Eaten Back to Life [Bonus Tracks]

Cannibal Corpse emerged fully formed out of Florida's famous death metal swamp with this one. All the trademarks are in place, from the B-horror movie album cover art to the ludicrously over the top lyrics -- "Brains devoured in a frenzied slaughter, thirst for gore nothing more/Bile is dripping, puss from wounds, as the coroner drinks it down." Chris Barnes growls his vocals like Satan on a diet of razor blades and paint thinner, and the playing is uniformly savage. Although their pursuit of lyrical and musical extremes was something of a joke from this first release on, Cannibal Corpse's single-minded devotion to their cause is admirable. ~ Leslie Mathew