Red Before Black

With their 14th studio album of mass killings and pure brutality. Cannibal Corpse (CC) is a band that seems to never slow down or get boring. They always deliver when it comes to their slab of osdm. Unfortunately, this would be Pat’O Brien's last album with the band. As he would go through of bunch of shit regarding a bunch of events he would get arrested for only a year after this album was released. Including burglary, and an assault on a police officer/ deputy. To me, Pat was one of CC’s best if not the best guitarist they’ve ever had. But he left the band on a good note because this album is a force to be reckoned with.

This album starts off with one of my favorite CC songs EVER. And that is “Only One Will Die”. Right from the beginning it’s thrashy and intense, the riffs instantly grab you by the throat and never let go. They’re hooky and chuggy, Corpsegrinder sounding as hellish and as heavy as ever. I love the tremolo riffing this song displays as well. And then around the 1:48 minute mark of the song it kicks into one of the best grooves this band has ever done. And gets even better, at the 2:08 minute mark of the song displays one of the HEAVIEST and most pissed-off sounding grooves/ beatdowns CC has ever done. The layered backing vocals of Erik Rutan and Corpsegrinder sound so pissed off and energized, I just feel like breaking something every time I hear it. Closing off with a very sinister and squealy solo as well.

Now on to production. Erik Rutan does a fantastic job here. The guitars and bass are punchy and primitive sounding, they’re not polished but they still sound good. Paul Mazurkiewicz's drums sound absolutely amazing and very pummeling. The kick drums sound very heavy and muddy, kinda like someone hitting mashed potatoes. But that doesn’t mean it sounds bad because it sounds fucking awesome. Pat O’Brien lets it fucking rip on this album, his guitar work and rhythms are ungodly abrasive and heavy. And his solos are as masterful as they always are, something I’ve always admired and loved about Pat’O Brien's work is his solos. Because they’re always very technical yet memorable at the same time.

This album grooves a lot, something I’ve always loved about death metal. The tracks “Red Before Black” and “Shedding My Human Skin” continue on the groove train. Showing off very hooky memorable vocal lines and riffs, always having a thrashy edge to them as well. I love how heavy the palm-muted riffs and chugs are, Rob Barrett and Pat’O Brien are very skillful guitarists and are masters at their craft. “Code of the Slashers” is another one of my favorite songs by CC and one of the first songs I ever heard from this band. It displays CC’s more sinister and slow side, showing off these incredibly heavy and slow palm-muted riffs. I love the little punch harmonics they throw in there as well. The tapping and squeals on the solos once again are so fucking killer. The blast beats and double bass by Paul always hits and slams my skull into pieces.

The lyrics are also really fun to follow along with. To me, CC writes the best lyrics. There’s just something about their style of gore and violence that has always appealed to me in terms of how well it fits the music or the songs. The same can be said for the album covers. When I first got into this music the first thing that always grabbed me was the imagery and lyrics. Yes while I love stuff like Morbid Angel, Deicide, and many more death metal bands. It was CC that truly got my attention, the others just weren’t as provocative. I’m not saying they’re cringy or their lyrics suck, but CC's imagery and lyrics has always been the one that I always gravitate towards the most. The music and lyrics always grab me by the soul, something not many other bands do for me. Every time I put on an album it always gets my heart pumping and gets my head bobbing.

Corpsegrinder's vocals are very aggressive and frantic on this album. Displaying his diverse and varied vocal patterns and flow. Going from the gutturals to the higher, raspier notes has always been killer. He never disappoints in growling your face off and will always be a powerful influence in death metal. “Remaimed” especially being one of the most ruthless cuts on this album. Corpsegrinder speaks so frantically and quickly in this song it goes so well with the drums. They constantly blasts your skull off. Across this album, you can find yourself being submerged in the hellish sound of Paul’s speedy drum fills as well as very different tempo changes. Sometimes they change really fucking fast like on ”Remaimed” it can go from a very mid-paced riff to a very thrashy and speedy section in the span of a few seconds.

