Cannibal Corpse – Butchered At Birth

Before becoming the infamous band they are now, the legends of the macabre and purveyors of the extreme were just in their infant stage. With their first singer barking away different processes of mutilation with his harrowing lyrics, the now archetypal album that they had released following their debut, Butchered At Birth is a rudimentary right of passage for any death metal head.

After the introductory buzzing of Meathook Sodomy the onslaught begins with that fantastic riff and Paul Mazurkiewicz’s relentless double pedal drumming. Not only did Cannibal Corpse essentially write the handbook for gore sodden lyrics but have also written some of the heaviest metal, full stop. Butchered At Birth is one of the most controversial albums in Cannibal Corpse’s catalogue, revered by fans as some of  their best work, with the production of legendary death metal producer Scott Burns ever present we can see where the death metal legends really began to take off.

Although in 1991 there were archetypal bands popping up all over the place  with Death’s Human, Entombed’s Clandestine and Sepultura’s Arise to name a few, Cannibal Corpse were in the first to bring gore to the fore. In terms of brutal death metal they paved the way for its creation, there were plenty of bands that were changing death metal itself but with Butchered At Birth Alex Webster and co, staked their name as THE band for extreme music. Horrifying mothers and delighting young adults Cannibal Corpse still continue to this day, after having released their thirteenth album A Skeletal Domain just this week.

Their music may not particularly be to everyone’s taste but if you’re a fan of death metal, chances are that you own at least one of their records, whilst having two distinct era’s that metal heads constantly fight over, the Barnes beginning and Corpsegrinder’s rise to death metal royalty there is no denying that Butchered At Birth is one of the quintessential albums from this almost faultless band.