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Class 6(66)
Cannibal Corpse: The bleeding
02/09/09 || Global Domination
This guest review was written by forumer Floodhorse.
Introduction
I saw the review for “The Bleeding” in the “reviews” section, and noticed to my surprise that the reviewer obviously had listened to the wrong album. Well, seeing that this album deserves a place in any classics list, here goes. This album was my second dose of ze Corpse, after listening to a shitty third generation tape copy of Tomb of the Mutilated for some time. That tape was actually what got me into death metal, and it took years before I found another death metal band worthy of inclusion into my cd shelf apart from Cannibal Corpse. I was super exited after seeing the video for “Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead” on Headbanger’s Ball, and ordered the album through mail via a friend. When the album arrived, my buddy wasn’t home, and I had to go to his place and get it from his mom. She wasn’t exactly all rainbows and roses as she opened the door. She said that she had considered telling me that the album hadn’t arrived, and give me my money back, due to the song titles and all. Very weird plan, which is probably why she didn’t go through with it. Good thing I didn’t order “Butchered at Birth”. Anyway I got the album, listened to it exclusively for several months, and I still consider it one of the definitive high points of death metal of all time.
Songwriting
9.5. The score member is almost bursting here. The songwriting here is exceptional. I’ll say that again: Exceptional. Of course, it’s not the most brutal or jaw-dropping technical bonanza, but that is not the point, either. It’s actually songs, not just riffs piled together. The whole thing flows so well, and there are so many catchy and memorable parts, riffs, hooks and chains it’s incredible. Considered by me to be the ultimate Cannibal Corpse lineup, they really did something out of the ordinary with this one, not just trying to be as brutal as humanly possible. Bottom line; is there another death metal album as melodic and catchy as this one out there? Not as brutal one as this, that’s for sure. Especially the title track is so far away from the stuff they write nowadays, it seems like something got lost along the way to maximum brutality cough Jack Owen cough. On “The Bleeding” they managed to not let the brutality be the sole goal of it all, which I think they should try one more time, as the end result here is a colossal death metal monolith amongst small towers built up by several stones.
Production
8.5. I was digging the production when it came out, much because of the tight snare which they seemed to do so well back then. It lacked the punch and the clinical tightness of its predecessor, but it definitely sounds warmer and more professional than “Tomb of the Mutilated”. Some consider the production to be too soft and not powerful enough. Wrong! A more modern production would have ruined this album. It needs those smooth edges everywhere to really let it all blend together. Granted, the drums could have been clearer, as the toms tend to drown a bit here and there, and the kicks are a bit muffled at times. This is due to the fact that they are not triggered here, and hence are at the mercy of the power of Mazurkiewicz. No big deal, though. The production works, and it’s another one of those golden jobs that is not comparable to any other albums. It’s one of a kind, and it rules like hell.
Guitars
10. First class stuff, through and through. The riffs just keep on coming, fluently linking riffs together, never doing anything out of place. The guitar performance on this one leaves nothing to be desired, as everything is done to perfection, exactly how it is supposed to be done. I am listening to it right now, and I am hearing lots of fancy guitar details I haven’t heard before. Damn good job by both. Barrett and Owen is easily the best guitar duo in death metal, nicely complementing each other. Owen was always the catchy one, as is obvious when reading the credits. Cannibal Corpse’s biggest mistake was letting Owen go, as they are now left without the melodic link. It’s sorely missed.
Vocals
8.5. Barnes is one of the vocalists you either love or hate, at least these days. Back in the day of “The Bleeding”, he was coming from the totally unintelligible vocals of “Tomb of the Mutilated”, and went to a more listener friendly version where you can basically make out most of the lyrics without folding out the lyric sheet. The growls here are top notch, Barnes’ high point in my opinion, but the high pitched screams are cutting some of the score here. The high pitched screams didn’t become really bad until later in his career, but they aren’t exactly ace here either. They worked pretty well on “Tomb of the Mutilated”, but I suspect some serious knob-turning was done. Either way, his work on The Bleeding is almost top notch, and a good score is in order.
Bass
9. Alex Webster is the Steve Harris of death metal, no doubt about it. His bass is prominent in the mix, and he always adds to the music. His bass playing is a vital part of the Cannibal Corpse sound, and one of the reasons they separate themselves from the pack. While it can be said that there are more technically accomplished bass players out there, Webster does exactly what is needed for this music, and never shows off in ways that would make the end result suffer. He does not dabble in fancy tricks and bullshit, which is a trap lots of technically good players tend to do. He plays the bass in his own unique style, and does a damn good job of it. Ace work.
