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What would I like to find in an extreme Metal album? Generally, interesting tracks that are tight but with soul, accompanied by a clean production that isn't too "plastic," and above all, a "reasoned" violence, placed there with criterion, thought out and balanced, serving the genre proposed and not vice versa. Ultra-triggered drums like a crazed Moulinex, screaming lunatics in the throes of a sudden diarrhea attack, and three-chord riffs repeated ad nauseam are not my cup of tea. Even the so-called "Extreme Technical Metal" has fatigued me a bit, as I often find myself faced with works that are certainly well-played and packaged, yet so long-winded, stretched, and elongated that they bring my family jewels down to shoe sole height. I completely understand the desire to astonish while remaining violent and brutal, but heck, there was a time when you would break your neck from headbanging; now you dislocate your jaw from yawning!
Fortunately, not all bands yield to market pressures and, while renewing themselves, maintain a consistency of thought and action that makes them true bastions of a particular genre. Specifically, Cannibal Corpse fulfills this role concerning Death Metal (I deliberately omit the adjective 'brutal' because I find it quite garish, as it refers more to the thematic content of the lyrics than the actual music being offered) by producing an extreme, technical, and enjoyable album to listen to. Ferocity and mastery of the instruments blend perfectly to create a monolithic and direct sound, capable of encompassing in a few minutes lightning-speed accelerations, bone-crushing slowdowns, and devastating reprises, all accompanied by lightning-fast guitar solos that are perfectly logical and coherent.
When talking about the band from Buffalo, there's often a focus on the lyrics (some of which could land you in jail! Especially in the early albums) and the artwork, completely ignoring a significant fact in the Metal scene: these guys can play damn well! Even poor Paul Mazurkiewicz, often considered the weak link in the group, is a damn good drummer to me, with a very recognizable sound, happily old school and with a human feel, not a drum machine. The guitar duo O'Brien - Barrett contributes significantly to crafting catchy riffs as hard as granite but at the same time woven with a sickly melodic vein that perfectly fits the band's offering. As for George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher and Alex Webster, much has already been said: the former is one of the best death vocalists around, endowed with a cavernous yet intelligible growl, capable of sticking to the rhythm section like a suction cup to glass, while the latter has over the years become a true metal bass icon due to his somewhat unusual approach: where everyone else distorts to parody, he cleans, polishes, and ensures that an instrument so little regarded in the extreme world becomes the fulcrum of an entire musical proposal. And I don't think that's a small feat!
Well, someone might say: "But when will you talk to us about this 'A Skeletal Domain'?" A legitimate question to which I can only answer: "I've been talking about it all along!" Everything I've listed in the previous lines you will find exactly as described in tracks like the stunning opener "High Velocity Impact Spatter" or in the excellent single "Sadistic Embodiment," two clear examples of Death Metal played with passion, direct, technical, and a meat grinder! If you love the genre, buy it sight unseen; if you have prejudices against the band, give it a listen, who knows, you might change your mind...
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