Comments
What Cannibal Corpse Says
Cannibal Corpse are like the kings of death metal. While soundscans didn’t count a lot of the early death...
All Pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Cannibal Corpse are like the kings of death metal. While soundscans didn’t count a lot of the early death metal sales (early Slayer and Morbid Angel albums, for instance, might tip the scales), they point to Cannibal Corpse as the #1 best-selling death metal band of the soundscan era; with combined platinum sales. They could also be tapped for kings of gore when it comes to their album covers, of course, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Listen in after editor Doug Van Pelt and vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (center in photo) exhaust the topics of football and video games.
Doug: So, what are your favorite video games and why?
George: Um...well right now I’m playin’ Final Fantasy, X 2. Final Fantasy, the old series of games, are my favorites. I’ve always loved fantasy-type stuff. Final Fantasyis probably my all-time favorite. I play Madden a lot, too, of course. Also, the Grand Theft Autogames are totally killer; and I like wrestling, too.
D: Cool. Well, how fun was it putting that, uh, that big package – the Cannibal Corpse 15-Year Killing Spree package together?
G: Oh, it was cool. The booklet has the collage, with the photos in it... Mostly we just all got together and had old flyers or old laminates, old pictures and sorta put ‘em all in there. It was cool. I hope everyone’s really happy with it. There’s a lot on there, especially with the unreleased stuff. With the comic book, the pics and everything, I think it’s a good deal. We don’t really have much other stuff that’s unreleased that we coulda put on there. You could always put more on there; but, you know, I think we’ve searched high and low for a lotta stuff…
D: Yeah, it’s loaded, man. Cool, well how do you feel about uh...not writing lyrics and the other band members doing almost all the writing? Is that weird for you at all?
G: Nah, it’s fine with me. When I first got in the band, I wrote more lyrics than I have been (lately). I thought maybe that I would have written more, but a lot of times it was me and Alex or me and Paul and alex writing ‘em; and I get too critical on myself. I’ll write some stuff for the album, I’ll take it in and show the guys and then I’d wake up the next day like, ‘No way! Throw it away.’ But either way… I don’t have a problem with what they write. If it’s not broke, you know, don’t try to fix it. I mean, they write good stuff, and everything was turning out great – all the albums we’ve been doin,’ and it doesn’t bother me at all. Some people get more mad, like, ‘Why, don’t you wanna write lyrics??’ I say, ‘Dude, calm down.’
D: (laughs)
G: I’m alright with it. The lyrics are good. They’re not bad, you know. they’re really well done, so – as long as that’s the case – I don’t have a problem with anybody writing.
D: Cool. On the subject of gore, uh...artists that have kinda gone over the top and extreme have often thought about it and have some real intelligent thoughts going on and aren’t just adolescent boys trying to shock people. What do you think about the influence of gore and the desensitizing of violence and any of that ...subject?
G: Well, look at it like this: basically, what we’re writing about is pretty much short stories with music to ‘em; short stories that can be turned into any . . . or used as the root for any number of horror movies. I mean, that’s all it is, you know. It’s not even being desensitized to violence. Some of our songs are about zombies and otherworldly creatures that are carrying out, you know, these ‘vile deeds…’ If people can’t really read our lyrics, if they refuse to read our lyrics and really look at it and can’t chuckle at it… I mean, come on, man! Loosen up. There’s really nothing. When we were doing ‘Blunt Force Castration’ and, you know, I’ve had the lyrics, I’ve been looking at ‘em, goin’ over ‘em for however long and they were just . . . I’m laughing. I’m laughin’ at the first line: ‘Smash his scrote bag.’ That’s just hilarious. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. If you get too serious, then I think you go, ‘Grrrrr, cool. Crushing balls,’ you know? Then maybe there’s some real problems, you know? We take it serious as far as we want the, uh . . . horrible lyrics to be. Intelligent and well written, you know, grammar-wise and what not. There’s nothing ever serious. We’re not thinking of anybody in particular that we’re trying to kill, or harm or anything. Like I said, as long as we’re about zombies and whatnot, I find it really hard to believe that people can be that upset about zombies ripping flesh when zombies don’t even exist, you know?
D: Yeah.
G: How can you say we’re promoting violence with imaginary creatures? The people doing the killing in our songs are zombies. And, then again, there’s a song called ‘They Deserve to Die,’ which is about any zombie or whatnot. Like I said, uh...’I spit on your grave.’ You know, that’s a revenge song, so you can translate that to… You know what movie I’m talking about right?
D: No.
G: There’s a movie called, I Spit On Your Grave. Have you heard of it?
D: No.
G: Well, this girl gets raped by these guys and she gets revenge on ‘em. So, you could say, ‘Yeah, they deserved to die,’ or somethin’ like that. It’s not about that movie. It wasn’t written with that movie in mind, but, there you go. That’s all it is. It’s a story. It’s something that could be in a movie. We don’t sing about religion. We don’t sing about politics, and so, we really find it hard to believe that people take everything so seriously. The music’s brutal, and aggressive, and so the lyrics should reflect that, you know? I really find it hard to believe anyone would take us seriously if we sang about, uh... planting trees and having picnics!
All Pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Return to So and So Says
