Corpsegrinder – Corpsegrinder
Corpsegrinder – Corpsegrinder
Perseverance Music Group
Release Date: 25/02/2022
Running Time: 31:03
Review by Rory Bentley
8/10
Corpsegrinder Fisher, George to his friends, is a man of many passions. He’s a loving family man, World Of Warcraft enthusiast, claw machine aficionado and lover of theme parks. He’s an incredibly wholesome man with a heart as big as his gargantuan neck and contrary to the opinion of his predecessor Chris Barnes (who now sounds like someone’s Nan with a chest infection), he also happens to be pretty much the best Death Metal singer of all time.
Such is the ferocity, precision and perfect dictation of his guttural roar that many a musician has wanted to write songs for him to give it the old sandpaper-bark treatment when he has time away from his day job in the mighty Cannibal Corpse. Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam D. was the first guy to snare Mr Grinder for a whole album, with the delightfully barbaric Serpentine Dominion project, which offered scintillating Death Metal worlds apart from KSE’s anthemic Metalcore.
It is now Hatebreed frontman and producer Jamey Jasta’s turn to use the elemental power of our broad-shouldered hero, along with his writing and production partners Nick and Charlie Bellmore. This crack team of Metal hit writers actually has previous form in serving up custom-made albums for Metal icons, having rejuvenated Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider’s career with two very solid albums of Modern Metal that perfectly complimented his formidable vocal chops.
Jasta and friends have demonstrated they have a great ear for the strengths of the artist they’re working with and clearly approach these projects with a gleeful fanboy enthusiasm where the vocalist they’re working with is almost like a brand new toy they get to play with. Unsurprisingly this trend continues on “Corpsegrinder”.
Essentially what we have here is half an hour of Corpsegrinder making cool death threats over banging Hardcore riffs and joyfully composed passages of rapid fire Death Metal fury. It’s not particularly original, it’s not that compositionally innovative, however I give zero fucks about this!
Real talk – if you like big shout along hooks, thuggish riffs and songs about beating people to death with hammers it will be impossible to have a bad time with this one. Even at its most generic, every song is as catchy as crabs and full of moments that will give you permanent stink face. ‘Bottom Dweller’ for example is a collision of sludgy Madball riffs, double kick drums and George hollering his balls off about the punishment coming for some low life or other. When he says ‘Take this Blade – NOW STICK IT IN!’ before the chugging Thrash waltz of the middle eight kicks in, I find myself giddy with adrenaline from the joyous vulgarity on display.
If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you’ll probably have noticed how picky and critical I am, even with things I really like. Dear reader I feel I’m going to let you down in a big way with this one.
I must confess that all I can think about when I want to put my serious hat on is Hate Eternal legend Erik Rutan shredding his fingers bloody on a song about dashing a lad in a vat of acid. The song’s called ‘Acid Vat’ because of course it fucking is!
I humbly implore you to cut me some slack here – I’m coming up short on the professional front because I’m too busy trying not to break all of my possessions when the mosh parts come in and I have a no claims discount on my home insurance I need to preserve.
If I was being really picky I would probably say Jasta and the boys could have tried out a few more different styles and changes of pace to paint Corpsegrinder in a different light, maybe push him into unfamiliar territory, but if I’m honest I probably wouldn’t even want this. ‘Crimson Proof’s’ bouncy, almost Nu-metal riffing and ‘BRING ON THE BLOODSHED!’ hook is about as adventurous as everyone needs to go for me. I’m all for pushing the envelope but sometimes the only pushing required from an album is the pushing of my face into a blazing furnace until my eyeballs explode.
The point I’m getting at is this album fucking rips. I could have just written that as my review in all fairness. It is pure boneheaded joy pulled from the minds of people who just love Death Metal and its top-heavy mouthpiece and if you can’t get down with that I don’t know what to tell you other than the fact that I hate you. Be very interested to see if Beth lets me keep that last sentence in.
Stick it on, crush a beer can on your skull and bask in the razor-throated majesty of The Corpsegrinder!
‘Acid Vat’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Acid Vat
02. Bottom Dweller
03. On Wing Of Carnage
04. All Souls Get Torn
05. Death is the Only Key
06. Crimson Proof
07. Devourer of Souls
08. Defined by Your Demise
09. Master of the Longest Night
10. Vaguely Human
LINE-UP:
George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher – Vocals
Charlie Bellmore – Guitar/Bass
Nick Bellmore – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Rory Bentley and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