Alex Webster gets a moment to shine on this album with “Scavenger Consuming Death”. His opening bass line is gut-churning and evil-sounding. His bass work is always amazing, he’s always present in the mix and his bass lines are fucking sick. Always very technical and crazy in execution. This whole album is filled with amazing songs, killer songwriting, groovy beats, and all-around dynamic beats. Is it the most experimental and diverse album ever? Absolutely not, it’s straightforward balls-to-the-wall death metal. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Overall this album is stupidly heavy. This is everything a CC fan and a death metal fan in general will love. With this being Pat's last album with the band this paves the way for a new era of CC. That shows this band reaching even higher and more fantastic heights. At first, I wasn’t really familiar with this album. But after a while, this thing grew on me. Check this goddamn album out. A fantastic album.

Writing reviews on most of the newer Cannibal Corpse stuff is like having a Sunday lunch at your grandma's. We don't get anything revolutionary, but every time the platter is sumptuous and we are satisfied and there are also small changes that add variety to the "classic Sunday lunch". It looks equally appetizing with "Red Before Black" content. Paul Mazurkiewicz and Alex Webster's band basically did not deviate from the patterns from "A Skeletal Domain", and at the same time they showed that individual elements such as feeling, the ratio of brutality to catchiness or general production can be approached a bit differently. Also, enough for another similar disc of this type to have its own publishing sense - apart from the "usual" duty.

Compared to its predecessors, "Red Before Black" is a bit less effective, although it does not mean that it's bad or below the possibilities of these Americans. Well, from the beginning of "Only One Will Die" it's known in which direction the whole release will go! - which shouldn't come as a surprise. On "Red...", as standard, unhurried rhythms prevail (as usual, a lot of work is done by powerful slowdowns), slow guitar heaviness, occasional (and even thrash-like) speeds up, Corpsegrinder bearish growl and gore atmosphere (best captured in "Hideous Ichor" and "Shedding My Human Skin"). The production has also changed a bit, because it has gained much more "fleshy" sound (from the guitar side), and less sterility from the predecessor, although it's also not a huge novelty - the differences are minimal and intended for the greatest audiophiles. "Red Before Black" is, above all, another dose of cannibal hits, which perfectly match the style of the previous albums and which will immediately appeal to the fans of the newer incarnation of this band. Among the biggest highlights I would mention here in particular "Remaimed", "Corpus Delicti", "In The Midst Of Ruin", "Code Of The Slashers" or the mentioned "Shedding My Human Skin" and "Hideous Ichor".

So "Red Before Black" is an album that fits into the AC/DC syndrome (actually, a couple of the previous ones as well), but in a positive sense. Because for these Americans it's not bad or unnatural. Even if they take their tone a little down and roll only known motifs, these five are able to create discs that attract and stay in your memory. "Red...", although not as good as its predecessors, still can boast of this type of advantages.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/04/cannibal-corpse-red-before-black-2017.html

Understanding how important was the role of Scott Burns since their first album -giving the final touches to the perfect death metal studio recording formula- Cannibal Corpse have always surrounded themselves around professional producers and released awesome sounding material. After the departure of Chris Barnes they reached a second peak of creativity in 1999 with "Bloodthirst" and then they fell into a point of stagnation were every album they released was pretty much the same, ultra fast and technical but not memorable at all, until they started working with Erik Rutan for "Kill" in 2006. I'm not into the soiled and crude production of that album for a band like modern Cannibal Corpse that advanced so much technically; but with the abrupt production change also came a more old school composition philosophy, trying to include more Rob Barrett who is the least technical member and trying to sound more similar to the old school days. I consider this formula the third peak of creativity by this band, especially in "Torture" because it takes the best from both worlds and put it together. That is precisely the formula they used for this record.

The first couple of numbers are fast, written in the same tempo they used on "The Wretched Spawn" and "Gore Obsessed", they don't abuse from the technicality in the riffing so they are a little bit longer and have more coherent composition but still focus primary on the speed and aggression. The third track is a creepy slow number like "Evisceration Plague" or "Scourge Of Iron". The fourth track begins with a chilling guitar arpeggio and simpler riffing, referencing "Gallery of Suicide" era. The rest of the album continues with the traditional old school grooves the band has always been known for: pentatonic and rhythmic, harsh as fuck, fast, demented and know with a twist of technicality acquired over the years, the maturity to not abuse from it and upgraded 2017 state of the art studio technology. A band with such talented musicians doesn't need any help writing songs (their previous album was recorded in another studio and the structure they followed was the same they have been using on every album since 2006 and was probably just as good as this one) but the difference in the production Erik Rutan makes, gives these songs a more contusive and violent edge.

