CANNIBAL CORPSE - Violence Unimagined
April 13, 2021, 3 years ago
(Metal Blade)
Cannibal Corpse have released an incredible statement for their first album with Erik Rutan on guitars, replacing Pat O'Brien. It's a big claim, but the death metal kings' fifteenth full-length is one of their best.
The opening track, “Murderous Rampage”, is definitely a soon-to-be-classic for the band, up there with “The Time To Kill Is Now”, while “Condemnation Contagion” lays down the mid-tempo riffing that this band has made their calling card so well; this song also threatens to be catchy, not a word usually associated with Cannibal Corpse. “Surround, Kill, Devour” shows a band so incredibly in step with each other you'd think Rutan had been with them for years. “Follow The Blood” goes low and slow, emphasis on those huge riffs, to maximum impact. It goes without saying that the whole band is on fire throughout this whole album, as they've been refining and perfecting their sound for years now, releasing album after album of wildly solid DM.
I mean, just listen to “Bound And Burned” on this album, the band channelling pure Slayer vibes (and riffs, and solos) and delivering it through unmistakable Cannibal Corpse sonics. Pure power, as is the absolutely perfect riffing on “Overtorture” or the powerful closer “Cerements Of The Flayed”, Violence Unimagined nestling up to classics like Kill and The Bleeding upon first listen; I can only imagine that time will treat this one very well.
