This album is a true classic and deserves its place in death metal history as one of the greatest death metal albums ever. People who are critical of the album will often say: "But the songs' lyrics are gross" or "The song titles are so disgusting that they're absurd" or "This is sick, juvenile death metal that has no merit apart from brutality", and, in all fairness, they do have a point. They are still incorrect overall though, especially the last criticism which is totally false, as there's far more to this music than just brutality, even though that is the main focus. However, the first two criticisms may hold some water; indeed, the songs on this album have some of the most gross lyrics in death metal ever, with only bands like Carcass coming close. Indeed, the song titles are so disgusting that they borderline on (supposedly)self parody and absurdity.
But that does not affect the music itself, which is a vicious, unrelenting barrage of brutally heavy guitar riffs, fantastic drumming, excellent basswork and incredibly guttural death grunts and growls. That is what makes this album truly great. Most of the time the lyrics are almost completely impossible to understand even after you've heard the songs several times, because Chris Barnes' vocals are so guttural and low. Look past the disgusting lyrics and(at times)absurd song titles, and hear the real brilliance of this album: the music.
This album has several elements that make it stand out from Cannibal Corpse's earlier releases in particular. First off, while this is not clearly said anywhere to my knowledge, I would consider this album to be actually a brutal death metal album, and by that I directly mean the subgenre of death metal called brutal death metal. This means that this album is on the same level(pretty much, at least)as Suffocation, Cryptopsy, and the like. Cannibal Corpse did not have this level of brutality and technicality before this album.
Eaten Back to Life was a brilliant album, there is no doubt about that, and it was pretty brutal for its time too - but Butchered at Birth was in a lot of ways a huge step up in terms of brutality alone at least. The guitarwork on that album, while slower overall, was still brutal, and that album broke several boundaries too: the vocals of Chris Barnes went from moderately low to extremely guttural, the guitars got a heavier and thicker sound, the drumming remained as good or got better, and equally as importantly the song titles, lyrics, and album artwork went from normal death metal horror stuff(a zombie eating its own guts on Eaten Back to Life)to totally disgusting, obscene, and horrific gory brutality. A zombie eating its guts is one thing, two zombies carving up a pregnant woman and cutting out her unborn fetus is quite another. The artwork alone made Butchered at Birth incredibly controversial in a way Eaten Back to Life never was.
And then, unbelievably, this album managed to be even more controversial. The song titles went from the already horrific topics of baby slaughter and cannibalism to even more gross and now also sexually perverse topics including gross bloodthirsty rape, a woman dismembering her newborn children because of her insanity, and, well, you get the picture. That's how far this album took the lyrical insanity and horror. And its artwork managed to be incredibly shocking yet again. But did the music also take the next step to become even more brutal than Butchered at Birth had been?
The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is yes it did, in every way imaginable. The voice of Chris Barnes, amazingly, somehow became even more guttural than it was previously, the guitars and drums got even heavier, and the bass got more prominent; and the technicality, speed, and overall brutality was even greater and heavier than their first two albums. The whole tone, from the guitar riffs, to the drumming style, to the intricate basswork and finally the incredibly low and guttural death growls, is definitely that of a brutal death metal album, in an even more overt way than Butchered at Birth(which was already going down that route)had done. This is what Cannibal Corpse set out to do on this album, and I would say that they achieved it magnificently.
The opening song is a perfect example of this style done well - it is incredibly heavy and brutal, not showing a hint of mercy for the unwary. Chris Barnes growls and grunts his way through the song sounding like zombie, a demon, or a twisted monster, or whatever have you. It keeps on smashing your in the face(pun intended)until your ears are bleeding, right up until the end of the song.
The guitar riffs sound extremely brutal and heavy, the tone being thicker, heavier, and just plain better sounding than the riffs on their previous two albums. In particular, the guitar tone of Butchered at Birth sounded like it had the treble turned up way too high. Thus the guitar tone on that album really wasn't very good. It should have sounded brutal, and it did in some ways, but this album has a far better guitar tone. Everything here, every instrument has been fairly well recorded, yet not over-recorded to the point that it becomes over-polished. The sound is still vaguely raw, and yet better sounding in almost all respects than the first two albums - thus maintaining the full brutality of the band while still being better produced in a way that makes it sound really f*cking heavy, which it is.
There are plenty of standout songs here. The sometimes almost absurdly disgusting song titles may sound so over the top that they seem more like black humour and horror than pure horror, but when you listen to the songs, they sound just as brutal as any of the songs with less disgusting song titles. The song "I Cum Blood" is a good example - regardless of the ridiculously disgusting nature of the song title, it is just as heavy and brutal as the opening song and the following songs.
There are no weak songs here. In fact, I would say this is one of the biggest reasons why this is often regarded by fans as Cannibal Corpse's finest hour: the songs are all strong. No song shows a hint of weakness or compromise, or attempts to become more popular. Everything is brutal, heavy, and in your face.
This album is easily one of the greatest death metal albums of all time - it has everything death metal should have and nothing death metal shouldn't have. It has the grinding, brutal, crushing guitars, the brutal drumming, the excellent and intricate basswork, and extremely guttural death growls and grunts from one of the greatest death metal vocalists of all time, Chris Barnes. It represents everything death metal is meant to be - brutal, heavy, skullcrushing, vicious, nasty, horrific, disgusting, terrifying, malevolent, and completely uncompromising. Any true death metal fan should definitely have this album in his collection, or forever be a weak poser who cannot handle real death metal.
