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Earliest: Mar 22, 1989
Latest: Oct 22, 2025
[
WikiPedia] Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, now based in Tampa, Florida. They have been on Metal Blade Records for the entirety of their studio recording career. The band has released sixteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radio or television exposure throughout its existence, although a cult following began to build with the releases of their early albums, including Butchered at Birth (1991) and Tomb of the Mutilated (1992). As of 2015, they achieved worldwide sales of two million units for combined sales of all their albums.
The band initially performed a primitive form of thrash-influenced death metal on their demo and debut album Eaten Back to Life before evolving to an explicit death metal style on their sophomore effort Butchered at Birth. While many other bands of their era focused on blasphemous and Satanic themes, Cannibal Corpse has employed a focus on graphic violence themes inspired by horror films throughout its career. The lyrics written by original vocalist Chris Barnes drew further influence from true crime, and explored extreme and taboo subjects such as sexual violence, misogyny and child murder. The lyrical content on albums released following Barne's 1995 dismissal are considered to be less extreme in nature. Barne's vocals on the early albums are considered to be mostly incomprehensible grunts sang through groove-oriented cadences, while the vocal performances of his successor George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher have been noted by critics for their rapid-fire delivery and relative clarity in enunciation. As their career progressed, Cannibal Corpse also placed greater emphasis on hooks and technically proficient instrumentation in comparison to the raw and unstructured nature of their early recordings. While the band has deliberately maintained the same general style throughout its career to avoid alienating its fans and the metal community, its members have been involved with various side projects performing other styles of metal.
The band has seen several lineup changes throughout its run, with bassist Alex Webster and drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz being the only constant members. The band's current lineup includes Mazurkiewicz, Webster, vocalist George Fisher, and guitarists Rob Barrett and Erik Rutan. Cannibal Corpse has been credited as being among the most prominent and influential death metal bands of all time by most publications. The band's music is highly controversial, and the extreme nature of the band's lyrics and album covers has resulted in bans in several countries.
