Just to be able to see the words “new Cannibal Corpse album to be released” is enough to bring joy into the hearts of many a death metal fan. The titans have been one of the faces of the genre for decades now without much getting in their way of fading into obscurity or their legacy being tainted no matter the adversity that they have faced going from one murderous album to the next. Fifteen albums is a concept that cannot and should not be scoffed at with very few being able to deliver that many with the quality and consistency that Cannibal Corpse has been achieving since day one. The gory glory that they’ve been able to deliver one every album is something that’s enough to rustle any hive of death metal fans, but it’s with this fresh effort in particular that I feel will catch the fancy of the masses. That’s not to diminish the unbridled mastery that recent Cannibal Corpse albums have brought to the table, but it is with the uncompromising whole of “Violence Unimagined” that we’ve gotten something that is a real standout performance.
When I sit here and try to consider what exactly it is about “Violence Unimagined” that makes it what I could consider as one of the most gripping works that Cannibal Corpse has put out in years, it’s no single factor that stands out more than anything, but, rather, a beautiful amalgamation of elements blending together to form one cohesive work that is as satisfying as it is textbook ferocious. The eleven tracks that are brought into our reality with “Violence Unimagined” are the exact sort of material that keep Cannibal Corpse in the mouths and the collections of fans for decades as it’s all throughout this bloodletter of an album that we get the perfect amount of crowd-pleasers, riff chuggers, face pulverizers, and finger bleeders to immediately win the hearts of fans new and old with that undeniable whole of the record delivering us a truly massive helping of Cannibal Corpse still at the top of their game! While it’s the latest Cannibal Corpse records like “A Skeletal Domain” and “Red Before Black” that have earned their places as important works in the sculpting of my listening habits, it’s single-handedly with “Violence Unimagined” that the case could very well be made that this band has made their best outing in quite some time.
Performed by true masters of death metal with a tenacity that time has not diminished in any form, how we could expect anything other than the usual grand awesomeness from the fifteenth album from a band as legendary as Cannibal Corpse? Even just listening to it once is enough to leave one hell of an impression but it is with every subsequent listen that it becomes even more obvious as it goes on that “Violence Unimagined” is a key addition to the already massive discography that this band boasts, and I know for a fact that this album will stay in the mouths and playlists of fans for several years to come.
“Violence Unimagined” releases on April 16th via Metal Blade Records! You can pre-order the album via multiple sources here, and stream the singles on Bandcamp here.
Track Listing:
1. Murderous Rampage
2. Necrogenic Resurrection
3. Inhumane Harvest
4. Condemnation Contagion
5. Surround, Kill, Devour
6. Ritual Annihilation
7. Follow the Blood
8. Bound and Burned
9. Slowly Sawn
10. Overture
11. Cerements of the Flayed
