ANTHROPOPHAGI ELEGANTIARUM – OR ‘HOW TO KILL WHAT DOES NOT LIVE’…

Now and again I hark back to the time when death metal – in its truest and rawest form – struck a first chord on those heartstrings of mine. A hitherto unheard-of musical bastardisation in whose infuriated midst came together four familiar, albeit contextually perverted elements: (A) skull-shattering drum beats, (B) flesh-consuming bass lines, (C) bowel-shredding guitar riffs and most of all (D) an overabundance of excrement-ejecting roars. In unison these elements made for a sonic manifestation of such stentorian vehemence it would make an oestrus-maddened stegosaurus flush. Granted, the diction and ill-concealed ardour of all this could well sound like the first stanzas to a new Elton John chartbuster, but aside from a picture-perfect sundown atop the unruffled rim of the Riviera and a few select ice-cream flavours nothing can set me in a more histrionic and near-calliopic mood than, indeed, bona-fide fucking death metal. Shakespeare would have shat himself and sacrificed Juliet to the village necropedophile, I swear. And speaking of which… What is more quintessentially, circumstantially – hell, even stereotypically – ‘death metal’ than Cannibal Corpse? As of March 21^st, 2006, a new full-length effort entitled Kill has been attached to their ornate tableau of splattertastic trifles’n’truffles to substantiate the fact that it will take more for the friggin’ muzak industry than mere whimsical shifts and currents to… uh, kill this mean fucker of a zombie. Evilution Magazine chanced a confrontation with CC-founder and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz a few hours before the Ye Olde Corpsters took to the board-covered stage at The Rock in Copenhagen to once more reveal themselves in their hoary gory glory.

# How does it feel to have Rob Barrett back in the band?

“It’s great, man. It brings back a sense of continuity, I guess, as he was in the band before, and he played on two of our biggest sellers, The Bleeding and Vile. When the whole situation came about, we thought of Rob right away, and he actually contacted us after we were done with the touring for The Wretched Spawn. Basically, we just had to think about it, and after much thought and deliberation it really made sense to bring Rob back in the band. It’s good to have him back. We’re really good friends with him and have known him for a long time, of course. Like I just said it feels like bringing an old member back to the fold. Obviously, that’s what it is. It gives us a little continuity there – which is good.”

# In which aspects can it be felt that Jack Owen no longer plays a part in Cannibal Corpse?

“Well, I think it was apparent to a lot of people that his interest in Cannibal was waning. We all like Jack and he’s a great guy. He’s a nice and fun guy to be around; basically a very likeable person. I don’t think anyone could meet Jack and not like him. But if he was unhappy – for whatever reason – with being in the band, it was time for him to move on, and then he did the right thing. The main thing, obviously, is that Jack’s songs aren’t going to be there anymore. And he wrote some great songs for Cannibal Corpse over the years. So now, not having that input, it makes everything a little different, but Pat’s a great songwriter, Alex is writing some great ones, and Rob jumped in and contributed with a song, and I also wrote a song. It’s weird not having him there because he’s been in the band from the beginning, but if he’s unhappy it’s better for him to move on, and we in turn will move on to someone who wants to be in Cannibal Corpse. Rob wanted to rejoin and he’s doing it for the right reasons, so it made all the sense in the world. Life goes on, you know.”

# The space that Jack left has been filled nicely, so to speak?

“Exactly, yeah. Rob is both a great addition and a great re-addition. We’ve released what is probably our most brutal CD to date, and it’s doing awesome and getting great response. So hey, we’re not complaining [laughs].”

# Did you find it strange that Jack went almost straight to Deicide after he decided to leave Cannibal Corpse?

“Well, I’m sure that there were a lot of other factors if you ask him, but if you look at it with him leaving the band it was like leaving a job, because we are actually making a living of playing death metal. We all make enough money to survive. I know that Jack has a house and he has house payments to make. Everybody has bills. You get older and that’s what happens. The way I look at it – and I could be wrong, of course – he quits our band to concentrate more on his side band Adrift, which is still in the relatively young, infantile stages, so he’s obviously not making the same amount of money. They’re just trying to get going. Maybe it does work, but at that point it wasn’t, so six or seven months go by, and he’s not doing anything. Then you get a call from Deicide who need a guitar player, and you have the chance to make some money. What do you do? Yeah, you need money to live. Like I said, it’s me speculating. He could be doing it strictly for the money, maybe, but that’s what he needs. That’s what he does; he’s a guitar player and he can pull it off. He can jump in and play the Deicide stuff. So yeah, it’s strange but he obviously didn’t quit Cannibal Corpse in order to join Deicide. It’s just the way everything worked out, I guess.”

