CANNIBAL CORPSE Bassist Talks About Making Of 'Torture' In New Audio Interview

Florida-based death metal veterans CANNIBAL CORPSE will release their twelfth studio album, titled "Torture", in March via Metal Blade Records. The CD was recorded in September and October 2011 at Sonic Ranch studios in Tornillo, Texas and Mana Recording Studio in St. Petersburg, Florida with producer Erik Rutan (HATE ETERNAL, MORBID ANGEL, RIPPING CORPSE),who previously worked with the band on 2006's "Kill" and 2009's "Evisceration Plague".

Speaking to Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal of GuitarWorld.com (hear audio below),CANNIBAL bassist Alex Webster stated about the making of "Torture", "The album was recorded throughout September and October. We've been finished with it — the final mix and everything — since about halfway through November; that was when the last mixing and mastering tweaks were completed."

When asked about the CANNIBAL CORPSE's decision to re-team with Rutan for the new CD, Webster said, "First of all, he's just a great friend of mine, personally, and he's also a friend of the rest of the band. Erikdoes understand what makes good death metal, you know what I mean?! We write our own material, but still Erik will have some [input] when it comes to the finer details, like, 'Do you guys wanna do the harmony like this? Or harmony like that?' And then he'll tell us which one. We can trust his opinion about those kinds of things. He can help us make decisions in the studio and we really know it's coming from the point of view of a death metal master. I mean, he was in RIPPING CORPSE, MORBID ANGEL and HATE ETERNAL. That pretty much speaks for itself, I think. He knows this kind of music inside and out. In addition to being a technically very skilled engineer/producer, he's also just an expert on death metal, and I think that's why we continue to go back to him."

Regarding why CANNIBAL chose to record part of the new album at Sonic Ranch this time as opposed to tracking the entire effort at Mana, like they did with the previous two CDs, Alex said, "We did an album [at Sonic Ranch] with [producer] Colin Richardson and then two albums with Neil Keron, and we always had a great experience when we recorded there. We had just done two records with Erik at his studio — his Mana studios in St. Petersburg [Florida], and we decided, 'Hey, maybe it would be fun to go to Sonic Ranch but bring Erik with us this time' — see how it would go combining those two elements that ahd been so successful for us. And I think it worked out really well. I mean, there were definitely ups and downs with the recording process in the studio, mainly due to some technical difficulties, like a couple of the guitars were constantly having some mechanical difficulties, things like that, that I won't go into too much detail, 'cause it's kind of boring stuff. . . There were little difficulties like that, but [for the most part], the whole Sonic Ranch/Erik Rutan combo worked out really well. So we did most of the record [at Sonic Ranch], like we did the bass, drums and rhythm guitar there, and we came home and we finished at Erik's Mana studios, where we had worked [with him] before, and did the guitar solos, a little bit of additional guitar tracking, for the rhythm guitar, and also the vocals, and then the mix was done at Erik's studio as well. So it was pretty much split directly down the middle — the month of September was at Sonic Ranch and then the month of October was spent at Mana."

On the topic of the musical direction of "Torture" and how it differs from CANNIBAL CORPSE's past releases, Webster said, "I pay attention to criticism when it is coming from an intelligent, informed opinion, you know what I mean? When I see people say, 'Well, I like CANNIBAL, but… this album sounds too much like the other, and here's why.' We do pay attention to those things and we've always made an effort, but on this album I think we've been a bit more successful than in the past, where we make an effort to have each song have its own individual identity, to really have the album have its own identity. We always try to make each album great and unique, but I think we've been more successful than in the past on that on this new record. Of course, that remains to be seen, what people actually think of it once they hear it. For us, it seems unique and like we've accomplished a lot, but maybe some people won't like it and think it still sounds like our other albums or something. But I kind of doubt that. I think this time, it's really gonna make people kind of perk up and notice and be like, 'Wow, it's still pure death metal and total CANNIBAL CORPSE, but each song really has its own character, its own kind of different sound and flavor."