Cannibal Corpse @ Showbox

Death metal, anyone? ☠️

The band Cannibal Corpse posing in front of a shipping container underneath a stormy, gray sky.
NOV 19

📸: Freakout Festival | Pearl Charles

Saturday, November 19 • 7:30 pm

Cannibal Corpse is 100% death metal personified. Their name says it all—over the top, disgusting, inaccessible to the mainstream, and downright brutal

Take one look at their discography—which features songs like “Scattered Remains Splattered Brains,” “Mummified in Barbed Wire,” and “Icepick Lobotomy” (these are the least vulgar of the lot)—and you’ll likely get an idea of what to expect from a Cannibal Corpse show. At this point, I’ve attended close to fifteen of their concerts over the years, and the ear-splitting guitar riffs, pounding blast beats, and guttural growls keep me coming back.

Onstage, vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher sarcastically taunts the audience by daring them to bang their heads as hard as him. This feat has proven impossible every time, as Corpsegrinder’s neck is the size of a tree trunk and his head-banging skills are that of legend. But that doesn’t stop the crowd from trying their hardest. Offstage, though, he’s known as a loveable guy obsessed with World of Warcraft and claw-machine arcade games. Did you expect something a little more evil? The band’s willingness to not take themselves too seriously has paid off, as you may remember them from their brief but famous cameo from the rock club scene in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

But for all the popularity that’s come their way by consistently grinding it out for 34 years, Cannibal Corpse has been unrelenting in their unified goal to create the most disturbing, mind-melting death metal imaginable. While many of their peers watered down their sound in an attempt to become a bit more accessible, Cannibal Corpse remained hardcore and beloved by maniacs like me.

Author

Kevin Diers

Kevin Diers is a freelance writer and radio host who lives in Seattle. You can listen to him on both Metal Shop and Loud and Local on 99.9 KISW or catch him interviewing wrestlers at the next DEFY show.