Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Cannibal Corpse

August 16, 2009

Over two decades of gore-drenched death metal, over a dozen albums and two gutteral death vocalists later, Cannibal Corpse are considered death metal pioneers reaching legendary status. Formed all the way back in 1988, many of today's metal fans weren't even alive when Cannibal Corpse introduced the metal world to albums like Butchered at Birth and Tomb of the Mutilated. Not to mention songs like "Hammer Smashed Face," "Fucked With a Knife" and "I Cum Blood."

But now, in support of their latest release, 2009's Evisceration Plague, new fans are getting to see the band live on the summer's Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. Destroying the Hot Topic Extreme stage daily, Cannibal Corpse are as vile as they've ever been. Don't count on any hit singles or love songs anytime soon.

During the Mayhem Fest's stop in Bristow, VA., Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki sat down with Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz for a lengthly and career-retrospective interview. Paul talks about the Mayhem Festival, Cannibal Corpse's new material, their former vocalist Chris Barnes and much more. This is a must read for die-hard Corpse fans.

Live-Metal.net: Cannibal Corpse is one of a handful of Metal Blade bands on the Rockstar Mayhem Fest tour. Was it kind of like a package deal from the label getting all you guys on here or were you approached individually?

Paul Mazurkiewicz: Good question. I’m not quite sure on that. It was probably more of an individual thing, but yeah, it is kind of ironic that really the whole Hot Topic Stage ended up being a Metal Blade stage, I guess. I don’t know if it was like a conscious effort for that or it’s just the way it worked out, I guess. I’m not quite sure. Good question. I’m unfortunately not the one to ask.

I saw you guys on Sounds of the Underground ’07. Obviously, you’ve been part of other package tours and things before. How would you rank the Mayhem Fest amongst the ones the ones you’ve played on over the years?

Well, it’s kind of funny you ask that, as well, because really the Sounds of the Underground we did do—what was that? 2006, I believe—2006 or 7, one of those—but that was the first time we ever did a rolling festival tour in the States, this being our second one. We’ve never done an Ozzfest, we’ve never been involved with any of these North American, America rolling festivals like that. It is a little different for us. We’ve done the festivals, of course, in Europe , but those are way different, those weekend festivals. It’s not like this really. So I can only compare to that one then. But, man, this one’s much bigger, of course. I think the bill is a lot more solid in a sense, you’ve got bigger names. Sounds is a great tour, of course, don’t get me wrong. But this one definitely is seeming to pull more people, of course, and that’s a good thing. We’re playing in front of a lot of people out there on a daily basis. I think the biggest show on Sounds, I still think, was smaller than the smallest show on this tour. So like I said, it was a good tour, but this one’s definitely a lot bigger. So we’re having a great time out here.

You guys are, of course, supporting the new album, Evisceration Plague. I did a review of the album. I thought it was a great, solid album. Lyrically, have you guys lost—not lost, but cut back on some of the gore-infested kind of literal imagery and stuff like that with this one?

Yeah, I would think a little bit. If you’re really gonna sit back and compare and really listen or look at the lyrics, say, to our earlier releases, I would think they’re definitely not as brutally blunt as maybe they once were. Our thing is always, of course, trying to write a horrific story. I guess we’re kind of trying to take it to different avenues. Not every song needs to be that in-your-face, blunt, brutal—oh, you know what this song’s about, you read the lyrics it’s obvious. I know myself, I think, being one of the lyric writers over the years, I can’t say I’m toning it down, but I think I’m trying to be a little bit more read-between-lines kind of a thing. I’m just trying to write maybe a little bit different than I did in the past. So yeah. We’ve had different lyrics writers. We’re talking about way back when [Chris] Barnes was in the band and he was writing the lyrics for those, especially the second, third and fourth albums, all by himself, and those definitely are arguably our sickest lyrics that we’ve ever had. I think they probably tapered off in some extent, but when we go in there, we’re always, as I said, trying to write a horrific story, something that’s gonna be dark, something that’s gonna be brutal, maybe not as it once was, like in the full capacity of just being bluntly brutal, but I think we’re still writing some great stuff, that’s for sure.

Oh, definitely. I think I wrote in my review for this album, lyrically it’s more like now instead of the killer butchering someone in broad daylight, he’s kind of stalking in the alley, in the shadows, kind of waiting for the silent kill.

