Cannibal Corpse at Irving Plaza

George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher

Cannibal Corpse formed as a death metal band in 1988 in Buffalo, New York. Self-proclaimed horror story writers, Cannibal Corpse's extreme music, violent lyrics and gory album covers became quickly controversial, such that merchandise and/or concerts were censored or banned in Australia, Germany, Korea, New Zealand, and Russia. Despite little radio play, Cannibal Corpse achieved worldwide sales of two million units for 13 studio albums, two box sets, four video albums and one live album, making Cannibal Corpse the top-selling death metal band of all time. The band's most recent album is 2014's A Skeletal Domain. After numerous personnel changes, Cannibal Corpse presently consists of vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, lead guitarist Patrick O'Brien, rhythm guitarist Rob Barrett and original members Alex Webster on bass guitar and Paul Mazurkiewicz on drums.

At Irving Plaza tonight, Cannibal Corpse opened with the title track from 2009's Evisceration Plague album and through a 90-minute, 17-song set touched on 12 of the band's 13 albums. Moments into the slow crunching rhythm of the opening song, "Evisceration Plague," the band began ripping a sonic boom and Fisher began his throat-scraping growls. Everything intensified, even the hair spinning, with the second song, "The Time to Kill Is Now." Cannibal Corpse did everything a death metal band is supposed to do, playing up horrific themes through guttural vocal grunts, deep and technically dexterous guitar riffs and manic double-bass-drum rhythms. The band's song titles were massively macabre; "Stripped, Raped and Strangled", "Pit of Zombies", "Icepick Lobotomy", "Hammer Smashed Face" and "Devoured by Vermin" sustained the horror. Extreme music does not get more raw, brutal, or graphic than this.

Visit Cannibal Corpse at www.cannibalcorpse.net.