Cannibal Corpse - Centuries Of Torment: The First 20 Years

All music DVDs should be like this

Whatever you think of the Buffalo death metal quintet and their frankly terrifying music, there are lessons to be learned from this. Six hours of live, documentary, archival footage, backstage, rehearsal and tour bus footage have been crammed onto three DVDs: after you’ve seen it, you’ll be a walking CC encyclopaedia.

The filmmakers have tracked down every ex-member (and there are loads), most notably first singer Chris Barnes, who left in 1995 in tense circumstances (it’s interesting to compare the slightly differing explanations of why). Elsewhere, there are contributions (real ones, not just fawning praise) from Trivium, Ice-T, Obituary and others, and all in the three-hour main retrospective.

There’s also a lot of fun to be had with the bonuses (another three hours), mostly made up of live footage from as far back as 1989. Extra featurettes are devoted to Cannibal’s horrific (and often censored) sleeve art and Vince Locke, the quietly sinister guy who created it; why CC’s first three albums are banned in Germany; why Bob Dole mentioned them in a 1996 speech; merch, tattoos… everything, in fact, that you could possibly want to know, as well as stuff that you really didn’t. Let’s see other bands come up with something as comprehensive as this.

Metal Blade | tbc

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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