Seriously, what are you expecting to read here? I suppose I’d better write something I guess….

20 years, 11 studio albums, 1 million records sold worldwide, Cannibal Corpse are the very epitome of death metal consistency and even though the band is often still referred to as the band Chris Barnes used to be in to in, fact is the band and their material has aged surprisingly well, and even improved as 2006s Kill showed.

Other than the switch from Barnes to Fisher, a little guitar player shuffling and some production changes, little has really changed in the Cannibal Corpse camp, from 1990’s Eaten Back to Life, through Gallery of Suicide, Vile, Bloodthirst and now Evisceration Plague and everything in-between the band has some peaks, some lows; all varying depending on which fan you talk to, but what can be said and agreed upon by all fans Cannibal Corpse, death metal or otherwise, is that you know exactly what you are getting from them, an that seems to be part of their success.

And thus the cycle continues; gore obsessed lyrics delivered with Fishers rock steady, vocals, Rob Barret and Pat O’Brien’s shifty riffage, Alex Webster’s now you hear me, now you don’t bass and Paul Mazurkiewicz’s efficient drumming, Evisceration Plague is imply a Cannibal Corpse record, nothing more nothing less. It’s going to please fans of the band and especially Kill, as it has the same burly Erik Rutan production and fine balance between lurching, controlled chaos (“Priests of Sodom”, “A Cauldron of Hate”, “Evisceration Plague”, “Carrion Sculpted Entity”) and festering, staccato blast beats (“Scalding Hail”, “Beheading and Burning”, “Carnivorous Swarm”, “Shatter Their Bones”, “Unatural”). There’s no filler, and by the same token there’s no real standouts or classic tracks (though I don’t think I’ve heard a truly ‘classic’ death metal song this millennium), its just Cannibal Corpse doing what they do well with a resilience, skill and confidence of a band that’s been doing the same thing to worldwide acclaim for twenty years. The adage “if it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it” couldn’t be more than fitting here.

However, than consistency can be a negative too; Throw on the last 4 Cannibal Corpse albums, including Evisceration Plague on random and trying to discern which songs come from which album could be somewhat challenging with a few exceptions. But that’s part of the band’s continued success and allure that has indeed allowed them to sell 1 million records in their career, and probably continued to do so for the foreseeable future.

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