Bienvenue aux Cannibals

>> Paul Mazurkiewicz of Cannibal Corpse can't figure out why Quebecers like his band so much

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Tampa, Florida's Cannibal Corpse are some of the biggest movers currently bubbling in the underground music scene. A longtime favourite of the unwashed masses, Cannibal Corpse have built up their following mainly through word of mouth, along with the help of chat rooms, Web sites and extreme metal fanzines like Terrorize.

In fact, when this death metal band receives any recognition from the mainstream press at all, it is nearly always in the form of an accusatory finger. When Bob Dole was soliciting votes for his presidential campaign, he pointed out Cannibal Corpse as posing a threat to American youth's innocence. More recently, their name came up when a Seattle fan of the band raped and killed one woman and left another for dead, which resulted in national news coverage and subsequent record album sales for the band.

The closest they ever came to mainstream acceptance was when the band made a cameo appearance in the Jim Carrey movie Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Playing themselves, the band was handpicked by Cannibal Corpse fan Carrey himself.



Ballads of brutality

All of which is fine, since in death metal circles too much good press can actually hurt a band's longevity. One of the most cherished beliefs of diehard fans is that death metal continues to provide a true musical alternative. Cannibal Corpse have been crowned underground kings by continuing to play with taboo subjects and delving into graphic tales of agonizing torture. Check out these flowery couplets in their tender ballad "Pounded Into Dust": "Hammers cracking skulls/Axes chopping heads/Their revenge is now/Through violence, crushing, maiming, hacking, pounding..."

Other musical Hallmark-greeting-cards-gone-awry include "Blowtorch Slaughter," "Hacksaw Decapitation" and "The Spine Splitter." But nobody knows better than Cannibal Corpse that even underground success has pitfalls. The band's artwork and written lyrics have been heavily censored by their own record company, and they still have problems with record chains throughout the world who refuse to stock their records due to their name, artwork, lyrical matter, and so on ad nauseam. But after 12 years of relentless gore-core, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz insists that chances of them penning happy ditties are pretty slim.

"When we started out we wanted the band to be extreme in every way," he says. "I've seen so many bands let me down by taming down their sound and presentation and that isn't what this band is about at all. We will always stay true to our death metal roots. We wanted to write about dark and horrific subjects in the beginning and nothing has changed since then."



The snowbird connection

Underground metal exists, for the most part, in a black triangle with points in Norway, Tampa and right here in Quebec. What similarities exist between these three pockets obsessed with torturous death, extreme speed and grunting vocals has everybody stumped. Even these metal snowbirds, who are originally from Buffalo, N.Y. but migrated to Florida when the initial death metal wave started to come out of Tampa in '93, still can't figure it out.

"There was just a lot more going on in Tampa. We already knew Tampa bands like Deicide and Obituary, so it was kind of like a big death metal family down in Florida. Once you're there you have to ask yourself, 'Why would we want to go back to Buffalo?' As far as why it's so big in Tampa, who knows?"

Meanwhile, Quebec is hot on Tampa's heels as a world-famous rabid fan base, earning itself a reputation as a place where most touring bands set new attendance records. Plus, with the international signing frenzy of Quebec metal bands right now, we're now one of the biggest death metal exporters in the world.

"Why it's that way and why Cannibal Corpse do as well as we do in Quebec is beyond me," says Mazurkiewicz. "People in Quebec are known for being a pretty intense audience--they're always a bit more fanatical than most. People just seem to be really dedicated towards really heavy music."

Cannibal Corpse headline the Polliwog festival with Anonymous, Lofofora, Watcha and more in Parc Jeanne-Mance on Friday, Aug. 18, 1pm, free