There was a rumour doing the rounds that Cannibal Corpse was coming to perform in India. Well, as a special consolation for all disappointed fans, here's a JAM profile, courtesy Harish Venugopal.

A nouveau listener could easily mistake Cannibal Corpse’s music for an intense crash course in ‘Butchery, Evisceration and Morbidity’. Formed in Buffalo, New York in 1988, the Death Metal outfit has come a long way, considering their indecipherable lyrics, stagnant music style, and excessively gruesome musical overtones.

The lineup was made up of musically active scenesters: vocalist Chris Barnes, guitarists Bob Rusay and Jack Owen, bassist Alex Webster, and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz. Current vocalist George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher hopped aboard when Chris quit in 1995 to form successful rival Death Metal outfit Six Feet Under, with ex-Obituary guitarist, Allen West.

Though at the outset they were aurally closest to Slayer, there was a gradual transition into their trademark Death Metal sound, similar to the likes of Napalm Death, Obituary, Death and Kreator. By their third album Tomb of the Mutilated, CC had solidified their mark as the most offensive band on the planet. They’ve even been banned from playing any material from their first three albums in Germany.

Heralded as the pioneers of extreme metal music, Cannibal Corpse proved to be a purist critic’s delight with every single release proving to be worse than the previous one. Reviews often had quotes like “If vomit were a movie, this would be the soundtrack.”
Ridden with controversy right from the start owing to their visually graphic album...

covers and even worse lyrics, Metal Blade (their record label) were often forced to have two album covers for the same album, since in the past many of them were banned. Here's a sample of their song writing ‘skills’:
Eyes bulging from their sockets/ With every swing of my mallet/ I smash your f**king head in, until brains seep in/ through the cracks, blood does leak/ distorted beauty, catastrophe/ Steaming slop, splattered all over me
- Taken from the song Hammer-smashed Face

Almost every song on every album of theirs sounds the same, and CC has never had the proverbial ‘Death Metal ballad’ on any of their albums, save for the track Festering in the Crypt from latest offering The Wretched Spawn.

Cannibal Corpse is not exactly the heat this part of the world, though a lot underground music fans do trip on them - and they are enough of them around for rumours about a performance in India to be started. As music lovers are increasingly becoming technically conscious and aware of what makes up a good band, outfits like CC are becoming less sought after because of their monotonous music, droning vocals, and an insufferable overdose of vulgarity laced with macabre portrayals. However, morgue attendants/ autopsy assistants could most definitely relate to what Cannibal Corpse is all about.

Discography
Eaten Back To Life (1990)
Butchered At Birth (1991)
Tomb Of The Mutilated (1992)
Hammer Smashed Face (EP) (1993)
The Bleeding (1994)
Vile (1996)
Gallery Of Suicide (1998)
Bloodthirst (1999)
Gore Obsessed (2002)
Worm Infested (EP) (2002)
The Wretched Spawn (2004)