to its predecessor, the songwriting is much more diverse and this is the reason why in my humble opinion this might be one of the three best Cannibal Corpse albums in their discography. The band hasn't focused that much on brutality and technicality this time but more on variety and joy of playing. I guess that they had a quite different approach towards the song writing this time which seems to be successful and somewhat refreshing. Also the production of Chaos Horrific is well done. The instruments sound powerful and well-balanced and the crushing vocals are brutal as hell. There were some albums that didn't sound that good in the past. If the next album will be that amazing and we just have to wait 2 more years again, I won't be sad about it!

Rating: 9.2 out of 10

Originally written for metalbite.com

Only 2 years after the release of “Violence Unimagined”. Cannibal Corpse (CC) delivers a beast of a 16th album that is entitled “Chaos Horrific”. This album seemed to have been announced almost out of nowhere, as I later found out that leaks had surfaced around mid-June about its upcoming announcement. And those leaks were proven correct when the lead single “Blood Blind” was unleashed upon the world. And I was lucky enough to get this album almost 1-2 weeks early with preordering the album. With over 16 albums under their belt you know immediately what you're in for, absolutely brutal heavy death metal. Their consistency remains strong as ever, with this album being no exception. Over their 34-year career, they remained the kings of death metal. And “Chaos Horrific” is easily one of the best albums of 2023.

As soon as the opening bass line of “Overlords of Violence” kicks in you’re instantly slammed in the skull with a thrashy attack. It doesn’t waste time building suspense, it just kicks your teeth in. With absolutely head-banging riffage from Erik Rutan and Rob Barrett, this album has exceptionally thrash-influenced riffs in the first 2 tracks specifically. But thrash influences are definitely found throughout the band and this album. Alex Webster's bass work is as heavy and chunky as ever, his performance is easily recognizable and can be heard throughout this album. Paul Mazurkiewicz beats his drums into oblivion on here, he’s a very barbaric and precise drummer who never lets up. And as per usual, Corpsegrinder's vocals are insanely guttural. His vocals seem lower on this record than on the previous album “Violence Unimagined”. Which fits and adds to the sinister feel of this album in the entire 38-minute run-span.

Erik Rutan does a killer job with production as well. Everything is heavy and clear, nothing is snuffed out on here. With him being the producer and band member of CC it makes it even better, he was a fantastic addition to the band. It’s a fresh perspective within CC without reinventing the wheel. When you get to the track “Summoned for Sacrifice” things take a really groovy turn. The song starts off with a heavy chugging riff and a double bass beat down. It’s slow at first but then immediately transitions into a nasty fucking groove, to me it’s easily the grooviest moment on the entire album. It also contains an incredible solo in the middle of the song to add even more greatness, it’s definitely a standout track.

If there is one thing this album excels in, it’s the fucking solos. All of them are easily memorable and get stuck in your head. Sometimes they’re deranged squeals and shreds, especially in the first 2 tracks and the title track. Or they can be slow, dreading, and downright soul-crushing. This leads to the best song on this album, that song being “Blood Blind”. The first single that was released and easily the evilest song on this album. It begins with a slow chugging beat-down, slowly stomping its way around throughout the first portion of the song. And then it switches into a very fast thrashy assault, it gives off such an evil vibe that only the final track on here can match. But the song reaches its peak when it slows back down (not by much), leading up to the solo. Easily one of the best solos I’ve heard from this band by far, it displays such an evil but very feely vibe. The title track is another standout. It has moments that sound like something out of “Eaten Back to Life”, specifically the grooves and drum beats.

If there’s one minor gripe I have (if you can even call it a gripe) is the lack of blast beats. I was surprised when I noticed that the one song on here that has a legitimate blast beat is “Pitchfork Implement”. But after continuing to listen to this album, it became not that big of a deal over time. Because Paul still delivers an excellent performance no matter what tricks he uses. Some other highlights would be “Vengeful Invasion”, “Frenzied Feeding”, and “Fracture and Refracture”.

Now let’s talk about the final track “Drain you Empty”. It has a different vibe that I don’t hear this band give off too often. It’s a very doomy and sinister track right from the get-go, it slowly builds up into a speedy attack but for portions of this song, it is a very doomy song. Delivering an amazing solo as always, this song also has an iconic Corpsegrinder high shriek in there. Yes, he always does raspy higher vocals, but I haven’t heard him truly go that high in quite some time. But overall it’s a fantastic album closer. I also want to talk about the perfect album cover done by Vince Locke. It perfectly fits with this record and I think it’s one of the best album covers this band has had in recent years.

