ALBUM REVIEW: Corpsegrinder – Corpsegrinder

He’s best known as the gravel-throated, oak tree-necked frontman of the legendary CANNIBAL CORPSE but CORPSEGRINDER has now finally succumbed and taken the leap into his own solo material. What to expect of it? Well, with the album artwork – and the fact it’s under the name CORPSEGRINDER – the answer there seems blindingly obvious. Indeed, this is a solo album in name but it’s not exactly far out of his usual wheelhouse. This is a classic, less-is-more death metal album through and through, warts and all. 

Just because it’s simplistic, that doesn’t mean it’s boring or underwhelming; there’s no desire to reinvent the wheel but what is present is a very clear sense of what makes great death metal. Big grooves, skull-splitting riffs and CORPSEGRINDER‘s guttural bark are all present and correct in precisely the right amounts (that is, lots of all of them) to make this a gleeful, entertaining romp through brutality.

Acid Vat opens the album with a bang, featuring Erik Rutan and immediately going for the throat at full speed. Warped guitars and frenetic drumming quickly switch into a piledriver groove with roars of “Into the acid vat/You must go”. It’s not big or clever, but it is ludicrously entertaining. They also find time to fold in thrash and hardcore influences alongside the spine-busting; On Wings Of Carnage in particular opens with a filthy riff and a hardcore stomp that’ll get the crowdkilling started. The sheer visceral stomp is undeniable as it pummels mercilessly throughout, more than deserving the carnage of its name. 

Then there’s the searing thrash of All Souls Get Torn, delivering a breakneck blast of fury that doesn’t once let up, an aural battering that drops into a devastating, off-kilter breakdown in its final 30 seconds as CORPSEGRINDER delivers his iconic bark. Death Is The Only Key then follows it up with him roaring “It’s your funeral!” before a glacial, churning riff sets in. Similarly, Crimson Proof offers more gore-spattered thrashing death and a bellow of “Bring on the bloodshed!” to open a neck-snapping three minutes stuffed with more groove than disco ever mustered. 

It’s a recurring theme across Corpsegrinder; taking the best elements of death metal, from its thrash roots through to what’s become known as old school death metal together to create something that steadfastly refuses to do anything particularly new but delivers top shelf death metal all the same. Devourer Of Souls, for instance, features the kind of mid-paced stomp we’ve heard across plenty of modern death metal records with beatdown hardcore riffs sprinkled throughout, while closer Vaguely Human starts at full throttle and barely lets up the intensity in a white-hot two minute burst of savagery to close the album. 

Corpsegrinder is, at its core, a death metal record by one of the most iconic voices in the scene. Over the past near 30 years he’s left his mark on the world with CANNIBAL CORPSE, and here it’s distilled into its purest form. This is a 30-minute-plus charge of brutality that’s got neck-snapping groove, searing speed and caveman riffs that never strays into derivative despite its relative dearth of originality. This isn’t death metal to reinvent the wheel; it’s solely here to have a good time, and on those terms, CORPSEGRINDER delivers in spades. 

Rating: 7/10

Corpsegrinder is set for release on February 25th via Perseverance Music Group.

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