Blast beats, insane drum fills and speed, unpredictable tempo changes, crazy basslines, light speed guitar picking in solos and palm-muted riffs, Corpsegrinder's trademark gutturals… making brutality pleasant out of an orchestra of metallic spit-fire sounds. That's what Cannibal Corpse means to me and every different composition cycle in the history of that band is represented one way or another in this album that I recommend to any death metal fan, old school of new wave.

This album delivers everything that's essential in a death metal record: speed, gutteral vocals, great mixing/production, and just balls-out intensity. The riffs are totally fresh. Corpsegrinder is leader of the band setting the tone for yet another gruesome Cannibal Corpse release. This one is probably one of the better "newer" releases by this band. Not to say that their previous bombs, but it's just better sounding production-wise and better riff-writing. I think it's their strongest release since 'Torture'. Hopefully, they'll come out with some new music in 2020. With the whole ordeal relating to Pat O'Brien, I hope they do!

Every song on here is good, they're in B-Flat tuning, way different then standard or E-flat in their earlier days. Cannibal Corpse has had multiple good albums and multiple flops. But the positive releases have outweighted the shitty albums. They seem like they've really come into their own musically. Meaning the music keeps getting better. They just nailed it here. All different tempos, leads, but one thing that's consistent are the vocals. Corpsegrinder is just gutteral on here, no screaming. It'd make it a little more diverse, but this is what they put out so be it. The guitars and vocals are usually what I focus on in music so yeah, solid release!

The one driving force behind the band are their fans. So many bands have just disbanded over the years, CC has stayed together. No matter what ordeal or line-up changes they've made, they're still kicking ass. I'd say this one is unrelentingly good. Definitely worth a "B" rating. The only thing that I've never liked with the band are the lyrics. But it doesn't matter, the music is what's most important to me. A lot of people cannot relate to Metallica's lyrics, but that doesn't stop people from liking their music. Cannibal Corpse the same thing. The lyrics suck (to me), but their music is supremely good. Especially 'Red Before Black'.

I would just go ahead and buy the CD (if people still own CD players like me) or download the digital album on Spotify. Either way, you're getting to hear the heart go into this release. It really is amazing that they've put together such an awesome album after a few mediocre previous releases. Or at least their last one. The energy is all there on this one so show the band support. As a fan myself, I own the CD and have the album on my Spotify gadget and computer. I've listened to it enough to say that they've really done a great job here. Cannibal Corpse rules on!

It’s likely that a fan of Cannibal Corpse could pick up any of the band’s albums, play any song from it, and end up being pretty satisfied with what they hear. That says a lot about the consistency of the Americans, as well as the tastes of most death metal fans, who will be sated as long as there is brutal, fast riffing with plenty of energy and roared lyrics telling gruesome tales. As far as that description goes, ‘Only One Will Die’ should be a very reassuring opening track for the hungry hordes, who will take to the fourteenth Cannibal Corpse album just as they did the others.

George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher is his usual brutish self, roaring out the titles of ‘Heads Shoveled Off’ and ‘Shedding My Human Skin’ as point-blank hooks, while details about what happens to the “hideous ichor dripping from the coffin” and “decaying torn off penises” that he sings about shall be spared in case you read this at lunchtime. Old stages Paul Mazurkiewicz and Alex Webster ensure that the rhythms stay changing and challenging in the midst of savage blasting and low-tuned guitars, besides which the songs run from grimy mid-paced sluggers like ‘Code of the Slashers’ (not a hymn to public urination as the title suggests) to blitzkrieg riff-fests like the title track, as well as structurally morphous heaviness like ‘Scavenger Consuming Death’.

The surprising variety and energy of a band so long in the tooth (2018 marks 30 years of Cannibal Corpse) is the album’s best asset, since these 12 songs rarely repeat themselves, though this is certainly in the same ballpark as recent successes like Torture and A Skeletal Domain, perhaps even standing on the same third base. The five-piece have yet to hit it out of the park in the 21st century and, as such, Cannibal Corpse won’t be converting many new fans, nor are they leading death metal forwards, but Red Before Black shows high quality maintenance of a perennially popular style.


