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===Musical style and instrumentation=== Cannibal Corpse is ultimately a [[death metal]] band.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Eli|last=Enis|url=https://www.revolvermag.com/music/fan-poll-top-5-cannibal-corpse-songs/|title=Fan poll: Top 5 Cannibal Corpse songs|magazine=[[Revolver (magazine)|Revolver]]|date=September 27, 2023|access-date=December 15, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|first=Dom|last=Lawson|url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/cannibal-corpse-death-metal-history-interview-2012|title="I shouldn't speculate why we were singled out, other than because we were massively offensive": how Cannibal Corpse became death metal's first million selling band|magazine=[[Metal Hammer]]|date=March 13, 2024|access-date=December 15, 2024}}</ref> Various publications have also classified the band as [[brutal death metal]],<ref>{{cite web|first=Nicholas|last=Kobe|url=https://woub.org/2023/10/17/paul-mazurkiewicz-discusses-cannibal-corpses-new-album-the-endurance-of-death-metal-and-the-creative-brutality-of-the-band/|title=Paul Mazurkiewicz discusses Cannibal Corpse's new album, the endurance of death metal, and the creative brutality of the band|work=[[WOUB-TV]]|date=October 17, 2023|access-date=December 15, 2024}}</ref> [[old school death metal]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://toiletovhell.com/beginners-guide-to-old-school-death-metal/|title=Beginner's Guide to Old School Death Metal|website=The Toilet Ov Hell|date=February 19, 2015|access-date=October 30, 2024}}</ref> and [[speed metal]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Kill - Cannibal Corpse {{!}} Album {{!}} AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/kill-mw0000508370 |access-date=2025-01-07 |language=en}}</ref>[[image:CannibalCorpse.jpg|thumb|left|Performance in [[Washington D.C.]] in 2007|300x300px]]The band's sound is characterized by what is described as a "[[Wall of Sound|wall of sound]]", and its songwriting is described as "brutally aggressive but melodic." Guitarist [[Rob Barrett]] said "You can be melodic without having it sound happy or triumphant. We try to go for the more uglier sounding stuff." Many of the band's melodies make use of [[atonality]]. Guitarist [[Pat O'Brien (guitarist)|Pat O'Brien]] said, “alot of stuff that we have to put [[Guitar solo|solos]] over is not in a particular [[Key (music)|key]], or doesn’t fit in a particular [[Scale (music)|scale]] pattern. [...] It’s totally free, it’s almost like [[jazz]] in a lot of ways, because you can get as crazy and as out there as you want. [...] That’s why I like it. It’s not limited.” He also stated the band uses scales that "sound evil," such as the [[Diminished scale|diminished]] and [[Hungarian minor scale|Hungarian minor]] scales.<ref name="auto">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBsc91YBG78 |title=Cannibal Corpse - The Making Of The Wretched Spawn (2004) |date=2017-12-05 |last=Rock-Пробег |access-date=2025-03-06 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=published |first=Kory Grow |date=2009-07-21 |title=Cannibal Corpse: Gory Details |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/cannibal-corpse-gory-details |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=guitarworld |language=en}}</ref> The band's early releases are recognized for their rawness, and have been described as being "[[Live music|live sounding]]." Bassist Alex Webster commented, "I guess there’s little things I’d consider mistakes on [the early albums], but that captures something -- It gives them that live feel." A great deal of the band's early material was composed by original guitarist Bob Rusay, including tracks such as "Skull Full of Maggots," "Post-Mortal Ejaculaton," and "Beyond the Cemetery." His musical background was in [[punk rock]], and his writing style was described by his bandmates as abrasive, unorthodox, and "offbeat." The guitar tone on early Cannibal Corpse releases, such as ''[[Butchered at Birth]]'', has been characterized as a "[[beehive]]-wall of [[white noise]]." The band's later releases are generally considered to be more rhythmically and melodically complex, which was partially the result of Alex Webster's desire to explore the "technical side of music," beginning with ''[[Tomb of the Mutilated]]''. According to Joel McIver of [[Future plc|MusicRadar]], "behind the horrible song titles, lyrics and artwork lies a band of unexpected subtlety and skill."