Cannibal Corpse : "Chaos Horrific"

 Having churned out now 16 albums in their 35 years of existence, Cannibal Corpse is not as extreme in 2023 as they were in 1990 when "Eaten Back to Life" was released. What compensates for that is more experience in the songwriting department, keeping this band at the top of the heap.  George Corpsegrinder Fisher has been on board for 27 year and while the transition from Barnes to Corpsegrinder was a point of contention with for sometimes, I think the years have  proven Fisher's voice has held up much better.  16 albums in you know what you are getting. Sure this is Erik Rutan's second album with the band and three songs in you can tell things are gelling better with him than they did on "Violence Unimagined" . The more melodic elements of his playing are fusing better with what Rob Barrett does. 

The tension of the dense riffs hammering you is done with a refined heaviness that finds the band at peak performance on "Blood Blind".  They are not compromising heaviness, yet keep the songs purposeful and engaging. The burden here lays on the shoulders of the guitarists who rise to the occasion. The vocals are really well produced which helps, as Fisher has a strong growl, the nature of guttural utterances mean his voice only allows for so much in terms of melody and acts more as a percussive instrument. Lyrically Barnes seemed more willing to plunge into the gruesome, and perhaps age has mellowed their outlook, to keeping things at more of a cartoonish horror movie level rather than the snuff smut Barnes belched forth. "Vengeful Invasion" finds the gore alive and well, though not as graphic as they once were. 

The title track is the first song where the tempo finds everything dulling into the blur of hyper-aggression to the point of creating a uniformity of sound. Things stay on this rapid fire blitz of blood soaked riffing for "Fracture and Refracture" that seemed to be about a psychopathic surgeon. By "Pitchfork Impalement" the relentless buzz of chugging began to create a wall of sound my ears were growing numb to. Dynamics are not what they do, it's the machine like churn of guitars that twists the blade into your skull from different angles so things to not sound like the same old same old, which at times takes a second listen to hear. Corpsegrinder's vocals while effective are good for one thing, so unless he is taking a different approach to where he places them over the guitars his low end grunt can be a bit predictable. They redeem themselves with pretty cool riffage over the course of the album.

The last song "Drain You Empty" starts off more deliberate , which is a nice change, then they speed up into the expected blasting snare pattern. They do slow down by the end of the song, giving this more tempo changes than the bulk of the album. This might not be their best album but it is better than their last, so I will give this one a 9 and see how it grows on me. It's a tough year for death metal as there have been so many solid albums that do a little more than this one, but these guys have done some fine tuning to a classic sound that proves their is still some life left in death.