Originally written for Metalegion #3 - www.metalegion.com

Another year, another Cannibal Corpse record. Technically speaking, that’s all this review needs to be to inform any death metal fan of what to expect from Red Before Black. I mean, for God’s sake, since 1990 the East Coasters have been bringing the pain more consistently than a steamroller – and with twice the impact. I’m not entirely convinced there is such thing as a ‘bad’ Cannibal Corpse record; they’re all chunky slabs of brutal death metal with full-on gory imagery and a little technical wizardry sprinkled for taste. 2014’s A Skeletal Domain left us thoroughly satisfied, and 2017’s Red Before Black is going to prove troublesome in describing how exactly it holds its own among CC’s enormous discography. It’s definitely great – but how?

One thing I always give Cannibal Corpse credit for is being inexplicably catchy. Death metal is not a sub-genre renowned for its finger-clicking, hum-along tunes – yet somehow CC have provided us with such memorable numbers as “Kill Or Become” (‘FIRE UP THE CHAINSAAAWWW!’) and, on this new effort, “Code Of The Slashers”. It was an ingenious move releasing this third track as a single; the impactful lines like ‘next thing you know, cold steel on your face!’ and the incredibly satisfying ‘we’ll end your fucking life!’ are sure to go down a storm live, and live on in the CC hall of fame forever. This track also flows brilliantly in terms of music; its crushingly sludge-like opening and closing sections bookending the chaotic maelstrom within. Its precursor, and second single, the title-track, is nowhere near as effective with its songwriting, but possesses its own simplistic charm through the almost primitive vocal patterns.

Webster and co. thrive under the banner of both quality and quantity. Twelve tracks, all between three and five minutes, might seem a bit like overkill for this sub-genre – but as usual, Corpsegrinder’s crew make it a thoroughly pleasant 46 minute journey through a surprisingly varied collection of gory anecdotes. Having now covered almost every method of murder and death imaginable, we are treated to the delightful ‘Open neck holes fester, ravaged by the vultures’ in “Heads Shoveled Off”; and my personal favourite: ‘decaying torn off penises which the men were made to chew and swallow’ in the hilariously-titled “Remaimed”. All in the spirit of fun! The legendary George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher delivers these gross analogies with his undying vocals which only seem to get stronger as the years fail to condemn. Check out the “UUAAGH!” at the start of “Shedding My Human Skin” – I’ll replay that moment ’til death.

Paul Mazurkiewicz’s 30-year performance behind the kit deserves serious kudos. Blasting and grooving his way through Red Before Black, contributing enormously to the chaotic atmosphere this album has over the others. Sometimes fills feel rushed, or blasts feel slightly off-kilter – it’s a rollercoaster at points. Sure, the rapid-fire gallops of “Only One Will Die” and “In The Midst Of Ruin” showcase the brutal tendencies to a tee. But the more groove-oriented “Corpus Delicti” and “Firestorm Vengeance” are where you’ll find that your head wants to involuntarily detach itself from your body due to the sheer weight of that slamming guitar tone and the hulking riffs. Vicious, headbangable, accessible (as far as death metal goes) and embodying that tongue-in-cheek horror that we all love so much, Red Before Black is another notch in the Cannibal Corpse coffin. You know what it’s going to sound like. Just listen, enjoy, and wait for the next one!

The album art and the video for the first single ("Code of the Slashers") could use some work. The album art is goofy and I just generally don't like the art style. The video was cheaply done and a bit corny and the song itself was only a bit above average. Fortunately these early factors were not an indicator of the whole like I was initially fearing. Let's dig in.

The album itself rides along steadily at a medium pace, only occasionally breaking that speed. This produces a great flow and unity in the album. Unfortunately, it also produces the feeling of sameness. This is especially noticeable right in the middle of the album. From "Firestorm Vengeance" to "Scavenger Consuming Death", it just feels like one big composition in many parts. They are not outright bad songs, they just run together a bit too much to really enjoy that section. I have to point out that the lyrics are all what you'd expect from them, except for "Only One Will Die". Straight-up silly lyrics on that one. It's odd, but my favorite tracks are the 2nd and 3rd from the beginning and 2nd and 3rd from the end. Those songs have the most variation and sound the most unique, though "Code of the Slashers" took some time to grow on me.