Cannibal Corpse has once again slaughtered the masses with an incredible album. I have nothing but respect and praise to give to this band. And that will never change, showcasing why they’re my personal favorite band of all time. It’s a successful follow-up to “Violence Unimagined”. Do I think that this is better? No, but it’s fucking amazing no matter what. I also love how this album is getting released on the same day as “Tomb of the Mutilated” was released all those years ago. This is another great addition to the CC discography. If you're a CC fan you won’t be disappointed with “Chaos Horrific”. And I’m glad to have spent almost 100 dollars buying the deluxe box set because it was worth every penny. A fantastic album. Check it out.

There is always a nauseating stench in the air preceding the raids of the world's most infamous cannibal gang; a stink of blood and fear that brings a sense of impending death. You know suffering is coming and there's nothing you can do about it, no matter how much you shield yourself with the pop sensation of the week or some lucky charms blessed by the Dalai Lama himself. You're done, and you know it. So stop fighting and go grab your worn-out Slayer t-shirt, an axe, and embrace the pain; for they're coming, this time with ten new tracks revolving around zombies, pitchfork impalements, human trafficking, mass mutilation, dismemberment, and… oddly enough, knives (go figure). A complete, full-blooded package presented by the same homicidal crew who brought you Violence Unimagined, including guitarist and producer Erik Rutan, who once again shares guitar duties with Rob Barrett.

Composed shortly after its predecessor, Chaos Horrific follows in the footsteps of Violence Unimagined, musically and production-wise, making them close relatives, so to speak. A somewhat expected outcome given the band's well-known reluctance to change and the fact that, once again, they chose to record at Erik Rutan's studios in Florida. There's nothing wrong with playing it safe, let alone a band that rarely ventures outside of its comfort zone. However, despite loving how the album sounds, I'd like to see the lads delve into deeper acoustic dimensions, as they did on A Skeletal Domain. This would provide greater contrasts (production-wise) with Violence Unimagined, giving Chaos Horrific a more distinctive look and feel. Musically, it explores Cannibal Corpse's trademark sonic rollercoaster: overwhelming fast tempos ('Overlords of Violence', 'Frenzied Feeding'), crushing slow-paced sections ('Summoned For Sacrifice', 'Blood Blind') and compelling grooves ('Pestilential Rictus'), all with that unique neanderthal vibe we've come to love. As with the predecessor, Erik Rutan's songwriting makes itself felt again on songs like 'Summoned For Sacrifice' and 'Drain You Empty', adding a Hate Eternal-esque layer to the mix while injecting more diversity and technicality into the formula without detracting from it. The closing track is where Erik's presence becomes most evident, namely with its multi-layered power chords and reverb-laden tremolo picking, which stands out as one of the album's most unusual and contrasting nuances. Although Cannibal Corpse's strength lies in their reliability and stylistic consistency rather than innovation, I like it when the boys add some freshness, however subtle. The restrained 'Blood Blind' and 'Frenzied Feeding' also feature some interesting textures from both ends of the spectrum, with the latter entering territory akin to Violence Unimagined's 'Ritual Annihilation'. Everything about Chaos Horrific screams steadiness, maturity, and professionalism, which ultimately translates into absolute carnage. An unrelenting onslaught carried out by a highly trained squad of homicidal maniacs who have specialized in the art of killing (and riffing) for a few decades now.

Grab your weapons, lads, for the cannibal gang is back in a chaotic frenzy. Yes, I'm talking to you, boy; it's time to man up and start chopping some heads off. The zombie horde is right on your doorstep, and by the looks of things, you'll either join the death squad or you'll be cut to ribbons. But judging by the empty, dead look in your eyes, and that blood in your mouth, I know you'll do just fine.

Come and get it, you motherfuckers!

Originally written for www.sputnikmusic.com

Cannibal Corpse are a bit of a case study within the mainstream metal scene. They're basically the biggest death metal band ever, they have so many albums up their sleeve, and yet they still seem to put so much effort and care into their works. Sometimes, I wonder what the fuck does still keep motivating them by this point: music is basically just a job for them (and it's been like that for decades), and let's face it - their current fanbase, being as large and casual as it is, does not feature a very high number of bright minds. The band might as well churn out some average turd every few years (the same way Chris Barnes keeps doing since the late 90's) and call it a day, with most of their fanbase eating it up - but no: they still care a lot, moreso than many young bands of today, which are supposed to be in their creative prime while sounding like aged has-beens who ran out of inspiration and motivation years and years ago.