<ref name="Staffpublished">{{Cite web |last=Staffpublished |first=Bass Player |date=2022-05-24 |title=Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster on his 5 best bass albums |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/cannibal-corpse-alex-webster-5-best-bass-albums |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=guitarworld |language=en}}</ref><ref name="nysmusic.com"/><ref name="Wiederhorn">{{Cite web |last=Wiederhorn |first=Jon|date=2023-08-17 |title=33 Years Ago: Cannibal Corpse Release 'Eaten Back to Life' |url=https://loudwire.com/cannibal-corpse-eaten-back-to-life-album-anniversary/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Loudwire |language=en}}</ref><ref>Cannibal Corpse -- Centuries of Torment: The First 20 Years</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |author1=Joel McIver |date=2021-12-02 |title=The 10 best bassists in the world right now, as decided by you |url=https://www.musicradar.com/news/best-bassists-2021 |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=MusicRadar |language=en}}</ref> [[File:Alex Webster and George Fisher.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Alex Webster and George Fisher performing in [[São Paulo|São Paulo, Brazil]]]] The band's early releases are described as "a progressively over-the-top approach to gore-themed death metal that pushed the envelope in every imaginable way, from cover art to song titles to the music itself." In reviews of early albums, critics have made note of the unintelligible, "thundering," "grunting" [[death growl]]s of vocalist [[Chris Barnes (musician)|Chris Barnes]], who was called "one of the best growlers in the business".<ref>{{Citation |title=Butchered at Birth - Cannibal Corpse {{!}} Album {{!}} AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/butchered-at-birth-mw0000618690 |access-date=2025-01-03 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="allmusic.com"/><ref>{{Citation |title=The Bleeding - Cannibal Corpse {{!}} Album {{!}} AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-bleeding-mw0000112632 |access-date=2025-01-03 |language=en}}</ref> Founding guitarist [[Jack Owen]] described the band's first four albums: "''[[Eaten Back to Life|Eaten]]'' is thrashy, ''[[Butchered at Birth|Butchered]]'' is overwritten but in a good way, ''[[Tomb of the Mutilated|Tomb]]'' is abrasive and violent, and then ''[[The Bleeding (album)|The Bleeding]]'' was like 'okay slow it down and concentrate." He also said, "You can hear everyone’s writing style in their own songs."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://metalinjection.net/news/jack-owen-on-cannibal-corpses-the-bleeding-its-my-favorite-album | title=JACK OWEN on CANNIBAL CORPSE's the Bleeding: "It's My Favorite Album" | date=April 27, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=JACK OWEN- CANNIBAL CORPSE (08.02.04) |url=https://rockumweb.com/entrevista/13/jack-owen-cannibal-corpse-080204- |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=rockumweb.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The writing process for the band's early releases were largely collaborative efforts. However, by the time of the writing for ''Tomb of the Mutilated'', the band members began composing more material on their own, and beginning with ''Vile'', songwriting credits began being attributed to individual band members. [[File:Cannibal_Corpse.jpg|left|thumb|300x300px|Cannibal Corpse performing in 2004]] Despite the increasing technical proficiency and polish on the band's studio releases throughout its career, the overall style has remained relatively unchanged, "in other words, zero chance of [any] stylistic experimentation," according to Greg Prato of ''[[AllMusic]]''.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Citation |title=Evisceration Plague - Cannibal Corpse {{!}} Album {{!}} AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000804292 |access-date=2025-01-21 |language=en}}</ref> According to former guitarist [[Pat O'Brien (guitarist)|Pat O'Brien]]: "There are certain areas where we're not going to be able to go where other bands have gone. But we don't want to; we're Cannibal Corpse and we're just gonna do what we do."<ref name="Cannibal Corpse │ Exclaim!" /> In an interview with ''[[Invisible Oranges]]'', Webster explained, "Unless you’re an [[Avant-garde metal|experimental metal]] band by nature, people don’t really want that [[Experimental music|experimentation]], I don’t think. They want us to try and out-do what we’ve done – I don’t think people want us to stand still and put out the same album again and again but I think what they want is something stylistically consistent and hopefully even a little better than the last album. When bands go too far away from their style it’s generally not well received in the [[Heavy metal subculture|metal community]]. Consistency is a big part of our genre."