Band:	Cannibal Corpse
Album:	Red Before Black
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	November 2017

01. Only One Will Die
02. Red Before Black
03. Code Of The Slashers
04. Shedding My Human Skin
05. Remaimed
06. Firestorm Vengeance
07. Heads Shoveled Off
08. Corpus Delicti
09. Scavenger Consuming Death
10. In The Midst Of Ruin
11. Destroyed Without A Trace
12. Hideous Ichor

The task of writing an original and attention-grabbing review for a new Cannibal Corpse album is almost as hard as trying to make out the sick lyrics Corpsegrinder pours out. Nearly thirty years into their career, the band's sound evolution makes Motörhead look like the pinnacle of variety and diversity. Red Before Black is, as you might have guessed already, the 14th episode in a predictable series of aural horror.

The artwork is again courtesy of long-time collaborator, Vince Locke, who has created another violent design, this time viewed from the eyes of the victim. Back in the day, Cannibal Corpse's gory aesthetics and bloodthirsty imagery, along with sonic brutality and graphic song titles such as "A Skull Full Of Maggots", "I Cum Blood" and "Fucked With A Knife" caught a lot of attention and often resulted in widespread censorship and "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" warning stickers on the album covers. Today though, this stuff does not contain enough shock value to scare a five-year-old.

Musically, "Only One Will Die" opens the album strongly with ruthless aggression and speed, followed by the title track, which is set to become a mosh-pit mongering anthem. Things slow down a bit with "Code Of The Slashers", the first single released, but only temporarily, before furious pace takes over again. "Firestorm Vengeance" and "In The Midst Of Ruin" both possess some killer riffs and reveal the more technical abilities of the band, while "Scavenger Consuming Death" treats us with some pretty weighty guitar and bass parts. These nice things aside, the feeling of listening to run-of-the-mill, riff-recycling death metal is omnipresent. Not that this came as a surprise, of course.

Cannibal Corpse certainly do not stray from their established formula with this release and there is no indicator whatsoever that they will do so in the foreseeable future. I am all for bands preserving their sound and Red Before Black possesses good pace and a few headbanging-worthy moments, but overall, although there is nothing outright bad about it, it is merely a decent death metal record released by one of the genre's biggest names. Not to be ashamed of it, but nothing to be particularly proud of either since its truly memorable moments can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Paul Mazurkiewicz said in a recent interview that Red Before Black is "a culmination of the best of Cannibal Corpse, the best of what we've had to offer throughout our whole career". As much as I know that this sort of comments is more or less standard when a new album is coming out, these words strike me as insulting to the band's history.

Hardcore fans feel free to embrace it and you won't be disappointed. You will, however, come across an album that pales in comparison with Kill or Torture if I have to compare it with the band's more recent releases. I will personally stick to my old Cannibal albums, which is exactly how I felt after listening to this year's Obituary and Suffocation releases.

"Predatory impulses controlling our minds,
You make a sound, we'll end your fucking life?"