Fusionized

Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague


我在一本哲學書籍中讀到對亞里斯多德的一句矛盾的盛讚，足以用來形容Cannibal Corpse等死金先驅為後輩立下的標竿：他們的才華抑制了後繼者在創作上必須具備的藐視之情。

至今不僅未有在價值上真正超越這些老樂隊的年輕軍旅，這些前輩們也依然深深地影響後進的創作，看看Necrophagist首腦Muhammed Suiçmez對這件事的想法：

Were you going to say that you like the old stuff but not the new stuff?

Muhammed Suiçmez: Not exactly, I'd say most of the new stuff isn't that interesting like the old stuff. What I experience by listening to the new stuff is there aren't enough bands with completely new styles. See what I mean? The difference between the new bands and the old bands is, in the beginning death metal wasn't, let's say, established, and each of these band's members' came from different directions, see what I mean? (This is Muhammed's conversational filler of choice. The way he says it makes it sound like a statement or a command, rather than a question. It's unusual and endearing.) Take any musician from these bands: they were influenced by other music. Most of the new death metal bands are typically influenced by older death metal stuff. See what I mean. I don't think that's a bad thing, or something, but it's a fact that if death metal wasn't that established back then, and you have other influences: like music from other metal styles or even rock or punk, like Carcass had, it's sure that every band will sound different. It was always a pleasure to buy a CD of Entombed and have something completely different than Morbid Angel. See what I mean. I'm speaking of these bands because there was only these bands when I was listening to death metal when I was 15 years old. I'm not just focused on these bands.

不過當然這些一點也不影響我對眾多年輕樂團的喜愛與期待。


回到我要評論的，Cannibal Corpse 09年回到前作合作愉快的Hate Eternal主唱兼吉他手Erik Rutan的錄音室，完成了這張駭人之作。專輯的創作一如往常由Alex Webster主導，相較於前作的高速運行，我更喜歡他們中版，Grooving的厚重勁道，畢竟我想Paul雖然是個敬業的老傢伙，他還是沒有同輩樂團乃至於今日極限金屬鼓手被要求的快手快腳（不過這也難為了錄音當時剛過四十歲的他了）。

這張專輯不僅有爽速的衝撞段落，慢速的沉重riff也甩勁十足，及他和貝斯上都沒有花俏做作的炫技展現，卻能輕易由右手的高速picking與左手大範圍的shifting感覺出死今最原始的殘暴與技術性，而節奏上不定的錯落聽來更加catchy，bass line時下沉時突出的表現令人印象深刻，在旋律上則一如Cannibal Corpse本色地趨近病態，不特別帶氣氛感但呈現相當直接的暴力。在solo上我獨鍾Pat O'Brien對死金的approach，他巧妙運用減音階演奏出帶著邪惡氛圍的直線性速彈，完美地契合背景慘無人性的兇殘音樂，是我在老學校死金的領域裡除了Chuck Schuldiner外最愛的獨奏能手。當然Erik Rutan在倒數第二首歌貢獻的一段精采solo也是風格獨具，小掃弦漂亮開場帶進邪氣張狂的旋律，緊接以激昂速彈收尾，優異的編排一如他在Hate Eternal和Morbid Angel的表現。

鼓的部分是平實卻十分到位的處理，不特別勾人但對他們的音樂而言已經足夠。主唱雖從未是我的最愛，但極具辨識度的嗓音也無可取代，而lyric patterns的設計非常適時，不時出現高密度的長句也殺傷力十足。

他們錄製這張專輯的過程是十分有啟發性的，相較於二十年前的這支樂團，他們如今的音樂才能已經更上一層樓，對歌曲的展現與每個細節的處理都要求更高，反而使這個經驗老到的樂團的錄音過程對每個人都更加具有挑戰性。Erik Rutan稱這張專輯會是CC史上最好的作品，無論是不是，它已經是我對Cannibal Corpse最讚賞的一張傑作。