Cannibal Corpse Go Digital

02/10/09 12:24pm

by Keith Carman (CHARTattack)

Cannibal Corpse, renowned as the biggest death metal band going, celebrated the release of their 11th studio effort, Evisceration Plague, last week.

This was the second time they've recorded with Hate Eternal guitarist/vocalist Erik Rutan at his Mana Studios in St. Petersburg, Fla. The first was on 2006's highly acclaimed Kill. For this album, Cannibal Corpse (who consist of guitarists Pat O'Brien and Rob Barrett, vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz) really attacked Evisceration Plague's 12 songs from a fresh angle. They strove for perfect timing by utilizing a metronome as the be-all, end-all of the recording process.

CHARTattack: So this is the second time you've worked with Rutan. How'd it go?
Pat O'Brien: I think we've really achieved something with this album. We tried some different things. We wanted to make it tighter, more refined, so we tried using a click track. We even rehearsed using a click. I think it makes the album straighter and more solid.

How do you prefer that over just playing by feel?
We did that with every album we've done. We'd just go in there and wing it with how it felt and use the best take for the main drum tracks. I was worried the click might make it more sterile, but it didn't. It seems more solid.

You wouldn't know it was so metered by just listening to it. What persuaded you to try a click track after 20 years?
Really, we just wanted to try something different. We thought about what the first thing we could do to make us sound tighter and more professional. We wanted to see the end result because we'd never done it this way before.

It worked out well, 'cause this is how we'll probably do it for future albums. We might get crazier and have tempo changes, but it'll be solid no matter what. It'll have more of a machine type of feel.

Some bands find a metronome limiting, but it sounds like it liberated you.
I thought that, but it's also limiting the other way around. When you're just guessing areas — if the tempo sways — it can be cool because it's on the edge and might fall apart. But there are drawbacks to that side, too, and we've done 10 albums like that.

It was time to do something different. We don't want to put out the same album over and over again. Every album, we try to push further, make it heavier or have something new to offer. This is the way we felt we could step it up a notch and make it rock solid for a change.

When did the idea come about?
Right from the beginning. Alex has a new system of writing songs on the computer, and that initiated it. He wanted to try them with Paul playing to a click. He was all, "I don't know," but Alex convinced him to try it and I think he got into it.

It made him a better drummer. I think he played better on this album than any of our others. He took to it a lot better than I thought he would. He's been playing his own berserk style for so many years. I didn't know how he'd react, but it was great.

What are you post-coital thoughts on the recording?
After we record an album, I can't stand to listen to it for a while. I know everything that went into it and know what could have been better. If I get away from it for a while, I can go back and hear it almost like it's the first time. But it has to be at least a month.

It's longer for this one 'cause it seemed to be more tedious in a lot of ways. Going over parts, trying to make them as tight as possible, I get ear-burned. At the end of the day, I can't tell if anything sounds good or not. I don't think I could be a producer because of that. I get burned out too quickly. You don't know what sounds good or if things need to be higher or lower. It's weird. But then again, I'm a weird person.

I'm sure you're still agonizing over parts of it, regardless.
There are things that could have been done better, but it's a moment in time. We move on. I start to think, "God damn, if I hadn't spent those two nights in the bar, that solo would have been better." There's always a way to beat yourself up over it, but eventually you have to let it go.

How did all of this technicality and computer stuff infiltrate Cannibal Corpse in the first place?
It was Alex. He got into that because he was doing that Blotted Science album and he had to learn how to do songs through email, 'cause Ron [Jarzombek, guitarist] lives in Texas. He had to get crafty with digital recording.

And now he's forcing it on you.
It's cool, though. I still have to learn to write from home because I like to hash out stuff in the rehearsal room. I need to focus and do it here at the house. I should get motivated on that level.