In the early '90s,
Cannibal Corpse acquired a small cult in the death metal underground by embracing some of the most gruesome lyrics the subgenre had to offer. Thriving on shock value, the band inspires comparisons to
GWAR and comes across as a parody of death metal and grindcore more than anything. Like its previous album, the equally twisted
Eaten Back to Life,
Butchered at Birth addresses such lurid topics as dismemberment, torture, and masochism. One will need the lyric sheet to know just how gross songs like "Under the Rotted Flesh," "Meat Hook Sodomy," "Covered with Sores," and "Rancid Amputation" are -- the grunting vocals are impossible to understand. Some retailers refused to carry this CD because of its depiction of a woman being mutilated by zombies, and
Cannibal Corpse wasted no time getting as much publicity as possible from the controversy. The rockers are one-dimensional, but then, they never claimed to be anything else. This band's obvious goal was to deliver the musical equivalent of B-movie horror flick, and on that level, the album is outrageously successful. ~ Alex Henderson