Artist: Cannibal Corpse
Country: USA
Label: Metal Blade Records
Formats: CD/DVD Boxset
Year: 2003
It was in the late 80’s when Deathmetal was the most active genre in the metalscene. Bands that pushed the boundaries of brutality, aggression and speed far beyond the standards of that time. A healthy scene always causes many new bands influenced by each other. One of the bands that was put to life was Cannibal Corpse, back in 1988. The band recorded one legendary demotape before signing a deal with Metal Blade. This signing changed the whole deathmetal world. Cannibal Corpse was one of the fist band that sounded so utterly brutal that some of the people (of the press) found them too heavy. Yet, the band grew to a huge cultstatus within the (death) metal scene. And happened to be one of the most influential bands ever to walk around. The older four records with Chris Barnes (later (and still) known for his works in Six Feet Under) are essential deathmetal albums and contain loads and loads of classic songs. Later the band changed vocalists, and from Vile they have George “Corpse Grinder” Fisher on vocals, and they just continued their bloody crusade. And the band is still releasing one great quality album after another. With the newest coming up March 2004. Why this story? This year is the fifteenth anniversary of the band. And that should be celebrated!
And Metal Blade and Cannibal Corpse decided to do that with a massive value boxset. The boxset contains two best of CDs, a CD with previously unreleased (demo) material, a DVD with 2 live shows, a comic book, a book and a poster. The two best of CDs contain tracks from all of their discography – quite simple, for Cannibal Corpse always stayed with Metal Blade so no copyright problems! Both periods are equally represented on the CDs, and actually do contain all the best tracks. If I had to choose a ‘best of’ Cannibal Corpse (would’ve been a though one, though!) it would look familiar. Songs like “A Skull Full Of Maggots”, “Covered With Sores”, “I Will Kill You” and of course “Fucked With A Knife” are always nice to hear again. And the third CD contains demo tracks which actually circulating though the bootleg scene for several years and therefore doesn’t contain much worth for the real fans, they certainly have got this in their collection for some time. But, it is a lot cooler to have them in an original version instead of a cheesy CDR. The books are not that special, the book contains some information about the CDs, the comic is a story (surprisingly) entitled “Gallery Of Suidide”. The poster is (surprisingly as well) displaying a band phto. What does makes the DVD worth is the first live show ever!
This boxset costs indeed a lot of money and it is up to you… If it is worth your hard earned money. But it is quite a good way to show the world who is the best selling and one of the most influential bands around!