The standout instrument of the album here for me is the lead guitar section. The solos specifically revitalize the bands lead guitar section. Be it part of Erik Rutan's producing or the guitarist himself messing with his tones, but the sound alone of a lot these lead parts is so unique in itself. The solos would still be interesting even with a standard guitar tone. It never gets overly noodley or rely too much on the whammy bar (Two things I think are often over-used in guitar solos). The downside is that my favorite solo on the album ended up being a contribution solo by Erik Rutan on "In the Midst of Ruin". The bass is powerful but doesn't get many opportunities to shine on it's own, unfortunately. Alex is amazing when he gets the spotlight but does well in the background. He helps insurmountably with bringing the heavy on "Remaimed". As a whole, this album is an extremely heavy CC release, regardless of the medium tempo. Normally they get heavy when it's slowed down but do so just fine here given the regularly faster tempos. The drums are standard CC fare with only a few tricks up Paul's sleeve. I should note here that the album sounds great. The quality and clarity of each instrument is noticeable, so if you have a great sound system/headphones then you should be in for a treat.

Overall this is 100% of CC's raw material at firing on all cylinders, for better or worse. If you liked the style they were cultivating on the past couple releases then you may be disappointed in a return to simplicity and relying to much on their signature sound. For the past decade or so of releases, it is my least favorite but not by a lot. Their previous release, Skeletal Domain, was my least favorite until this, so hopefully this does not signal a trend that they would produce something unlistenable. Granted, if they keep releasing what is essentially this album over and over, I'd be fine with that too.

Best tracks:
--In the Midst of Ruin
--Destroyed without a Trace
--Red Before Black
--Code of the Slashers

Technical skill: 72% Originality: 52% Song writing: 68% Album structure: 86% Production: 89%

Cannibal Corpse are back with their fourteenth full length album, and unlike other bands who may still be struggling to find their own feet and sound, the boys from Buffalo have no problems whatsoever in this regard. Their sound is set in stone. Has been set in stone for ages. For the past five albums, Cannibal Corpse has merely been perfecting it.

I’m happy to report that there have not been any line up changes. The Corpse line up is one of the best in death metal; what I consider to be an all star line up. You have the mighty Corpsegrinder on vocals, Alex Webster on bass, Pat O’Brien and Rob Barrett on guitars, and Paul Mazurkiewicz on drums. While Paul really cannot compete with many of death metals finest drummers on the scene right now, he doesn’t really have to. Because like Cannibal, his style is set in stone as well. It would be hard to imagine a Corpse without him.

One thing I need to get off my chest is that I really dislike the album cover. I’ve seen better and I’ve also seen worse, but it just looks too cartoonish to me. I would have preferred something more brutal, as I don’t think it represents the sound or the songs on the album very well.

The band waste no time and get straight to the point with “Only One Will Die”, and first thing you will notice is that the album sounds superb, sound quality wise. Erik Rutan has done it again, getting everything heavy as fuck and also clear as glass. This was designed to melt the skin right off your bones.

The album is a good mix between slow, groovy Corpse (which I love) and also faster stuff, which I also love. Most of the album is around mid tempo though, which is perfectly fine, as it just makes everything sound so much heavier.

Speaking of heavy, one thing I need to make note of in regards to this album. Some of the songs are tuned down to G#. I don’t know if you know what that means, but basically it means that everything sounds heavy as fuck, to an almost ridiculous degree. Pat is using 14-56 string gauges on this thing for fucks sake. That is just downright mental. On songs like “Firestorm Vengeance” the guitar sound just kicks you right in the face. There’s not a lot that can prepare you for it, it just sounds absolutely sick and filthy.

Performances throughout the album are all top notch. I can tell that Pat has basically tracked almost all of the rhythm guitar parts on this, because they are air lock tight. Corpsegrinder gives another convincing and stellar performance, Alex is well, Alex - the dude is a legend, and he pulls out all stops on this album. Even Paul, who is usually regarded as being the least interesting member of the band, puts in quite a fine performance, changing it up with his drum parts as much as he can. It’s quite refreshing to hear what h does on some of these tracks.

Song writing, as one would expect, is solid. The album grooves, grinds and pummels you for a solid 46 minutes.

While I can and will always appreciate a new Corpse album, were fourteen albums into it now. A part of my brain is wishing that they would try something different. Not crazy different like changing their sound entirely, but perhaps different arrangements or concepts. That said though, there are some very creative lyrical ideas on this disc. “Heads Shoveled Off”? Hell yes. But music wise, after 3-4 songs everything just seems to kind of blend into each other, because there is not enough variety in here to keep you interested for a full 40 minutes. More tempo variations or fucking around with the general flow of the album, as opposed to concentrating on individual songs for example could be an idea. But that said, it’s not my band. But if it were, I’d be exploring some new territory by now.

