CANNIBAL CORPSE — Tomb of the Mutilated (review)

CANNIBAL CORPSE — Tomb of the Mutilated album cover Album · 1992 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Tomb of the Mutilated" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US death metal act Cannibal Corpse. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in September 1992. After releasing two very successful and increasingly brutal death metal albums in "Eaten Back to Life (1990)" and "Butchered at Birth (1991)", the band opted to turn up the brutality factor one more notch on "Tomb of the Mutilated", making it one of the most savage and brutal death metal releases of it´s time. As it´s almost tradition with Cannibal Corpse albums, "Tomb of the Mutilated" of course features parental advisory explicit lyrics and artwork.

Featuring a sharp and clean, yet powerful and raw sound production courtesy of Scott Burns (one of his best IMO), "Tomb of the Mutilated" kicks off with a blast with "Hammer Smashed Face". It´s clear from the start that Cannibal Corpse intend to take no prisoners, turning up the brutality level and the technical playing from the first note. The playing is in fact very impressive on the album delivered with a sharp precision and great technical skill. Multible tempo changes within tracks and fast and razor sharp brutal riffing. So far, so good. The instrumental part of the album and the sound production are way above standard for the genre. Especially considering that this is an album from 1992. The songwriting could have been more varied but we are talking about brutal death metal here, so most listener´s understand the premise and will expect a limited range of stylistic elements and variation.

While the instrumental part of the music certainly is impressive, the completely unintelligible and processed growling vocals by Chris Barnes ruin a lot of my listening experience. Already by the end of the opening track "Hammer Smashed Face", monotony sets in because of the vocals. Of course some of the gore drenched song titles like "I Cum Blood", "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt" and "Post Mortal Ejaculation" are a good laugh, but the music would have been so much more effectful if I was able to just grasp a single word here and there.

"Tomb of the Mutilated" is, besides the monotone growling vocals, a really great death metal album. I know a lot of people enjoy the album and even the vocals, so the vocals are definitely an aquired taste that will thrill some people and put others off. Personally I would have rated "Tomb of the Mutilated" with 4 stars (80%) if the vocals had been more varied, but as the album is now I´ll rate it 3 - 3.5 stars (65%).
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