50 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Albums Of 2017
47. Cannibal Corpse – Red Before Black
Oh yeah, now we’re talking!
Red Before Black is the viscerally delectable fourteenth album from the USA’s East Coast titans Cannibal Corpse. A tight death metal record that harkens perfectly back to the subgenre’s early ‘90s heyday, Red Before Black is everything a fan could want from a Cannibal Corpse album: gory, fast and guttural. The pipes of George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher once again live up to the frontman’s ever-so-delightful nickname, cutting and bashing through the instrumentals of the disc like a baseball bat with nails hammered into it.
Similarly, the rhythms of Alex Webster and Paul Mazurkiewicz on bass and drums respectively are as heavy and quick as ever, driving the powerful riffs of the album with a gloriously destructive framework.
The only downside of Red Before Black is that, for newcomers to the horror-infused and OTT style that Cannibal Corpse relishes in, the album won’t win the band any new followers. It’s still as shock value-dependent as ever, brilliantly bloody and deliciously violent in its delivery.
For me and countless other Cannibal Corpse die-hards, that’s great! But for those who want a little more depth, evolution or subtlety to their heavy music that they simply cannot live without, Red Before Black might not be the album for you.