So, "Chaos Horrific" is Cannibal Corpse's brand new record (following 2021's cool but not super-impressive "Violence Unimagined"), and it has greatly exceeded my expectations. I was very fond of the thrashy, more stripped down, still brutal-as-fuck formula the band had employed since 2006's "Kill", carrying it successfully on "Evisceration Plague" and "Torture", while I was not enthusiastic about the more rigid, overly technical approach taken since 2014's "A Skeletal Domain" - but "Chaos Horrific" seems to be headed toward a regain of the band's 2006-2012 sound. It's still not as unmercifully out-there and bludgeoning as "Kill" or "Torture" were, but you can hear at many points that older approach seeping through these ten new tracks, with what might be the most inspired, visceral riffing that we've ever heard by the band during the latest decade. These are all short, sweet, punchy death metal numbers built around overtly thrashy song structures (with skank beats and moderate mid-tempos being way more abundant than all-out blasting) - not too much unlike 2017's "Red Before Black", but definitely less boxed-in and way more relentless compared to that album. As in typical Cannibal Corpse fashion, songs are always packed with tons of information, regardless of their perceived simplicity or linearity - and on this particular record, the songwriting feels more lively and inspired than it's ever been since a long time: when "Overlords of Violence" kicked in, I was stunned to hear such granitic, no-bullshit deathrashing riffage, almost reminding me of tunes like "The Time to Kill is Now".

That's true for most other tracks as well: the riffing feels so intense and in-your-face, yet so rich and expressive in its apparent linearity, conjuring a higher level of tension and menace compared to previous albums ("Red Before Black" did come close at times, but was not as consistent in its savagery). The band hits you in the head with one riff after the other, all flawlessly tied together in a way that maximizes its impact with such a level of consistency that was not heard since "Torture": be it the straightforward thrashy riffage of "Frenzied Feeding" and the title-track, the long-winded yet easy-flowing phrases of "Overlords of Violence" and "Pitchfork Impalement" or the tense, evil-sounding tremolos of "Summoned for Sacrifice" and "Drain You Empty", these tunes do constantly seethe with malevolence, with nearly no drop in quality nor any contrived pairing between incompatible riffs annoyingly breaking the flow (as it was oftentimes the case with "A Skeletal Domain"). It's also surprising, on a Cannibal Corpse album, to hear such a headbangable track as "Pestilential Rictus", whose fist-in-the-air up-tempos feel closer to Motorhead than "Butchered at Birth" in spirit, but well, at this point in their career the band seems to be more in touch with their 80's roots than they ever were since their first demo. Don't believe that? My favorite track on the record demonstrates it in the most crystal-clear way you could possible ask for: "Fracture and Refracture" is an insanely fast-paced tune in that nice late-80's sense, based around eargasmic, razor-sharp riffs that remind me very much of Swedish death/thrash gods Merciless, alternated with some more technical phrases that still feel integral to the song. Just killer.

And yeah, the album slows down a bit near the middle. Where modern Cannibal Corpse gets slightly less interesting is on their groovy, ultra-downtuned numbers, and that's been especially true since the times of "A Skeletal Domain". This new album has "Blood Blind", which was selected as lead single (as usual, the weaker songs on modern metal albums are the ones that get picked as singles) and drags a bit with some insipid chugging that we've at this point come to accept as part of the band's current formula - but even that song speeds up at some point, with yet another tremolo-laden up-tempo that feels particularly threatening and malevolent, bringing the track to a satisfying conclusion. Plus, songs like "Vengeful Invasion" display a taste for mid-tempos which has more in common with the Slayer-inspired approach of the "Kill" era, rather than the convoluted chugging that can be heard on some Cannibal tunes from 2014 onward.

I wonder how much the influence of Erik Rutan plays a part in the band's recent evolution: he's produced nearly all of their albums since "Kill", and now that he's officially part of their lineup, it only makes sense that he may have wanted to push for a return to the more visceral, streamlined sound he helped pioneer since 2006. Honestly, I don't care that much: whether the reason is, I'm glad to hear such an enjoyable Cannibal Corpse album in 2023, and I hope the band keeps going down this thrashy, old school route as much as possible, leaving behind for good the modern-sounding, slightly contrived technicalities of "A Skeletal Domain". I've always been more of a Suffocation guy, but let's give credit when it's due: there aren't many old mainstream metal bands today still keeping such a level of quality and consistency as the Corpse guys.