Sure, sure. That does seem to have a little bit more when you do look at our lyrics. They’re definitely a little more kind of thought out with the killers exactly, I guess, so to say. So either way, there’s only so many ways you can write about it, I guess. I think it’s a lot easier maybe to write the blunt lyrics than it is actually to have a little more thought in the sense of making your brutality a little bit different and having a twist on it other than just that sudden shock value for just reading it and going, “Oh crap.” There’s no denying what it’s about. So yeah, I think we’re maturing, I guess. [laughs]

I guess from the media and metal fans’ perspective, Cannibal Corpse is one of the most well known death metal bands pretty much ever, I would say. Your name’s right up there with the top death metal greats.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

I think it’s a bit of everything. Luckily, when we started this—it’ll be 21 years ago this December—just going into it with nothing other than you know, we want to make good music. I think you have to go into it looking that way, I guess, that attitude. You can’t go into something like music or art or entertainment or anything just going, “Oh, I’m going to be rich and famous,” and this and this and this. Man, we never thought any of that other than, you know what, we want to write good songs. We want to be heavy as hell and be a brutal band, but we want to write good songs. All the bands that we loved wrote good songs. Yeah, sure, it was about playing fast and aggressive and all that, but the songs were always just what got you. And I think we always tried to maintain that quality, not worry about are we the fastest band in the world, are we the most technical band in the world, are we the most brutal band in the world, are we the—whatever—lyrically, that kind of a thing. Let’s do our thing, and our thing is trying to write a brutal, catchy, heavy song.

I think that really has contributed to our longevity, the fact that we’re not going through the motions either. We’ve been doing this for 20 years, 11 albums. I think our fans come to know what to expect from Cannibal Corpse. They know they’re gonna buy a new Cannibal record and it’s gonna be brutal, it’s gonna be Cannibal Corpse. Maybe there’s gonna be subtle hints of differences here and there, which is just the way it’s gonna be, but you know there’s not gonna be any keyboards or nothing crazy different. It’s Cannibal Corpse. So I think we’ve obtained this fan base where it’s just such a loyal, rabid fan base that they know what to expect and we don’t let them down, and I don’t think we ever have. We’ve always tried to do the best we could at any given point in time, any release. Maybe some are gonna be accepted better than others and you can’t explain why. But I really do think it’s trying to write a good, catchy song that is gonna keep a band around. If you can succeed in some ways and I think we luckily have, and here we are, 20 years into it arguably doing better than we ever have. So that’s probably it.

Yeah, heavy, aggressive, brutal is all good, but I still think, like you’re saying, you gotta have a song. So many bands these days, they’re just all over the place.

Well, that’s the thing, man. You listen to some and you go, “Man, they’re great musicians, they’re great whatever,” but what did you remember? You might listen to them and go, “Man, I don’t really remember anything.” And to us, it was always like, that doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know. For instance, we look at a song like “Evisceration Plague” on our new CD. Very different for Cannibal to write a slower, plodding song like that. Obviously, probably anybody in the world can play the song on a guitar, bass, drums, whatever, sing it. But you know what? That’s not what it’s about. It’s about we wrote the song, it’s a heavy, catchy song and people like it. We like it. That’s all that matters, too. We’re not out to prove anything, I don’t think, about we want to be portrayed as being the best or whatever. I don’t know. We do our thing and we try to write a good song, be as heavy and brutal as possible. So that’s just been our formula for 20 years.

With the two vocalists, I was younger, I guess, when Barnes was either—I’m not sure what the circumstances of—

I was gonna ask what your relationship was with Barnes now and how do you feel about the way he’s portrayed in the metal media? Six Feet Under’s a decent band, but he seems to be portrayed as a joke, kind of like he’s comic.

Obviously, he was a part of our band and was a big part of our success early on, so-called breaking new ground, arguably, with his super utterly guttural vocals on Tomb of the Mutilated and Butchered at Birth and all that. It was a move that definitely had to be made. It had to be made because of really just coming down to a band dynamic. We did not feel he was doing it for the right reasons and just not giving it 100 percent, which we felt everyone else was and we needed that to happen with him. So when we decided to make the change, we really knew we were bettering the band.

Unfortunately, we had to prove to some people, the record label, the fans, pretty much everybody, because we’re kicking out our singer after our fourth CD, which The Bleeding came out, was huge and all that. So a lot of people, I think, were definitely taken back by that and worried or what have you and thought it was the end for Cannibal Corpse. We knew it wasn’t. We knew we bettered the band and it had to be done. So that’s good for us, of course.