# What would be your favourite Cannibal Corpse album ever – excluding Kill?

“It’s hard to say, really. They’re all great. We love all the records, and we always strive to make the best album possible, of course. I listen back and I really like them all. I guess the first releases will always stick close to your heart, simply because they are the first. You can’t forget the experiences back from the whole beginning. It’s really a tough question because I do like all the albums a lot.”

# What inspired you to become a musician back in the days?

“Well, just growing up and starting to get into music. When I was ten years old I started listening to Kiss. I was freaking out on that band. I loved Kiss! My first concert when I was ten years old was seeing Kiss play and everything. That immediately made me want to become a musician. I wanted to be like them. Obviously, we are talking 1979 and 1980. Then you start growing up and getting into other bands, you know. I just liked heavy bands and rock’n’roll. That would be bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Then all of a sudden Metallica came out, then Slayer… And we were always wanting something more, something heavier. We were growing together with the music. So, basically, we wanted it heavier, more intense and more brutal. When we were old enough to finally say ‘Hey, let’s become musicians’, we took it up from the bands that we were worshipping at that time: Metallica, Slayer, Kreator and all the killer thrash metal bands of that era. We were sort of growing with that and developing death metal as we went, and as time went on it morphed into what it is today.”

# When did you ever start to realise that Cannibal Corpse were one of the first bands to push the envelope of death metal?

“Hmm, who knows? I guess it was like that right from when we put our first CD out; back when we became Cannibal Corpse, came up with the name and decided to base it on horror because we all loved it so much. Because when we put out Eaten Back to Life, it was like ‘Damn, look at that!’. We want to put out CD’s that we ourselves, as music fans, want to see in the record stores. We want people to go into a record store and say ‘Damn, that’s what I want to buy!’, because that’s what we did growing up. Before the internet and all other kinds of technology stuff, the way that you found out about a lot of music was going into your local metal store and seeing what was there. ‘Hey, what’s this band… Kreator? Pretty cool. Let’s put it on and see what happens, because that looks like a cool album cover.’ Listen to the song, look at the song titles and check out the way they look. Listen, it sounds like it’s right up our alley. Give it a shot!’. That’s how we learned about a lot of these bands, you know. So, when we were able to put out an album, we thought about the fan that goes into the record store and goes ‘Wow, holy shit – look at this! Cannibal Corpse – look at that crazy album cover! Read these song titles – what the hell?! This has got to be insane… Let’s check it out.’. So yes, we were kind of growing with the entire extreme music-scene at that point. There wasn’t a lot of that going on at that point.”

# What was your first album purchase back then?

“I think the first album I bought was Kiss ~ Destroyer. That was probably the first album that I bought. You know, actually going down to the store and buying it, because my mom bought me a couple before that. But Destroyer was probably the first album that I bought with my own money.”

# What is there more to achieve for a band like Cannibal Corpse?

“It’s really just about keeping it going and doing what we’re doing. If anything else is going to happen, it would have to come from the musical society in the sense of what people like. We’re one of the biggest death metal bands, we’re playing music that we love, we’re trying to be just as brutal as we can at any given time and on any given CD. So what can we do? I don’t know. We’ve done a lot with this band, more so than we’ve ever thought we would. So I think it’s just a question of keeping the quality and keeping it going. If we can release our tenth CD 18 years later and it’s our most brutal and intense release, then that’s an accomplishment. A lot of bands that have been active for 18 years or whatever may have changed and become a different band over time, but we never wanted to be that way. We always wanted to go down to what Cannibal is supposed to be: brutal death metal. That’s what it is. Otherwise we would be doing something different, and we could just as well change the name. So I think it’s really about maintaining the quality that we’ve set for ourselves, and taking it as long as we can go. At the end of tomorrow I think we can look on our career and say that we did a lot and more than we imagined.”

# What is the highlight or best memory of your career in Cannibal Corpse?

“That’s hard to say too, you know. I think a lot of it stems from the early days. Putting the band together, making a demo tape and just trying the best we could to get the music out to the people. We never expected that we would get signed to a record label. Sure, we hoped it in that it would be a great thing to do, but when it all happens for the first time it’s one incredible feeling. ‘Wow, this is my goal and it’s coming true. I’m making a CD and my mark will be left in this world. When I’m dead this CD is going to be here!’. So even if it had been only one CD or only one tour that we did, we would still feel that we tried and did our best. We can be happy that. I think it will be always be about those kinds of fond memories; just that feeling of being brand-new and having all that excitement there. Obviously, we are excited right now about having released our tenth CD, but I’d be lying if I said that it’s as exciting as it was in the early days. It’s not brand-new anymore, and there are a lot of different things going on now. We didn’t look at it like a business back then, and you evidently have to look at it like a business. It comes secondary to the music, of course, but back in those days it wasn’t about anything but playing. It was just awesome and incredible that we were able to actually make a CD.”

