Cannibal Corpse – The Bleeding (1994)

March 18, 2022

The Bleeding is the final Cannibal Corpse record with the uhh… legendary (I guess that word is still applicable despite everything lol) Chris Barnes. When I was a young’un, making my way through the brutal mires of Cannibal’s discography, I would often give up around The Bleeding, never making into the Corpsegrinder territory. I don’t really know why this was the case, because The Bleeding is just as good, if not better, than the albums that come before it. Sure, Tomb Of The Mutilated gives this a good run for its money, but otherwise, this is peak Cannibal Corpse, and therefore, peak death metal.

The production, which sounds to me like an analogue affair (I could be wrong), is absolutely perfect for this kind of brutal sound. The drumming, the riffs, the intense popping bass, which clanks and shreds away, bubbling beneath the surface. Barnes’ inhuman lows are the icing on a rather brutal and disgusting cake. Truly, this up there with some of the greatest extreme metal records ever made.