I think Barnes wanted to do what he wanted to do, which was play more kind of like slow, plodding along kind of death metal or whatever that they play with Six Feet Under, and that’s all fine and good. To each their own, whatever. I guess he’s probably never gained or regained the status he had with Cannibal maybe. Some of his releases, some of the lyrics he wrote, I think, on Six Feet Under he was trying to stray away from what he knew and he’s maybe getting ridiculed his look and then he changes his look.

Yeah, that. Right, exactly. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do that great. Maybe some bad decisions. I don’t know. I don’t want to speak for them or anything. They’re great guys and all that. But I think, yeah, he might be, unfortunately, not as looked upon as he was when he was with Cannibal.

Talking about material from both vocalists, what are the fans’ responses live. You said you’re probably much more successful than ever now. I don’t know if you’re talking about album sales or just in general. But when you play those old songs, are the fans more geared up for those or the newer material?

It’s both. I mean, obviously you have a song like “Hammer Smashed Face,” which is arguably our most popular song and probably is and all that, and it’s a Barnes-era song and what have you. So of course, I think people are pumped for that. But we have a lot of great songs, like I said, with George [“Corpsegrinder” Fisher], when George was in the band, that people are really pumped to hear and see. You’re always gonna get those detractors, gonna be those people that will yell for Barnes and this and that. That’s the way it’s gonna be forever because there are gonna be the people that might think he’s better and whatever. It might be a thing of growing up at that time with him. I understand that. It’s the way it is in music. You grow up at a certain, music’s so prominent, that was your band, something happens with a band, they change. Even if the music might be better later on, that’s still true to your heart, with what you grew up with. So, understandable. But I think it’s, for the most part, you hear it less and less and less. I don’t think anybody really cares that much anymore. It’s so long ago now, really, when you think about it. George has been in the band for 14 years now almost.

Yeah, exactly. And Barnes at that point, even when the band started in ’88, then he was ousted in—what?—’95. He was only in the band seven years. I mean, here we’ve been around for 21 and George has been on more albums.

Right, exactly. But like I said, there’s still gonna be some people here and there. It happens. That’s the way it is because Barnes, whether we like it or anyone else likes it, he was in the band and he was a part of Cannibal Corpse and he did his part to—whatever—set his legacy or what have you, with what we’ve done or what he did. Yeah, kind of crazy to think about sometimes.

No, nothing on that. We just obviously released Evisceration in February. This has only been our third tour for the record, really, so everything’s kind of coming together still in the infantile stages in a sense with the touring for Evisceration. We’re gonna be touring til the end of the year, we’ll be touring a lot in 2010. Maybe we’ll be able to start writing a little bit, maybe we can record toward the end of 2010. But I really don’t see anything coming out til at least early 2011 at the earliest at this point. But we’re still getting way ahead or ourselves right now because we’re not even really thinking about it too much yet because, like I said, of all the touring to be done.

After this immediate tour, we’re going to New Zealand and Australia in September. So that’ll be nice. We’ll have a couple weeks off, go over there. Then when we get home from that, we’ll have a couple weeks off as well, go back to Europe to do a headlining tour in October, then which will bring us back to do a North American thing November and December, headlining or co-headlining—that’s all being worked out right now. But we’ll definitely be back in some sort of headlining status before the end of the year’s out to hit North America properly.

This tour’s been amazing and great, and it’s great to play maybe in front of a lot of new fans, but it’s a little tough, I think, for our fans and the death metal fans if you’re just coming to see us or what have you. We play eight songs and that’s it. For instance, yesterday we finish off the Hot Topic Stage and then they pretty much corral everybody out. You give some time—you gotta buy your merch or whatever—but they pretty much shut down the whole outdoor thing. People are still standing around the stage 10 minutes after we’re done—“Play more! Play more!” They’re chanting and it’s like, hey, this is what it is. Sorry. You’ll have to wait to see us later on, on our own kind of a tour to see the full set or whatever, play more songs. So I guess it could be hard for some of ‘em, yeah. Weird for us in a sense, too. Eleven albums, we can play eight songs. That’s not even one per album and it’s over before you know it. But it is what it is. We’re definitely having a great time on this festival. I’m sure it’ll go down as one of the best tours we’ve ever been on, just for the amount of people we’re playing in front of on a daily basis. So it’s been awesome.