Cannibal Corpse

Gallery Of Suicide

(c)(p)1998 Metal Blade Records

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Yet again comes Cannibal Corpse with yet another array of gore and cacophony. To nobody's surprise are the less than quality CD graphics, at best cheesy, depicting a variety of people who have either killed themselves or are in the process of doing so; the outside image of this "gallery" is actually a little nicer.

"Gallery Of Suicide" is much in the same vein (or this case spurting artery) of previous Cannibal Corpse, except that this time it lacks anything interesting. The guitars continually drone on the same slightly altered riffs throughout the entire song -- occassionally a solo is thrown in to try and enliven the song a little. The guitars and the drums quite often seem to be playing a different song, as the tempo of the drums is usually faster than that of the guitars, and there is overall an indecision as to how fast the music should be going -- and in "Blood Drenched Execution", just before the solo, everybody just seems to forget what they are doing and play something fast and random. Fortunately, the title song "Gallery Of Suicide" opens with an alluring and different riff, which they couldn't figure out how to work into the song as a new riff just suddenly starts (somewhat of an interesting prowling melody is formed). This symptom of being unable to find a transition is present at many points in the album, something that may please grindcore fans but disappoint death metal fans.

There isn't too much to say about this album. Cannibal Corpse has a decent lineup of musicians, all capable of doing good things, and all of whom do their part in this album extremely well. It is really too bad that nobody was writing songs this time; the entirely of "Gallery Of Suicide" sounds like a lifeless rehash of their former work. This album is the perfection of boring music.

Cannibal Corpse is:
George Fisher - Vocals
Jack Owen - Guitar
Alex Webster - Bass
Paul Mazurkiewicz - Drums
Pat O'Brien - Guitar

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