This is quite okay. For Cannibal Corpse, that is.
Cannibal Corpse is, for those who don’t know the history of the most “popular” death metal act according to mainstream standards, a band that started out playing third-rate leftover Suffocation, Sewer, Incantation, Morpheus Descends, Helgrind and Malevolent Creation riffs during the Chris Barnes (is a pussy) era.
They were widely mocked for their derivative style, and typically regarded as the Gorgoroths or Watains of the death metal world.
The band then kicked out Barnes (the pussy) and recruited the much more talented George “Corpsegrinder” Fischer from Monstrosity, and their music improved significantly.
Which brings us to the present album, “Violence Unimagined”.
As I said previously, it’s quite okay for a Cannibal Corpse album. It’s not the “music of the devil” or anything like that, nor does it necessarily break any new ground in the death metal canon.
It does, however, provide an enjoying listen as Cannibal Corpse knows how to alternate between the predicable slamming riffs and the flutterstrum of smooth tremolo powerchords, to create an interesting atmosphere of brutality. By the way, is that a Vermin riff on track #3 “Inhumane Harvest”? Sure sounds like it.
While there is much to enjoy about this album, it does veer a little too close to the “modern metal” – aka metalcore – side of things, which sort of ruins any potential there might have been.
TLDR, “Violence Unimagined” probably won’t top the best heavy metal of the year list, but it does mark an improvement over the usual buffoonery the slam death scene is known for shitting out at regular intervals.
Metal Reviews 