All in all, this is probably their best offering since 2006’s “Kill”, and that album was an absolute monster. While it’s not as memorable, there are certainly some fine examples of death metal on here, as the mighty Corpse are not known to let down their fans, like ever. You just won’t see it happening.

Overall, this is definitely worth picking up. If you’re a die hard Corpse fan you have this already and love it, as its just really solid, no fucking about death metal. For newer fans, there are some real gems on here and should help convince you that yes, indeed Cannibal Corpse are still as badass as ever.

Ahhh...good ol' Cannibal Corpse. If there's one thing about Cannibal Corpse that we love, it's that they've never really budged on their sound or lyrics. For many bands, that may be a bad thing. But Cannibal Corpse, a pioneer in the field of gory, blood-drenched, entrail-entangled death metal (and also a pioneer of brutal death) have been churning out the same skull-crushing shit since the early 90s, and it's worked in their favor. We know what to expect from Cannibal Corpse - they've very rarely disappointed and yet with each album, they still leave room for discussion. "Is it heavier? Is it faster? Are the lyrics gorier?" At this point, the only band who can possibly outdo Cannibal Corpse in this sense is...well, Cannibal Corpse. So really, here's the question we're asking: did Cannibal Corpse achieve yet another level of classic death metal insanity on their fourteenth go-around?

Right off the bat: the album art is FANTASTIC. It's unique in regards to Cannibal Corpse because usually we see the visual carnage from a third-person perspective. But here we have something different: we're seeing the carnage as if we're the victim of a maniac's rampage. 'Staring through the eyes of the dead'. (Haha, pun intended.) In fact, I think this style of album art is even scarier than their old albums. With this new perspective on blood and guts and murder, we get a new perspective of the music. Makes you feel more immersed in the carnage. Love it.

Like any Cannibal album, the first track "Only One Will Die" takes no time to set up. The raging, molten-hot guitar riffs and Mazurkeweicz's blast beats hit right away, shooting off right into the Cannibal Corpse we all know and love. Just from the first track alone, it's obvious that Cannibal Corpse has held nothing back in the brutality department, and this ends up being one of their heaviest albums yet since Kill. But we also get introduced to something fairly new (or fairly infrequent) for Cannibal Corpse: small hints of melody. Many off the riffs are a bit melodic, but not in the sense of a Swedish melodeath band. Think back to many of the choruses on Tomb of the Mutilated - that's exactly what it is! Dark and ominous melodic phrases keep the music brutal while still keeping the listener hooked.

The first two tracks are styled very similarly, and then "Code of the Slashers" kicks in with a slower intro. One thing I've liked about Cannibal Corpse in their Corpsegrinder era is the many influences from slower, sludgier death metal such as Obituary (think "Festering in the Crypt" back in 2004 on The Wretched Spawn). But "Code of the Slashers" doesn't stay this way for too long, because it eventually builds up into another rocket-fast blast beat which takes up most of the rest of the song until it calms down a little again and ends with that same, slow intro riff.

If there's any previous Cannibal album this is really comparable to, it's Kill. As I mentioned before, it's similar in guitar tone and heaviness, but also in the complexity of the riffs. Most of the guitar and bass riffs hold down the same technical-ness of "The Time to KIll Is Now" or "Make Them Suffer". They never stay in one place too long, always moving forward and maintaining a sense of unpredictability.

Corpsegrinder is amazing here as always. Lyrically, he seems to be writing things less specifically gore-based and more concept-based, but still fueled by rage and violence and all that other brutal shit. That's not a complaint though.

So, we got our faces smashed once again! It's awesome, 29 years later and they're still one of the heaviest fucking bands on the planet. They continue to show that they're the kings of death metal, and refuse to back down, slow down, or sell out.

There are only a few bands capable of remaining consistent after nearly 30 years of career. American death metallers Cannibal Corpse are definitely among them. Not only the band's members are some of the most skilled musicians in death metal as a whole (think to the amazing skills of bassist Alex Webster, or the bone-crushing, furious vocals of George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, for example), they are also excellent songwriters. "Red Before Black" confirms Cannibal Corpse's status as one of the most relevant death metal bands of all time.

