Cannibal Corpse

Members: George Fisher, Pat O'Brien, Rob Barret, Alex Webster, Paul Mazurkiewicz

Active: 1988 - present

Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band from Buffalo, New York, noted for its controversial and ultra-violent lyrics and imagery, founded in 1988 by Chris Barnes, Bob Rusay, Jack Owen, Alex Webster and Paul Mazurkiewicz. Cannibal Corpse is noted as the most successful death metal band of the Sound Scan era, having combined worldwide record sales of over one million copies with virtually no radio or television exposure. It's regarded as one of the longest lasting and best-known bands in the death metal scene.

HISTORY

Cannibal Corpse formed from the ashes of three area death metal bands, Beyond Death (Webster, Owen), Leviathan (Barnes), and Tirant Sin (Barnes, Rusay, Mazurkiewicz). The band played their first show at Buffalo's River Rock Cafe in April, 1989, shortly after recording a five-song demo tape. Within a year of that first gig, the band were signed to Metal Blade Records and their full-length, debut album, Eaten Back To Life, was released in August, 1990.

Cannibal Corpse's music is known for its ferocious tempo and death grunt singing style. The band's lyrics and the imagery on their album covers are explicitly sexual and violent. Their albums are censored and banned in several countries, including Germany, where they are not allowed to play any song from one of their first three albums in concert, not allowed to play at all in the state of Bavaria, not allowed to display the original cover images (drawn by Vincent Locke), or print the lyrics in the CD booklets, etc. As of the "No Mercy Festivals" Tour 2006, Cannibal Corpse played songs from their first three Albums on German soil for the first time in a decade. Unlike other death metal groups who have songs about rape, murder and necrophilia, Cannibal Corpse do not even try to be poetic or subtle.

Vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher stated his frustration in an interview, saying "We can play ?Dismembered And Molested? in Germany but we cannot play ?Born In A Casket?. Which one sounds worse?" Song titles include "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt", "Fucked With a Knife", "Meat Hook Sodomy", and "Necropedophile". In May 1995, then-Senator Bob Dole mentioned the band by name and accused them of violating "human decency". Cannibal Corpse also enjoyed a brief cameo in the 1994 Jim Carrey film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, performing their song "Hammer Smashed Face." (Carrey actually insisted to have the band perform in the movie because they were his favourite band.)

In 1994, Chris Barnes was kicked out of the band for musical differences (he is now the vocalist of Six Feet Under and Torture Killer) and was replaced with Monstrosity's vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, who is known for his record-long screams in songs such as "Devoured by Vermin" and "They Deserve to Die." Jack Owen left Cannibal Corpse in 2004 to spend more time on his second band, Adrift. He joined Deicide in late 2005. Jeremy Turner of Origin briefly replaced him as second guitarist on 2004's "Tour Of The Wretched". Recently Rob Barrett, a former member of Cannibal Corpse who appeared on the band's albums Vile and The Bleeding rejoined the band to play festivals in the Northwest United States and Europe. Rob officially left Malevolent Creation and joined Cannibal Corpse. Their latest album, Kill, was released March 21, 2006 on Metal Blade Records.

STUDIO RELEASES

1990 - Eaten Back to Life (reissued 2002)

1991 - Butchered at Birth (Reissuen 2002)

1992 - Tomb of the Mutilated (Reissued 2002)

1993 - Hammer Smashed Face (Single/Ep)

1994 - The Bleeding

1996 - Vile

1998 - Gallery of Suicide

1999 - Bloodthirst

2001 - Gore Obsessed

2002 - Worm Infested (Ep)

2003 - 15 Year Killing Spree

2004 - The Wretched Spawn

2006 - Kill

LIVE AND OTHER RELEASES

1989 - Cannibal Corpse (5-song demo cassette)

1997 - Monolith Of Death Tour 1996-1997

2000 - Live Cannibalism (Live)

2000 - Live Cannibalism (VHS/DVD)

2003 - 15 Year Killing Spree (Collector's box)