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Invisible Oranges |title=Interview: Cannibal Corpse's Alex Webster |url=https://www.invisibleoranges.com/interview-cannibal-corpses-alex-webster/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=Invisible Oranges - The Metal Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> In an interview with ''[[Guitar World]]'', he said, "Some of the side projects I’ve done have allowed me to stretch out a little bit more [in terms of style], but Cannibal is really about being a big, heavy rhythm machine, and stepping out too much might detract from that."<ref>{{Cite web |last=McIverpublished |first=Joel |date=2021-07-22 |title=Alex Webster: "Cannibal Corpse is always a 'song first' kind of thing... a big, heavy rhythm machine" |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/cannibal-corpse-alex-webster |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=guitarworld |language=en}}</ref> Mazurkiewicz is quoted saying: “A key to our longevity, you know, [is probably] the fact that the fans know what they’re going to get, we’re a band that the fans can count on. [...] I always hated when bands [...] changed their style, something happened. You’re so into the sound of a band and then all of a sudden – ‘wait, what happened? Why did they have to go in that direction? What’d they do?’ And you were let down big time. We never wanted to be that band, you know?”<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81vjL8Ytti0 |title=Paul Mazurkiewicz (Cannibal Corpse) On 20 Questions With Scooter |date=2021-06-16 |last=Granville Guitars |access-date=2025-03-06 |via=YouTube}}</ref> [[File:Cannibal Corpse Full Force 2019 02.jpg|thumb|275x275px|Drummer [[Paul Mazurkiewicz]] at Full Force 2019 at [[Ferropolis]] in Germany.]] The band's songwriting incorporates [[hook (music)|hooks]] into its lyrics, and vocal [[cadences]] and [[guitar riffs]]. [[Vice Media|''VICE News'']] assessed that the band's third album, ''[[Tomb of the Mutilated]]'' "sounds like death metal as [[Pop music|pop]] – the genre stripped to its basics."<ref name="Adams">{{Cite web |last=Adams |first=Mason |date=2016-09-13 |title=How Cannibal Corpse's 'Tomb of the Mutilated' Got Me into Young Thug |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-cannibal-corpses-tomb-of-the-mutilated-got-me-into-young-thug/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref> Webster explained: "We want the songs to be memorable, as long as there is no sacrifice in the level of heaviness. [...] Those two things should not have to be exclusive. I think you can have really catchy things that are all really heavy. I mean if we can manage to write some lyrics that are going to make you want to remember them and sing along to them each time they come around, then mission accomplished I think right?"<ref>{{Cite web |last=MetalTalk |date=2021-04-07 |title=Alex Webster / "We want the Cannibal Corpse songs to be memorable" |url=https://www.metaltalk.net/alex-webster-we-want-the-cannibal-corpse-songs-to-be-memorable.php |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=www.metaltalk.net |language=en-GB}}</ref> Chris Barnes' vocals on early Cannibal Corpse albums have been described as "indecipherable [[Growling|growls]]," while opting for a more intelligible style on ''The Bleeding''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bowles |first=Amy |date=2024-04-15 |title=HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: The Bleeding - Cannibal Corpse |url=https://distortedsoundmag.com/heavy-music-history-the-bleeding-cannibal-corpse/ |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=Distorted Sound Magazine |language=en-GB}}</ref> Barnes' vocals were generally characterized by a slower, groovier delivery style, while current vocalist [[George Fisher (musician)|George Fisher]] is noted for his highly intelligible, rapid-fire vocal delivery on later Cannibal Corpse releases, such as ''Vile'' and ''Kill''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=DiVita |first=Joe|date=2017-12-15 |title=How Cannibal Corpse's Corpsegrinder Fisher Learned to Scream |url=https://loudwire.com/how-cannibal-corpse-george-corpsegrinder-fisher-learned-scream/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=Loudwire |language=en}}</ref>{{Additional citation needed|date=January 2025}} According to [[Guitar World]], "Webster’s galloping three-finger technique unlocks speed and accuracy that other bassists can only dream of; remarkably, he achieves great attack and clarity without the need for a pick."<ref name="Staffpublished"/>
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