Death is June - Looking Back in Anger at Cannibal Corpse's "Gore Obsessed"

Now Six albums deep into their career, we get another pounding from them. This album is rawer and more in your face. There is less experimentation than the previous and they are just stomping you into the ground at a rapid pace. There is no question this is one of the band's more brutal albums, and that is coming from a band that specializes in brutality, but how much of the songwriting is compromised in having to maintain their title as the world's most brutal metal band? Time will tell as we dig deeper into the album. They are more prone to hit you with blast beats on this album. There is a catchier chug to "Pit of Zombies". The pre-chorus of the songs feels like its strongest moment. 

There is another blunt pounding leading into "Dormant Bodies Bursting" which shifts enough to make the song effective. At first, they pour on more speed for "Compelled to Lacerate", but it finds its own groove.  I think it's evident at this point in time that Corpsegrinder has grown into the band. "Drowning in Viscera" begins to find some of the hyper aggression working off too similar a formula. There is still just enough to hook you in it, and the album sounds great from a production standpoint. "Hung and Bled' is where the speed has gone far enough and it's beginning to make the songs feel rushed. They switch it up, and even their vocals get different accents in a few places. "Sanded Faceless" does find the vocals more purposeful, but there is still more blasting than needed. 

Begin to space out from the blast beats that have numbed me out and begin to pay a little more attention halfway into "Mutation of the Cadaver". It could be better thought out, but pieces that are set into motion together. "When Death Replaces Life" opens with a darker pulse which is the first time this album really reaches outside of the box. When it kicks into a more deliberate take on what they normally do it just grooves better and this feels like a lost classic for them. It's the album's best song for sure, as it is the most memorable."Grotesque' also works pretty well, as it has more musical nuance.  I like their cover of "No Remorse" I think it blends who they are with the song well-paying respect for it and pulling it off in terms of execution.Not their best album but still well dones and sounds great even if the songs are not all as inspired I will around it down to a 8.5 .  

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