Cannibal Corpse - Bloodthirst

Bloodthirst is definitely one of the least talked-about Cannibal Corpse records. In fact, the Cannibal Corpse records that I hear the least about are the ones released within the 1998-2004 time period. Although I’m not the biggest fan of Gallery of Suicide, The Wretched Spawn (released in 2004) is one of my favorite Cannibal Corpse albums. But another record that I RARELY hear about from ANYONE is Bloodthirst. Of course, just like every other Cannibal Corpse album, it features artwork from one of my favorite visual artists: Vincent Locke. Although it’s not one of his best works, it definitely screams death metal all over it.

Obviously, since I wasn’t listening to death metal in 2000 (I was probably only six or seven years old), I can’t say EXACTLY why Bloodthirst never really got any major attention from the metal community (both mainstream and underground). But, I can say that some legendary metal albums were released that year, possibly temporarily distracting the metal community from the Cannibal Corpse craze. Some of these albums include (but are not limited to) Exhumed’s Slaughtercult, Lamb of God’s debut release, Origin’s debut release, Nightwish’s Wishmaster, Decapitated’s debut release, Children of Bodom’s Follow the Reaper, Nile’s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Immortal’s Damned in Black, Mudvayne’s L.D. 50, Pantera’s last album, Slipknot’s debut release, and Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. But then again, that’s not a very valid excuse because…well…this is Cannibal Corpse we’re talking about!

From what I can hear, Cannibal Corpse has made two major shifts in their overall sound. The first one obviously being caused by Vile due to the vocalist change; this sound carried out into Gallery of Suicide. Bloodthirst marks the band’s second major change in sound; which has led to be the sound that they still have today. The instant that my favorite track from the album, Pounded into Dust, starts bombarding the listener with blast beats and Cannibal Corpse-style crushing guitar riffs, it becomes obvious that the band finally got their full footing back after the sudden vocalist change.

I’m not a fan of Corpsegrinder’s vocals in Vile and Gallery of Suicide not only because they don’t sound very strong and solid at all, but also because they sound out of place. Cannibal Corpse was almost done recording Vile when they gave Chris Barnes the boot, which meant that the music on that album was crafted to sound best with the sound of Barnes’ growls, not Corpsegrinder’s. So with that being understandable, Gallery of Suicide was the real test to see if they could make an album that had music that sounded good with George’s unique vocal sounds. Since Bloodthirst (for me at least) is the first solid-sounding Cannibal Corpse album with Corpsegrinder on vocals, Gallery of Suicide seems to be more of a rough transition into the sound that we know today that fits PERFECTLY with Corpsegrinder’s vocals.

I’m not saying that any of the musicians themselves were not as good or brutal as they’ve always been, it’s more of the actual musical structure and sound that seemed too weak for a band like Cannibal Corpse. So Bloodthirst gives you everything that just about every other Cannibal Corpse album gives you: purebred brutality, crushing guitars, bombarding drumming and blast beats, extremely low-tuned bass, and, of course, some of the most violent and disturbing artwork and lyrical content the world has ever seen. But on top of that, Bloodthirst delivers pristine quality through song structure as solid as titanium which has enabled the band to have a blueprint/skeleton to add creativity to with ease. If you haven’t heard this album, I would highly recommend giving it a listen whether you’re a Cannibal Corpse fan or not. Bloodthirst is a SPECTACULAR death metal release and gets my high score of 16/20.