ALBUM REVIEW: Chaos Horrific – Cannibal Corpse
There’s something reassuring about getting a new CANNIBAL CORPSE album. Hearing a low-slung Alex Webster bassline lead into a neck-wrecking deluge of extreme violence is a timely reminder that we’re safe in their bloodstained hands. The global news cycle of the past few years has been a never-ending stream of disease, war and environmental collapse, but at least CANNIBAL CORPSE can be relied on to deliver the goods. At this rate, they’ll probably still be here after the bombs drop, windmilling furiously to a crowd of bewildered cockroaches.
Chaos Horrific is their sixteenth full-length and sees them stubbornly refusing to leave their chosen path. It’s 40 minutes of death metal packed with guttural growls, psychosis-inducing guitar solos and the odd, hardcore-influenced breakdown. The opening trio of Overlords Of Violence, Frenzied Feeding and the freaking bad-ass Summoned For Sacrifice are fast, brutal and highly entertaining. They quickly establish that it’s business as usual in the CANNIBAL CORPSE camp and that there’s not going to be any Illud Divinum Insanus style boundary-pushing to upset things.
To be fair, we could have said the same thing about any of their last five records, but there’s a reason why CANNIBAL CORPSE have survived to become beloved elder statesmen of death metal; they’re bloody great. They might have youngsters like UNDEATH and GATECREEPER biting their heels, but try arguing that they don’t have plenty of gas left in the tank when Pitchfork Impalement comes blasting out of the speakers. The enthusiasm of youth hasn’t dimmed, they’re as gnarly as they ever were.
Given that they’ve been grinding inexorably onwards for three decades now, this record won’t surprise anyone. Unless you’re a total newcomer to death metal, it’s unlikely to change your life and yes, it’s not as well-written as 2006’s Kill or 2017’s Red Before Black. However, it’s got several absolute bangers packed into the short running time, with the mid-record title track being an especially impressive highlight.
In short, Chaos Horrific is meat and potatoes death metal, only the potatoes have been thrown away and replaced with more meat. It’s a battered, broken-toothed, gore-drenched album that ends in a predictably horrible fashion, the closing Drain You Empty being utterly filthy. In other words, it’s CANNIBAL CORPSE doing Cannibally Corpsey things. And hearing it for the first time is surprisingly uplifting; when the airwaves are filled with talk of collapsing civilisations and economic crises, it’s nice to switch off and hear violent songs about festering wounds instead. George Corpsegrinder Fisher and his immense neck may yet save us all.
Rating: 8/10
Chaos Horrific is set for release on September 22nd via Metal Blade Records.
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