Tomb of the Mutilated is the third studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, released on September 22, 1992, by Metal Blade Records.
The album was recorded at Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida by Scott Burns. It is the band's final album to feature their original lineup, as founding guitarist Bob Rusay was fired and replaced with Malevolent Creation guitarist Rob Barrett after the album's release. The band has since stated that Rusay did not perform any rhythm guitar tracks on the album at the request of Burns, and that some of the guitar leads he was permitted to record were ultimately re-recorded by Jack Owen.
Tomb of the Mutilated is notorious for its album cover artwork, which depicts a male and a female zombie engaged in cunnilingus. The artwork was created by longtime collaborator Vince Locke. The artwork's original incarnation was reportedly rejected by Metal Blade Records president Brian Slagel because it "wasn't gory enough", which resulted in the final product. A censored version of the cover artwork was also created.
The album's music is considered to be more complex and refined than its predecessors. Most of the tracks follow more linear song structures than on previous releases and repeat riffs in a way that they are considered "hooks" by some publications. Additionally, the album contains what are considered to be some of the band's most extreme lyrics of their career, exploring themes such as necrophilia, mutilation, sadism, cannibalism, pedophilia and sexual violence. The album's mix, which emphasizes the bass guitar performance of Alex Webster, is also routinely noted in discussions about the album. Original frontman Chris Barnes' vocal performance, which has been characterized as sounding like a "belch", is mostly incomprehensible throughout.
The album contains some of the band's most infamous and widely-known songs. The opening track "Hammer Smashed Face" is considered to be the band's signature song, and is almost always used to close the band's live sets. The track was featured in the 1994 film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, in which the band also made a cameo appearance. The album's second track "I Cum Blood" is also a fan favorite.
Tomb of the Mutilated is now considered a landmark in the death metal genre. The album's style and sound have been widely emulated by later acts, and numerous publications have observed its influence within various subgenres of extreme metal since its release.
Background and writing The album was written in Buffalo, New York. During this time, some or all of the band's members were unemployed and were rehearsing material every day. Guitarist Jack Owen and bassist Alex Webster had a 45-minute commute from the band's practice space, and would carpool to rehearsals. The band members mostly composed the music individually, in contrast to the writing process for Butchered at Birth, which was a largely collaborative effort. Bassist Alex Webster began practicing bass fervently after returning home from touring on Butchered at Birth, and claims that "Hammer Smashed Face" was written as the result of his attempts to improve as a bassist. Chris Barnes said, "He was driven as a musician. I've never met anyone as driven as Alex when it comes to trying to learn an instrument. [...] He was always trying to outdo guys he thought were amazing."
Original guitarist Bob Rusay claims he "hit a wall" and "couldn't get inspired" during the writing process, and therefore did not contribute as many compositions to the album as he had on the band's two prior efforts. He recalled the album cycle as "stressful", and stated that by this point he and the rest of the band were not getting along.
Owen stated that some of the album's tracks took a week to write, and others took up to five. Although songwriting was not credited to individual members as with later Cannibal Corpse releases, according to Owen, Rusay composed much of "Post Mortal Ejaculation" and "Beyond the Cemetery." Owen claims to have written much of "I Cum Blood", "Addicted to Vaginal Skin", "Split Wide Open" and "Necropedophile". He said the music for "Hammer Smashed Face" was composed by Webster and Mazurkiewicz. Webster said Owen contributed one riff to "Hammer Smashed Face". According to Webster, members would write riffs outside of practice and bring them to rehearsal for them to be fleshed out. Mazurkiewicz claims he contributed to the opening riff in "I Cum Blood", which he showed to Owen, who "morphed it a little bit".
Recording and production Tomb of the Mutilated was recorded at Morrisound Recording studios in Tampa, Florida over a two-week period during February 1992. Tomb was the band's first album in which they had the budget to work longer hours in the studio with producer Scott Burns. Guitarist Jack Owen tracked all of the album's rhythm guitar sections at the request of producer Scott Burns; he had observed that the duo had radically different playing styles, and argued that a tighter sound would result from having the band's strongest rhythm guitar player track all rhythms. Rusay was a self-taught guitarist, whose playing style was described as "unorthodox" by vocalist Chris Barnes. He performed the album's guitar solos with Owen polishing them afterward. Owen recalled: "I think it was in the middle of tracking the album, Alex told him I was going to do the rhythm guitars. Next thing you know, Bob was back at the hotel, drinking beers and getting sunburned."
Jack Owen recalled: "The main thing I remember was putting the album together—the final touches, seeing the song title 'Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt' and saying, 'Dudes, we've finally gone too far!' When we got the artwork back, which was a male zombie going down on a female zombie, it's like, 'Oh man! We've really gone too far!
