CANNIBAL CORPSE's ALEX WEBSTER: 'Death Metal Never Completely Went Away'

April 4, 2021

CANNIBAL CORPSE bassist Alex Webster, whose band has been around for more than three decades, spoke to The Metal Meltdown about the state of the modern death metal scene. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm not super familiar with some of the very newest bands, but it's cool because the current death metal scene… I would say 'modern death metal' if you're talking about bands that got together over the past 10 years. Again, I'm not so familiar with a whole lot of the newest bands. But in the current death metal scene, there's still currently a whole bunch of us veterans out there touring — SUFFOCATION, OBITUARY, us, MORBID ANGEL, et cetera. I mean, it's great because death metal never completely went away. It's had a few peaks and valleys in terms of its popularity, but it never completely went away, and a lot of the bands have been active throughout. So anybody who's making a new death metal band now, I think they're in a good position in that there's a scene that's been ongoing for several decades now that they can immediately jump into. And there's a chance — like, if you make a new death metal band now, then you might have a chance to go out and open for us or open for OBITUARY or whoever on a tour. So that's a good thing, I think. It's still doing well."

He continued: "It makes me happy to see… I know that some of these new bands sound kind of almost retro in a way… I think it's awesome. I think it's great that people are doing the old-school stuff. And also what I like even a little bit more are relatively newer bands — meaning maybe they weren't coming out in the first wave but they came out in the mid-'90s or so, and have kept it going. And there's a couple in particular that I would recommended to people that they check out, if they haven't already. And [one of them] would be AEON from Sweden — amazing band. And I feel like they have their feet grounded in the original kind of early '90s, late '80s death metal, especially the Florida kind of stuff, or us being from Buffalo, they're coming from that kind of background, but they take it a little further. So they're old school, but they're also moving death metal forward a little bit too. I think that's great. Ditto for BLOOD RED THRONE from Norway."

CANNIBAL CORPSE's new album, "Violence Unimagined", will be released on April 16 via Metal Blade Records. Erik Rutan, one of the death metal's most acclaimed guitarists who is known for his time as part of MORBID ANGEL throughout the '90s and early 2000s, as well as handling vocals/guitars for HATE ETERNAL, lent his guitar as well as production skills to the effort, which was recorded at his Mana Recording in St. Petersburg, Florida. Rutan previously produced four CANNIBAL CORPSE albums (in addition to "Violence Unimagined"),alongside the likes of GOATWHORE, SOILENT GREEN and BELPHEGOR. Filling in live on guitar since 2019, in 2020 he became a full member, contributing to the writing process.

Rutan joined CANNIBAL CORPSE as the replacement for longtime guitarist Pat O'Brien, who was arrested in Florida more than two years ago on charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault.

Photo credit: Alex Morgan

Find more on Cannibal corpse
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).