# How do you push yourself as a songwriter and lyricist?

“It all comes from within. It’s all about what comes out of us from inside. For myself personally, I just sit down with the songs and write the lyrics. I try to come up with stories that I find intriguing and do something that we haven’t done already in the past – or that I haven’t done myself. It’s not much of a process other than sitting down and having to get it done. I’m not sitting and thinking about lyrics all year around. When it comes down to doing it, I simply have to get it done and I make an effort to sit down and write the lyrics for a particular song. Sometimes it comes quicker than others, and other times, unfortunately, you need to be motivated by deadlines. I remember that I started writing some lyrics for this album early on, and I just wasn’t inspired. I can’t force it. But I know that when the time comes to where it has to be done and the deadline is looming, I have no choice other than to get the lyrics done. You just have to let it come, and the same goes for the songwriting. When the time comes for it, you just have to sit down and get it done.

# Do you have any side projects going on?

“Well, Jack and I did a side project a couple of years ago. We played a few shows in Tampa and made a couple of crappy demo tapes and all that, but that band has been defunct for some years now. I’m married and I have child now, and I really have no desire to do anything. It was fun to do that side project, but Cannibal takes up so much of our time. Maybe if I were single and didn’t have anything to do for two months, I could go home and do something. Well, that’s not the case. I’ll be going home to my house, my pets, my wife and my kid. Plus, like I said, Cannibal takes up so much time that I personally don’t have enough time to do that. I know that Alex has a side project going, as well as he and George are playing in that Paths Of Possession band, but I think that’s the only two things that are going on at the moment.”

# Is there anything you would have done differently if you had the chance?

“Not really. I don’t think so. We’ve done what we’ve done, and we’re just so overwhelmed and happy with what happened with us. I don’t know what we could have done differently, really. You can’t have any regrets. We’ve taken it day by day up to the point that we’re now making a living of the band. It’s like a dream come true for us, so I don’t really know what we should have done differently.”

# Are there things that you find too extreme to write into the concept of Cannibal Corpse?

“Well, we’re not a Satanic band, so you won’t see me writing lyrics in that direction or whatever. We’ve written some crazy stuff over the years; obviously Chris Barnes wrote some really crazy stuff back in the days. But I don’t know, really… I definitely won’t write anything really religious. Maybe our lyrics are getting more serious in a way in a sense. If you read the lyrics to Kill you will find that they’re a little bit different. We always want to retain the quality that we’ve set with Cannibal, but every song doesn’t need to be ‘in-your-face, over-the-top’ horrific lyrics. We have them here and there, but I think we’re getting a little more serious in some of the lyric writing. There are a couple of them, like “Make Them Suffer”. There’s really nothing brutal about the lyrics to that song. They’re brutal but it’s nothing over-the-top that will make you go ‘OMG!’ when you read them. It was more of a serious kind of song that I went for when I wrote the lyrics. So, things change a little bit, but whatever we do it’s definitely going to have to be about some sort of bile’n’gory type of subject matter, of course. Because we are Cannibal Corpse. It doesn’t always have to be insanely extreme, but it will always be brutal in some sense.”

# The Wretched Spawn had a particular track called “Rotted Body Landslide”, which to me comes across as a rather humorous title. Is that a flavour that the band consciously seeks to maintain?

“We never really look at it that way although we can understand why people might see some things as humorous. But we never, ever intentionally go ‘Oh, that’s funny – we need to include that on the album!’. Sure, it has to be tongue-in-cheek since it’s not real. It’s entertainment. A rotted body landslide… Come on, is that ever really going to happen? Of course not, it’s called fantasy. But in all seriousness, when we’re envisioning that it’s still pretty brutal. Yes, there’s humour in it but we’re not looking at it as being humorous. We can understand we’re people are getting the humour from, but we’re really trying to be serious about it. Man, it would be a pretty brutal thing. A rotted body landslide wouldn’t be a funny thing. It wouldn’t be fun if that happened and someone was involved in that. But again, I can surely understand where people can find the humour in the stuff that we do. We’re never intentionally trying to be funny, because we’re not that kind of a band.”

