Kelly Tucker January 4th, 2020 - 11:49 AM
Death metal band Cannibal Corpse who have been around for 30 years, announced via Instagram that they are working on their next album. In regard to their recent tour, the band shared, “Thanks for all your support of Red Before Black and all our touring in support of the record. Time to enter the crypts and begin work on the next record. Keep supporting death metal in the new decade!”
Bassist Alex Webster shared, “Throughout our career we’ve tried to improve the precision of both our musical execution and our album production, while still maintaining full-on aggression. Red Before Black continues in that direction, but might go even further on the aggressive side of things. It’s definitely precise, but it has a rawness to it that goes beyond anything we’ve done recently.” Cannibal Corpse drummer, Paul Mazurkiewicz said, “We really worked super hard crafting these songs, practicing them, and getting them where we wanted to be more so than on any of our previous albums. And as Alex said, musically I think it’s the most raw sound we’ve had – and at the same time I think it’s our most focused, tightest and catchiest record.”
The band recently underwent some drama in dealing with guitarist Pat O’Brien who was arrested in 2018 for assault and burglary at the same time that his house burned down. Later, it was revealed that O’Brien had kept military flamethrowers, over 80 firearms, and three skulls inside his home. Vocalist Corpsegrinder said of O’Brien, “I don’t wanna speculate about what could have happened that night, but it could have been way worse for him. We love him. We want him back. But when I saw him in the court with the [anti-suicide] vest, dude, I cried. We wish the best for him, and we’re just waiting to see. He’s got a road ahead of him still with legal issues, and that’s out of our hands. We support him 100 percent; we’re behind him 100 percent.”
Erik Rutan joined the band to fill in for guitarist Pat O’Brien. The band participated as an opening act for thrash metal band Slayer’s farewell tour in 2019, along with heavy metal legends such as Lamb of God and Amon Amarth.
The band shared on their website, “When we started, even Black Sabbath hadn’t been around for three decades. There simply was no precedent for a lifelong career in metal, of any kind, let alone a relatively new form like death metal. We’ve been unbelievably lucky, and we are so grateful to our fans for making it possible.” In typically grounded fashion, they continue to forge ahead, seeing no end in sight, Webster stating he likes to think they have yet to write their best record, while Mazurkiewicz outlines their goals: “I would say we just want to keep it going, try to better ourselves – and finally open for Slayer!”
