interview_cannibal

» George/Alex - Cannibal Corpse

After enduring the sweltering heat which made my skin stick to the blood soaked & drenched pages upon which I had just written my review for Cannibal Corpse's live show; just having witnessed the carnage in the pit of zombies, and death walking terror on stage, I disfigured, why not speak to the killers for an interview concerning their murder worship. After watching a monstrosity performance like that, I felt devored by vermin, stripped, raped, and strangled; but not quite covered with sores. Unleashing the bloodthirsty banter, I decided the time to kill is now. So I stealthily approached Corpsegrinder, who was deeply engaged in a solicitous conversation with fellow fans, concerning Chuck Schuldiner as his impetus for playing metal with decency defied. After dining on his diatribe, the wretched spawn had me consuming sarcastic ration ninny after our starting, yet athwarting asymptotic communion.

MettleAngel: Hey brother will you spare a couple of minutes to answer a few questions for fans of Metal Covenant?

Corpsegrinder: Yeah man, no problem. What's on your mind?

MettleAngel: Well, seeing that Chuck Schuldiner was both an influence on your vocal style and your solid devotion to metal, let's talk about the early years. I know you were in a band from Florida called Monstrosity, do you care to comment on this?

Corpsegrinder: Everybody knows about the Monstrosity years, but do you know what band I was in before that?

MettleAngel: Actually, no I don't. What band were you in?

Corpsegrinder: Get this man, I was in the band Corpsegrinder and because of my unique vocal growl that's how I got the nickname. (then he pauses for a moment and asks Zdenka, who is standing next to us, for a complimentary Estuary CD; since he really liked her brutal vocals and her performance this evening. She did not immediately follow through on this, so I intervened, excusing myself in order to track down Ash, ensuring that George did, in fact, get a copy of Estuary's CD; they are a such a seriously talented band. When I returned a few moments later, George, adorning his Grimfist shirt, was etertaining Wendy by telling her that he knew how to swear in Swedish, after a casual risible chortle, I resumed the questions.)

MettleAngel: So, George you've been with Cannibal Corpse for over a decade now. I guess you've really found your niche in this metal milieu?

Corpsegrinder: I've been with this band 11 years now, but lately it's taken it's toll on my wife and our two year old daughter. Also, now I have another daughter on the way.

MettleAngel: We know what you mean since we have a demanding three year old son; but we always encourage him to be a metalhead.

Corpsegrinder: Having kids is a blast. Lately, my daughter is really into Dora the Explorer but, seriously, I don't see the need for kids to learn Spanish at such a young age; so now I'm glad she's all psyched out about Elmo.

MettleAngel: Our son digs Elmo too, he even has an Elmo toy electric guitar, with whammy bar included. For a while there he was also into Poke'mon which results in usually having stuff thrown at at you. Normally, he just tosses stuffed animals; but not always!

Corpsegrinder: Well, I just want to be a positive role model for my daughters. After we shot our video, recently, I bought her some cool stuff, like a Dora the Explorer backpack. You see man, I'm a fool because I never finished school. Granted, overall I'm a decent guy. I don't smoke anything, and I only drink beer; my only vice is my addiction to playing Warcraft games all day. In fact, I've never even been arrested.

MettleAngel: Wow, cool, you've never been arrested, neither have I.

Corpsegrinder: I mean I did some stupid shit when I was a kid; for me, my life is all about the metal When I was a teenager, me and my buddies would sneak into the woods, drink a few beers and crank up the King Diamond, but we never commited any serious crimes.

MettleAngel: Wow, let me get this straight, here I am speaking to the lead singer of the most prominent and successful death metal band of all time and essentially, what you're saying is that you're a role model citizen?

Corpsegrinder: Well, man I'm not perfect, I do drink beer, but not hard alcohol, because I need to preserve my voice. Do me a favor and definitely write this down, I want all Cannibal Corpse fans to know that it's crucial to stay in school. Education is essential and fundamental. Knowledge is power, after all, the greatest instrument known to man is the human mind! Now the internet is there to provide us with an alternative to the school system so that anyone can learn whatever he wants to know. It's not like when we were young, if we didn't like our teachers we were stuck, and thus, out of luck. But now today, if the kid doesn't like the way his teacher is handling the subject matter, he can go straight to the computer and teach himself. We are truly blessed with modern technology.

MettleAngel: I totally agree! The goal in life is to have fun, never stop learning new and exciting things. Wow, I can't believe we are actually talking about educational values - expect the unexpected - I always say!

Corpsegrinder: Well, actually Alex is the smart one (jokingly) did you know they named a dictionary after him? As for me I'm just vulgar, but sincerely I have a good heart, overall. What else can I say when it all comes down to it we're just a bunch of dorks in a metal band. But hey, I'm married with children and that and metal is the meaning of my life.

MettleAngel: Dude, after speaking with you I've swallowed some serious humble pie. I never would've imagined you'd be so cool.

Next we turned our attention to Alex Webster to continue the conversation and focus more on the band.

