CANNIBAL CORPSE Violence Unimagined | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

   

Released by Metal Blade Records on April 16th, 2021

Quick Background

Cannibal Corpse needs no introduction, the American death metal band has been around since 1989 and has released fourteen studio albums before Violence Unimagined.  As of 2015, they achieved worldwide sales of two million units for combined sales of all their albums, making them the top-selling death metal band of all time. They have had several lineup changes since their inception, with Bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz as the only constant members. Chris Barnes was the singer on the first four albums and then replaced by Corpsegrinder who debuted on 1996's Vile. 

Violence Unimagined

Violence Unimagined is now their fifteenth studio album. It is the band's first album in nearly four years since Red Before Black (2017), the longest gap between two records in Cannibal Corpse's career, and the first studio album to feature producer Erik Rutan on lead guitar, replacing Pat O'Brien in February 2021 after nearly two years of filling in for him on tour. Violence Unimagined is features 11 tracks and clocks in at 43 minutes. The album has of course two album covers for censorship reasons, given that the striking artwork from Vince Locke depicts a mother eating her own baby. 

The album opens with "Murderous Rampage" a 4 minute relentless fast tempo carnage. In the absence of a title track the song features the lyrics 'Violence unimagined' in its bridge. Which I find it always a cool thing. "Surround, Kill, Devour" is one of the heaviest songs and featuring one of the most memorable choruses. That's a very nice stamp of the album while very consistent on the surface, when paying attention to the songs each one has its own character and something distinct about them. The common thread is indeed the heaviness and how memorable the songs are. For example, "Necrogenic Resurrection" is almost a thrash metal song, what a cool riff and a breakdown and a solo Slayer inspired. Same goes for "Bound and Burned", also very thrashy and featuring several short guitar solos. "Follow the Blood" is very cool song and will do wonders live. It's very groovy but then as he screams 'Fire at will', it goes double speed and you can just imagine the crowed going nuts. It's a almost a prog death metal song with tempo changes and some subtle but cool base lines. 

Lyric wise, we know what to expect songs like "Cerements of the Flayed" says it all. "Slowly Sawn" feels like a description of a horror movie scene and it works, cause it's frightening and forms a scary picture in your head. "Inhumane Harvest", a song about organ harvesting and trafficking, was the first single. So, you get the picture.

The new member Erik wrote three full songs and while slightly different, they are trademark Cannibal Corpse. "Condemnation Contagion" which marks another song of thousands to come about the pandemic. It's not a gruesome lyrics but it works and I like the groove of the song, certainly bringing some diversity to the album flow.

The Picky Guy

But I must say that the two other songs "Ritual Annihilation" and "Overtorture" are actually my least favorites from the album. For no particular reason, but both fell flat for me despite the very demanding drumming. This is actually the most drum-intense album I've heard from the band. .

Wrap Up Opinion 

For those who like Cannibal Corpse, there's nothing really to complain here. The album is just more of the same but in style and well done it. Cannibal Corpse is known for consistent albums and for playing safe. And yet this is another high quality album at par with other recent releases of the band and therefore a worthy addition to the long and successful discography. A good 81/100 album that will please the fans but won't change anyone's perception of the band.

SCORE: 81/100

Genre: Death Metal

Released by Metal Blade Records on April 16th, 2021

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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