Blast from the past albums #5: CANNIBAL CORPSE - Evisceration Plague (2009, Metal Blade)

In this series of posts I'll discuss an album I picked up as a teenager or my early 20s and haven't listened to in a very long time.

Even though they're not necessarily one of my absolute favourite death metal groups, I still own every Cannibal Corpse record. You know exactly what you're getting from this band every time they put out something new - they're trustworthy and reliable. They're also one of my favourite metal bands to see live, 'cos they crush it every time. Also, their 2006 album Kill is definitely one of my all-time favourite extreme metal records. Kill was the first CC album I ever bought; I picked it up when I was 15 and in my final year of school, and was blown away by the relentless brutality of the music, but also the amazing production and technical proficiency of the band. Naturally, it made me pick up more of their back catalogue and by the time 2009 rolled around, I was eager to hear what was their newest release of the time, Evisceration Plague. You'd think this being the first CC album I bought as a new release, and also the fact I saw them live for the first time on the Evisceration Plague tour (01/11/2009 in Leamington Spa - it was a fucking amazing gig for 17 year old me) would make this record see regular rotation from me out of all the albums in their catalogue then. It doesn't though.

Let me just say now that there is no such thing as a bad Cannibal Corpse album. Some are great, others are just good - but none of them are poor. So of course I find myself listening to certain albums of theirs over others. Evisceration Plague is one I played a lot around 2009/10/11, but haven't spun very much since. Why is that? What is it about this particular release that stops it being one of my favourites? Honestly, listening to it again for this blog post, I think I've just remembered why - it's the production and the tone of the drums. Kill is still the best-sounding CC record to me. Part of that thinking is likely due to bias, it being the first one I picked up of course. But I genuinely think it'd be difficult for someone to argue that Evisceration Plague is the better-sounding and produced album of the 2. Sonically (and songs-wise to be fair), Kill just owns. 'Nuff said. And then there's this follow-up, which is just kind of weird in that department. The guitar tones still sound good to me - they're crunchy, grinding and of course, heavy. Maybe a little too crisp, but nice overall. George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher's vocals are maybe a little upfront in the mix, but they never drown out the rest of the instruments so that's cool.

It's the drums though, that have always bugged me. I'm certainly not slagging off Paul Mazurkiewicz's actual playing - the man's a beast. It's the actual sound of the drums that has always sounded off to me. They're uber-dry and lacking any sort of human feel, if that makes any sense. Also, there's no real "oomph" to them! They're not tinny or clangy like Lars Ulrich's were on St. Anger or anything like that, but there's no real power to them despite the fact Paul pounds away at the kit in the same way he does on every CC album! It's really hard to describe without hearing this album for yourself!! And it's always been something I've taken issue with. Even though I listened to Evisceration Plague a lot within the first couple of years of it's existence, teenage me was still let down by the production somewhat. Pretty much every CC album that's been released since - and I'm feeling old now, because since Evisceration Plague we've had Torture, A Skeletal Domain, Red Before Black, Violence Unimagined and Chaos Horrific - has sounded better production-wise to my ears.

And yet despite all my whinging about drums and production, I'm actually finding it really difficult to call this one of their worst albums! I mean, the songs are still great! Even though I hadn't heard the album for such a long time, I instantly remembered tracks like 'Priests of Sodom', 'Evisceration Plague', 'A Cauldron of Hate' and 'Beheading and Burning'! Classics! And the riffing is as strong as ever - you're getting all the speedy, razor-sharp riffs, the big, chunky, crushing one's and even the occasional groove-laden one in practically every track within this record. And they all tie together seamlessly. Corpsegrinder himself is just Corpsegrinder being awesome as usual - grunting, growling and screaming when necessary. There's even layered vocals on 'Priests of Sodom', and it's great. Sounds almost inhuman, in a good way. And like I said, even if Paul's drums have sounded better, to fault his playing itself would be ridiculous. He's a well-oiled rhythm machine, and I can still put up with the drum tones here at the end of the day.

This album would be an easy 8/10 if it weren't for the production then. And although there's still plenty of George Fisher-era CC records that I think are stronger than this one (Kill, A Skeletal Domain, Torture, Violence Unimagined and Bloodthirst spring to mind), I'll stand by Evisceration Plague and say that songs-wise there's still weaker albums than this one too. Also, there's other albums in this catalogue that I don't listen to very often as well - for example, I can't remember the last time I heard Gallery of Suicide, Gore Obsessed or Red Before Black. I just chose Evisceration Plague because it was the first one I bought as a brand new release when I was still a teenager, and just happens to fit in with this theme of blog posts. Either way, this is an album that is still well-worth owning.

On a side note, I totally forgot about the sticker on my own copy. I dunno, but Cannibal Corpse touring with Children of Bodom just seems odd to me!
Adam's rating: 7.6/10

P.S. - Trying to get a fucking picture of this album with no reflection glare was damn near impossible without removing the booklet from the case!