# Which three death metal albums stand above all else in your personal opinion?

“Let’s see… Altars of Madness, of course, by Morbid Angel is a really amazing classic death metal album. Probably the first Deicide album as well, and this new album from Aeon, Bleeding the False, is incredible too. They’re an incredible band and I’ve really been blown away by them. That album is like an instant classic to us.”

# How has it been to tour with Aeon?

“Awesome, great. We’re all getting along well. They’re all good guys and it’s pretty much just like a family. We’ve actually never had any major problems with any of the bands that we’ve toured with. Everything is usually pretty calm and cool; everybody gets along. We’ve had a lot of great touring experiences with great bands and great people.”

# Will people still care about Cannibal Corpse in ten years?

“I hope if we’re still around. It seems like it. 18 years since the beginning of the band and we’re as popular as ever. It seems like our fate is in our own hands. As long as we’re willing to keep on doing what we’re doing, and everybody is healthy and so on, I think we can keep on going for as long as we want. It’s hard to say, really. If the band ended tomorrow, would we still be as popular as we are today ten years from now? Well, who knows. That’s all speculation and it just has to be seen. But if the band was defunct – and if we keep our quality – I think we would still be selling records here and there. I mean, they are there to have forever. We can’t compare ourselves to, say, bigger bands of the eras, rock’n’roll bands that are done and gone but still sell records. Obviously, we are not Led Zeppelin or anything, but take a look at these bands that have been gone for years and years but they are still very popular and sell lots of records. So it would be nice, of course, to still have our market in death metal and to go down as one of the most brutal death metal bands of all time. Hopefully, in years to come, people will still be into the music. I don’t know what we can do to it happen, other than to make sure that our albums are still readily available. If they’re still selling I can’t see why Metal Blade wouldn’t keep promoting them. We’ll see.”

# Touring, recording, writing, rehearsing… Don’t you ever get tired of it?

“Sure, we get tired. Plus we’re older now. We tour a lot but we always try to plan it out probably, so we’re not burning ourselves out and burning up the name of the band. Yeah, we tour a lot but it’s not like we’re out seven straight months in a year. That would just kill us. On this tour we’re doing 27 shows. Unfortunately for us we’ve only had one day off and that was two days ago, so we played 21 shows in a row. We’re playing 19 songs a night for an hour and 15 minutes, so we’re playing a rather long set. Longer than we’ve ever have, and as I said we’re getting older. It’s not like we’re 20 years old anymore, so we’ve got to be careful, because if we do too much touring we could get burned out really easily. You need time to recuperate. The album just came out and it’s the first tour for this CD, and we’ll be home from this next week. Then we’ll be off for a couple of months before we do a tour in the States for a month and a half. Then we’ll have another month and a half off, and then we’ll do some more touring, and then some time off, do another tour and have some time off… [laughs]. Especially now that we have families we need to have time off. I have a family, George has a family. You can’t be away forever. But as I said you have to be more selective. We’re not 20 years old anymore so the body takes more of a beating. For now we’re still out there doing it and having a good time.”

# What would be your best advice to a fledgling death metal musician?

“Just practice – and don’t give up. If the band doesn’t get signed and nothing big happens within six months, a lot of people tend to think that it’s time to move on or do something different. To me you’ve got to do what you love to do – and you just got to do it! Where there’s a will there’s a way. You’ve got to keep on playing and practising and bettering yourself. It’s not going to happen overnight, but that’s all you can do. It depends on the person and the musician. It took us years to get to where we able to actually do what we’re doing with Cannibal. It was our goal and it was what we wanted to do, so we made it happen. All you can do is try, because if you don’t try you will just end up going ‘Damn, what if…?’. Well, who knows. You didn’t try. But if you really sit down and try to go somewhere with it – and don’t give up – I think that things will really happen. The key is not to give up.”

# Do you have any special formats up your sleeves for release in between Kill and the next full-length?

“No, we don’t, actually. Nothing as of yet at least. I guess it’s possible that something could be released, but right now we don’t anything planned. Kill is still so new that we haven’t really brought up or talked to the label about future releases. Right now we have no plans for anything, but you never know… Something could come up.”

# What are your expectations for the concert tonight?

“It’s always good here, you know. We just expect the people to show up to have a good time. The only thing we can expect is for the crowd to be here and go nuts. So far this tour has been amazing. There have been lots of fans at all the shows – and lots of fans going nuts [laughs]. Hopefully, tonight will be the same. I can’t see why it should be different from any of the other times we’ve played here. We’re just hoping for a good show.”

Conducted and written by Misereion.