Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, now based out of Tampa, Florida. The band has released sixteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radio or television exposure throughout its existence, although a cult following began to build with the releases of their early albums, including Butchered at Birth (1991) and Tomb of the Mutilated (1992). As of 2015, they achieved worldwide sales of two million units for combined sales of all their albums. In April 2021, Cannibal Corpse received their best "first week" sales of all-time and first Top 10 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart as Violence Unimagined entered at No. 6 with 14,000 copies sold.
Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. Widely considered one of the most influential bands in the genre and important in the transition of death metal from its thrash metal roots, they were one of the first bands to incorporate guttural vocals, up-tempo blast beats, multiple tempo changes and a dark atmosphere. They have been described as one of "the most influential and emulated bands in death metal", alongside Obituary, Death, Cynic, Autopsy and Deicide, and have been cited as an influence by many later bands. They were also the first death metal band to experience mainstream success in connection with being signed to Giant Records in 1992, heavy rotation of their music videos on MTV, and having the music video for the song "God of Emptiness" shown on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Their first three albums – Altars of Madness (1989), Blessed Are the Sick (1991), and Covenant (1993) – are considered classics in the death metal genre.
Alex Webster is an American musician who is the bassist and a co-founder of the death metal band Cannibal Corpse. He is one of two original remaining members, alongside drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz. He is also the bassist of Blotted Science and the supergroup Conquering Dystopia. Before Cannibal Corpse was formed, he was a member of Beyond Death.
B.C. Rich is an American brand of acoustic and electric guitars and bass guitars founded by Bernardo Chavez Rico in 1969.
Hate Eternal is an American death metal band from St. Petersburg, Florida. The band currently consists of founding guitarist/vocalist Erik Rutan and bassist J. J. Hrubovcak. To date, Hate Eternal has released seven studio albums: Conquering the Throne (1999), King of All Kings (2002), I, Monarch (2005), Fury & Flames (2008), Phoenix Amongst the Ashes (2011), Infernus (2015), and Upon Desolate Sands (2018). All albums were produced by Rutan.
Kill is the tenth studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, released on March 21, 2006, through Metal Blade Records. This release marks the return of guitarist Rob Barrett, who had previously played on The Bleeding and Vile. The European version of the album comes with a live DVD filmed in Strasbourg in 2004 called Hammer Smashed Laiterie. The album was produced at Mana Recording Studios by Hate Eternal and future Cannibal Corpse guitarist Erik Rutan. It is also the first album in which the band tuned down to G♯ standard.
Ripping Corpse was a death metal band formed in 1987 in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Paths of Possession is an American melodic death metal band featuring George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher of Cannibal Corpse in a more melodic environment, with song structures that have much more in common with early Bay Area Thrash than the Tampa death metal scene.
Vile is an American death metal band, formed in 1996 in Concord, California by guitarist-producer Colin E. Davis and singer Juan Urteaga, recruiting the rest of the band from the ranks of disbanded groups such as Lords of Chaos, Entropy, Sporadic Psychosis and Thanatopsis. Vile toured the United States and Europe several times since their inception in 1996 including with Cannibal Corpse in 2004. Their most recent tour was of Japan in December 2013.
Robert Joseph Barrett III is a guitarist for death metal band Cannibal Corpse. He played with the band from 1993 to 1997 and rejoined in 2005. He has cited Gary Moore, Malcolm Young, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi and Steve Vai, among others, as his influences. He currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
Pat O'Brien is an American musician best known as the former lead guitarist for death metal band Cannibal Corpse. He is also a former member of heavy metal band Nevermore, a former live guitarist for Slayer, and is currently the lead guitarist for Exhorder.
Fury & Flames is the fourth studio album by the band Hate Eternal and their debut album on Metal Blade Records worldwide and EMI Records in South America. The album features the addition of new members Shaune Kelley as second guitarist and Jade Simonetto on drums, while bass guitarist Alex Webster returns to replace Randy Piro. Cover art by Paul Romano. The album has had a lot of praise for the album's heaviness and emotion. Erik Rutan, the band's frontman, says he put a lot of emotion into the album because of the death of his friend Jared Anderson who played bass for the band.
Deeds of Flesh is an American brutal death metal band from Los Osos, California, U.S. They were formed in 1993 by Jacoby Kingston, Erik Lindmark (1972–2018) and Joey Heaslet. They founded their own label, Unique Leader Records, which has since become home to a number of other death metal bands from around the world. Deeds of Flesh have released nine studio albums, their most recent being Nucleus which was released in 2020.
Evisceration Plague is the eleventh studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Released on February 3, 2009 by Metal Blade Records, the album was produced at Mana Recording Studios by Hate Eternal guitarist Erik Rutan.
Torture is the twelfth studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, released on March 13, 2012 by Metal Blade Records. The album was produced at Sonic Ranch Studios by Hate Eternal guitarist Erik Rutan.
Dreaming with the Dead is the full-length studio debut by death metal band Ripping Corpse, released in 1991. Among the ranks of the band was guitarist Erik Rutan, who would go on to become a temporary member of Morbid Angel and also front his own band Hate Eternal. Worth noting as well is that Shaune Kelley would also play with Rutan's band as well, later on in their career.
Florida death metal is a regional scene and stylistic subdivision of death metal. Some of the most significantly pioneering and best-selling death metal acts emerged in Florida, especially in the Tampa Bay area. As a result, Tampa is unofficially known by many death metal fans as the "capital of death metal." The scene coalesced in the mid-1980s through early 1990s around the output of bands such as Death, Nasty Savage, Deicide, Monstrosity, Morbid Angel, Atheist, Obituary, and others. The producer Scott Burns and the studio Morrisound Recording were also instrumental in developing and popularizing the Florida scene. Some bands which originated outside of Florida, such as Malevolent Creation and Cannibal Corpse, relocated to the state in order to participate in this burgeoning scene. The Florida bands featured a more technical approach to the evolving death metal sound, a style which spread beyond the confines of the state, and some were instrumental in creating the progressive death metal subgenre. The death metal genre as a whole, including the Florida scene, declined in popularity in the second half of the 1990s, but many bands within the Florida scene persisted and the scene resurged in popularity in subsequent decades.
Red Before Black is the fourteenth studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, released on November 3, 2017. This is the band's final album to feature guitarist Pat O'Brien before producer Erik Rutan officially replaced him in 2021.
Violence Unimagined is the fifteenth studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, released on April 16, 2021. It is the band's first album in nearly four years since Red Before Black (2017), the longest gap between two records in Cannibal Corpse's career, and the first studio album to feature producer Erik Rutan on lead guitar, replacing Pat O'Brien in February 2021 after nearly two years of filling in for him on tour.