Drums
9. Paul Mazurkiewicz was the only death metal drummer I was familiar with back in the day, and his playing on this album especially made a deep impact on me. Everything from the unique blasts to the hihat pattern on the tvåtakt is what has been the basis of my style too, and continue to be so to this day. While his playing has grown somewhat generic as of late, his performance on this album was nothing short of astounding. The sheer flow of experimental thinking is impressive. I have played a cover or two from this album in the past, and the way it’s put together is something to be inspired by. Not simply content with playing a beat here going into another beat there, we get drums which are very structured, designed to work together with the guitars in making a more interesting listening experience, focused on crafting good songs.
Lyrics
8. The lyrics used to be the Cannibal Corpse trademark. The lyrics for “Tomb of the Mutilated” were so over the top that they can not be outdone on pure vileness, and Barnes didn’t try to do so. It seems to me like they wanted to get their music out to a larger audience with this album, whether they will admit it or not. The cover, the sound, the lyrics, it’s all a lot less threatening and much more accessible than usual. I am not accusing them of selling out, as the lyrics are still bad ass, but not bad ass as in the necropedophile kind of way. Of course, the simpler song structures demanded a lot more thought into lyric patterns on this album. If you have ever tried to follow the lyrics on “Tomb of the Mutilated” you will notice that lots of words gets lost in the heat of battle, indicating that the lyrics themselves were more important than actually fitting into the songs. Not so on The Bleeding. Everything is tailor made, and works like a charm. Of course, the subject matter is still very controversial, but the lyrics on The Bleeding seem more down to earth and a lot less graphic than earlier.
Cover art
6. I understand that the boys were disappointed with the original cover art, as it’s very non-spectacular. But is it really better to take a pointless portion of it and make that the cover? By all means, I like the cover in a way, it just doesn’t make sense to me to take a non-spectacular cover and make an even more boring version of it. Oh well, I guess it did make the album easier to sell to the masses, intentional or not.
Logo
7. Pretty non-spectacular logo for a non-spectacular cover. Not that the logo is bad, it’s just not anything special. At least it’s readable.
Booklet
7. A fold-out piece with lyrics, a montage of party pics and some band pics. We also get to see the original cover art, which is kind of a bonus. At least it would be if it had been brilliant. This section would have ended here if not for the fact that I have both the censored and the uncensored version in my shelf here. While the uncensored version is like I described above, the censored version actually has left out the more brutal song titles on the back cover, stating that you have to look inside for the complete track listing. When you open it, you find the track listing, plus a lot of white empty space, with a note saying you can get the lyrics by writing to Metal Blade and asking for them. Nice to see that the most public-friendly album they have released still had to have all this censorship bullshit surrounding it.
Overall and ending rant
Where does all this take us? To the morgue, with a severed member and a toe-tag? To a certain degree, yes. The imaginative music member at least gets a lot of action when listening to this brilliant piece of death metal history. As legend has it, the tensions were high in the studio, which once again translates into a great end result. Seems like the good thing to do is to make a mortal enemy out of your band mates before going into the studio, and afterwards say it was all a clever plan to get some reality and much needed nerve into the recording. When all is said and done, this album is unique, and it should be given the respect it deserves, as it’s not like any other death metal album. The planets were aligned, the boys still had good ideas, all were at the top of their game, and everything worked. As mentioned earlier, they later on went on a quest to make everything as brutal as possible, turning them into the AC/DC of death metal instead of the Motörhead of death metal which they should have been. Now they are probably so afraid of “selling out” that they can’t ever make anything slightly resembling “The Bleeding”, in turn making them record the same album over and over again.
- Information
- Released: 1994
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: www.cannibalcorpse.net
- Band
- Chris Barnes: vocals
- Rob Barrett: guitars
- Jack Owen: guitars
- Alex Webster: bass
- Paul Mazurkiewicz: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead
- 02. Fucked With A Knife
- 03. Stripped, Raped, And Strangled
- 04. Pulverized
- 05. Return To Flesh
- 06. The Pick-Axe Murders
- 07. She Was Asking For It
- 08. The Bleeding
- 09. Force Fed Broken Glass
- 10. An Experiment In Homicide