MettleAngel: I have to be honest brother, we had a blast tonight even though I'm not a big fan, overall. I really do love all the bands that influenced you though. For example, last week we saw Slayer and I know they are always a great inspiration for you.

Corpsegrinder: We were really hoping to get on the "Unholy Alliance Tour", but being on the "Sounds of the Underground Tour" works out real well for us too.

MettleAngel: I was amazed to discover just how cool and introspective George was. I assume the show was packed tonight because this is Pat's hometown. As you are the main lyricist I wanted to ask you some critical questions.

Alex: Yeah, we are everday people. We're Just a bunch of dudes trying to have ourselves a good time. Pat is from around here; though, so many of his friends did come to check him out tonight, it was a good crowd response.

MettleAngel: Even so, you are in the most successful and perenially controversial death metal band of all time. Given your graphic artwork and gore infested lyrics, don't you envision the average spectator instantly becoming shocked by the intense imagery and murderous attitude?

Alex: Well our band is to music like Eli Roth's "Hostel" is to cinema. It's the same kind of idea relatively speaking. Same goes with the early works of Peter Jackson. Now that we've traveled all around the world, it's always a joy to visit the sites where some of the most disturbing movies were filmed.

MettleAngel: I understand this analogy, and intuit the tongue in cheek aspects therein. If one were to watch "Cabin Fever", and then afterwards check out the commentary track, he'd discover that Eli calls up his parents during the movie. So, if someone was shocked by all the gore onscreen initially, after hearing his mom and dad speak to him about nonchalantly being a little boy obsessed with horror in his youth, the overall fear, shock, and drama becomes alleviated and somewhat sardonic & satirical.

Alex: Well the unknown is what makes a horror movie so frightening; it's all about what you don't see; yet there's so much suggestion involved. When you consider movies like the "Exorcist" or "The Shining" this is the same way which the band approaches our lyrical content.

MettleAngel: In life it seems people always condemn what they fear. This ignorance is what leads to so much confusion contumacy, protuberance, convexity, &. outright discord.

Alex: Our in your face brutal gore guise is straight forward and our lyrics are well thought out and even grammatically correct. (he tells me the ancedote of his mispelling stealthily as stealthfully.)

MettleAngel: I relish in the fact that the mood, tense, and verb form match with gender, number, & case when it comes to the mawkish lyrical content. I know you, just like me, are an old school thrasher, so who are some of your killer influences?

Alex: Well there's some serious great bands out there like Sodom, Kreator, Possesed and The Accused.

MettleAngel: Man, I'm just aching to hear the new Accused Oh Martha CD! I have all their other CDs. I first saw them live in '87 with G.B.H.

Alex: Did you know we covered The Accused "Bethany Home" and Razor's "Behind Bars" for our box set 15 Year Killing Spree?

MettleAngel: No I did not, but I will definitely look forward to hearing those tracks soon. Did you ever hear Benediction's cover of The Accused song - "Wrong Side of the Grave"? It seems you formed the band in the late '80s just at the time when the thrash & crossover movement was so prevalent.

Alex: We love early crossover bands like COC, DRI, and Cryptic Slaughter but we also love the "Evil Thrash" by bands like Sepultura, Bloodfeast, and Slayer.

MettleAngel: What do you mean by the term - "Evil Thrash"?

Alex: It's that aggresive, intense, brutal, darker syle of thrash. For example, I love Tom Araya's vocal style, but if he sang harsh, Slayer would be classified as death metal. I really love the heavy riffing and brutal beats of this style of metal.

MettleAngel: Yeah, so do I. I'm so amazed how these new bands keep popping up and getting signed; as they incorporate more and more Slayer riffs and some of the older school thrash techniques.

Alex: These newer bands are influenced by the "Evil Thrash".

MettleAngel: Oh, I get it. "Evil Thrash" like Dark Angel and Exodus, as opposed to everyday thrash bands like Anthrax, Forbidden, and Overkill.

Alex: In fact, one new band that has really influenced some of this so-called Metal Core is the Swedish band known as At The Gates.

MettleAngel: Yes indeed. Their CD - Slaughter of the Soul, alongside of nineties era In Flames and Strapping Young Lad all sewed the seeds of hate towards Metal Core.

Alex: I love all metal, I love it so much Man, have you heard the new American band on Metal Blade called Cellador?

MettleAngel: Oh definitely, I will be reviewing them for Metal CD Ratings very soon. They remind me of Dragonforce meets Dungeon. They are from Nebraska.

Alex: Speaking of the good old days, I remember when we actually opened for Bloodfeast, The Accused, and Dead Brain Cells. Besides listening to metal, I love to learn new things like languages, vocabulary and history. (This of course leads to another 30 minute discourse involving my "voracity for veracity" theory, by which I make use of my etymology skills and knowledge of Greek and Latin to teach Alex an argosy of arcane vocab terms and concepts, whetting his appetite for reading my writing and reviews.)

The converstion ended as the bus pulled away. We have no actual pictures; since the batteries died in our digital camera unexpectedly....