"Red Before Black" is nothing drastically different from Cannibal Corpse's previous works: the band just sticks to the same good old gory formula that made them famous, pleasing both fans and critics. This is the album everyone was expecting: downtuned, ominous and heavy riffs, thunderous growled vocals, gory lyrics, blast beats, the band's old-school, typical sound is perfectly recognizable, and although there is almost nothing really innovative or that we haven't heard before from the guys, the ingredients of the Cannibal Corpse recipe are so well-combined that the result is still fresh and tasty.

Most of the songs consist in fast-paced, relentless musical assaults that leave almost no rest to the listener; here and there, we have also slower and even heavier tracks (think to the first single extracted from the album, "Code of the Slashers"). The guitar duo O'Brien-Barret grinds riffs throughout the entire album, providing the typical Slayer-inspired solos all the fans of the band have come to love and appreciate; Corpsegrinder's performance is as consistent and powerful as ever; Paul Mazurkiewicz pounds the drums with the usual fury; there are also a couple of moments where Alex Webster's bass guitar shines too (think to "Scavenger Consuming Death" for example).

All in all, "Red Before Black" is nothing Cannibal Corpse hasn't done before; the fact is that the bands sounds so good and inspired even in 2017, that nobody will ever feel the need for something different than the same slaughterous, old school death metal they are famous for. Once again, Cannibal Corpse haven't failed the expectations, and have released another entertaining and consistent album.

How much is too much of a good thing? For years I've wondered when Cannibal Corpse would finally strike my threshold for redundancy, since they don't exactly offer a lot of variation between studio releases in terms of production, presentation or songwriting. For many, I'd imagine they've already collided into such a barrier years ago, with people still touting their nostalgia for the 'classic' Chris Barnes era recordings, and very little chatter about much that they've put out over the last couple decades, despite a string of consistency and excellence that encompasses works like Gallery of Suicide, Bloodthirst, and several more recent efforts. After hearing the first advance track, "Code of the Slashers", watching the cheesy video and then catching a glimpse of the rather mediocre Vincent Locke artwork here, Corpse's most uninspired cover outside of Kill and Evisceration Plague (both of which I enjoyed a great deal anyway), I did not have high expectations for full-length #14.

As it turns out, I shouldn't have doubted them, because just about every song on this disc is another brutal and energetic exercise in what the band does best. Mid to fast-paced barbarity rooted firmly in the death/thrash of the group's origins, piled on with tireless proficiency by one of the most seasoned acts in the genre. That's not to say there's anything truly fresh or exciting anywhere to be had on Red Before Black, it's hardly an encyclopedia of their most memorable riffs, but once in awhile they'll pull off a few note progressions I can't recall them using before ("Shedding My Human Skin", etc) which fuse perfectly to the alternations between chugging grooves, sinister tremolo picked patterns and the roiling lead and bridge riff pairings that offer up all the album's most atmospheric and engrossing moments, which is how it should be since the mauling momentum of the verses builds up so well towards them. You've heard all these performance levels before from these five individuals, and they never exactly surpass themselves on any of the 12 tunes here, but for a band to be this far along in their career, limb advancing in natural atrophy, it's a marvel that they still hit so fucking hard, the thrashier rhythm guitars like punches to the mid-section, the quicker material evoking sheer carnage.

Nary a chink in the armor, with the exception of the aforementioned "Code of the Slashers", a rather dull piece until its own mid-section, and even some of the most simplistic progressions like the bite of the guitars that open "Firestorm Vengeance" just make you want to punt someone's head clean off their neck-stump. Red Before Black is every bit as pit-ready as their classics, without eschewing the slightly clinical technicality that musicians like Webster, Barrett and O'Brien seamlessly integrate so as not to bore themselves with too much repetition. Corpesgrinder's Target shopping excursions have certainly given him some focus and relaxation, so when it comes time to belch out the latest round of lyrics he still has the same level of flailing, ogreish presence that he's brought to the group since Vile. The violence invoked through the prose isn't highly distinct from a lot of Corpse past, but tunes like "Heads Shoveled Off" still conjure up some grisly amusement as they yet again expand their lexicon of serial killers, body horrors and other outcomes that are not exactly optimistic. In short, you know what this sounds like, and while it's hardly one of their best studio efforts, you are getting what you pay for, a pound for pound visceral onslaught by a guild of veteran executioners.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com