Because the liner notes on Butchered at Birth feature quotations from American serial killer Albert Fish, he is often incorrectly credited with being the voice at the beginning of "Addicted to Vaginal Skin". However, the taped confession heard at the beginning of the song belongs to the "Genesee River Killer" Arthur Shawcross. Barnes claimed that he "snuck" the sample onto the album because it "creeped [him] out".Cannibal Corpse FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
Music Tomb of the Mutilated has been described as a "balls-out gore metal record" that "adheres [...] stringently to the genre's formula". It has been said to have a "grinding atmosphere." The music on Tomb has been described as "jarring, alien and nearly incomprehensible", and is considered to be markedly faster and more complex than its predecessors. Alex Webster said he became interested in the "technical side of music" after being exposed to the music of Atheist and Cynic while hanging out with Greg St. John of Solstice. Pestilence and Gorguts, who the band had toured with prior, are also said to be influences present on the album. Webster said the band's increasingly technical approach to songwriting made the album's sessions the most challenging they had endured at that point, saying: "I think when you listen to the album, and compare it with the first two, you can hear the progression. [...] It was this technical push and the challenging music it created that made [the album] a fan favorite." Paul Mazurkiewicz stated that although the infamous bassline in "Hammer Smashed Face" was in his view "a little primitive", it was considered technical by the genre's standards in 1992.
The album has been noted for its hooks. Webster stated that the album's tracks are more "song-like" in comparison to the tracks on Butchered at Birth, which guitarist Jack Owen described as "just riff after riff." According to Webster: "When you look at some of the records that really inspired us, like Reign in Blood, they're heavy records, but they're conventionally arranged. That was how we approached Tomb. [...] There's still some weird stuff [on the album], like on 'Post-Mortal Ejaculation'. That's pretty far from being a mainstream arrangement." Decibel referred to "Hammer Smashed Face" as the "death metal equivalent" of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. Mason Adams of Vice said the album "sounds like death metal as pop—the genre stripped to its basics."
Scott Burns' production is considered to be one of the album's hallmarks, and has been described as a "wall of sound" – Webster has stated that many fans have told him that Tomb is their favorite release by the band based on the mix alone. It was the first release by the band to use the overdubbing production technique, as they did not have the budget to do so prior.
Invisible Oranges stated that "there's a deep guttural rhythmic quality to the album not unlike a tribal drum or an excited heartbeat". They said the album's guitar work "ranges from writhing Tesla coil leads to pulpy chugs." The band tracked the album's guitars using a Marshall Valvestate head running through a Carbon head. Loudwire said the album's songs contain "tug-of-war like tempo changes."
According to Chris Dick of Decibel: "On Tomb, [Webster] made the following statement: 'Hey, I'm not a guitarist! I'm a bass player! Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz said: "When you listen to it, he stands out. [...] Tomb of the Mutilated was his stepping-stone. He wanted to be heard." According to Owen, the bass "pokes out" in the album's mix. Mazurkiewicz also said: "We always knew that it was important to us to have the bass shine through. Alex is that kind of a bass player; we always loved the Iron Maiden approach in that way, and that's what we wanted. We always wanted the bass to be heard, more so on Tomb Of The Mutilated than any of the previous records." Former guitarist Bob Rusay described Webster's basslines on the album as "goofy".
The album has been noted for the "belching" vocal performance of Chris Barnes, which consists of largely incoherent death growls. Loudwire said his performance consists of him "slicing and dicing his words."
Lyrics The album's lyrical content explores themes such as necrophilia, sexual violence, blunt trauma, sadism, mutilation, insanity, dismemberment, disembowelment, exhumation, child murder, pedophilia, cannibalism, serial killing, incest and autoerotic asphyxiation. According to Invisible Oranges, "Where before the band had wallowed in a more simplistic [...] sense of excessive violence, Cannibal Corpse came out of 1992 with something darker and scarier, a beast with a unified vision of horror from which it was impossible to look away." Metal Hammer wrote that the album is "bulging with moments of stomach-churning horror" and called its lyrical content "provocatively over-the-top". Chris Dick of Decibel recalled that the album's lyrics made him "feel ill" while reading them as a teenager, saying: "I thought if I was caught with the sleeve I'd be expelled or placed in some type of protective custody." The album's song titles have been called "despicable".
Vocalist Chris Barnes singlehandedly penned the album's lyrics, and composed them to complement the increasing extremities of the band's instrumentation; bassist Alex Webster recounted that they "placed no limits" on him throughout the process. He said: "He'd come to us with the most vile, repugnant stuff and we'd be like, ‘Sure! Why not?' We were trying to make the most extreme and aggressive music we could, so why not have the most antagonistic lyrics too?" Barnes' lyrics on the album drew influence from true crime, with which he had a fascination. He described the album's lyrics as "insanity put to music," and as "a madman's brain on tape." Barnes also stated that the intent behind his style was to "invoke thought" by horrifying readers with what he called a "twisted dichotomy," comparable to watching a horror film.