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

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