CANNIBAL CORPSE: Interview with Alex Webster

Keeping in good tradition with their two year interval between new records, one of Florida’s most destructive Death Metal machines, the mighty Cannibal Corpse, have now returned with “A Skeletal Domain”, a ferociously strong record with all the potential to be regarded as one of the band’s classics in the near future. To talk about it, we chatted with one of the bassists considered to be most influential in the Death Metal world and founding member of the band, Alex Webster.

“A Skeletal Domain” sounds incredibly powerful, and some of the tracks like “High Velocity Impact Spatter” and “The Murderer’s Pact” are somewhat reminiscing in style to some of the material in 1996’s brilliant “Vile” album. What were your main musical inspirations in the development of “Skeletal”?
I can’t speak for the other guys, but I think it was just another case of us all trying to write the best songs that we could. For the four songs I wrote I tried to keep variety in mind, because I think the best albums are the ones where each song has its own personality. A conscious effort was made to make each song unique, and I did this by using different tempos, rhythms, and harmonic ideas for each song I wrote.

Most songs on your discography can be interpreted as gore/horror short stories on themselves. How do your manage to diversify your lyrical approaches after so many years?
It helps that we have several lyricists (me, Paul, and Rob). Each of us try to come up with interesting stuff, either strictly with our own imaginations, or possibly with some sort of outside influence like a book or movie. Even when using these sources as inspiration we try to create our own unique stories. So the influence is more indirect than direct. Anyway, as with the music, we think variety is a key ingredient for good lyrics. We try to cover a variety of perspectives and situations to keep our lyrics interesting.

Were there ever any proposals to do a short film, or even a full picture, with one or more of your lyrics as the basis for the script?
Some people have talked about that with us informally, but it seems like money would be a factor. Movies are incredibly expensive to make. So unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be seeing any of our songs made into a movie anytime soon, there’s just no budget to support that sort of thing.

Talking about the sound of the record, after listening to the first track “High Velocity Impact Spatter”, one thing that’s immediately noticeable is this incredibly big and sharpened production. It was the work of Mark Lewis who replaced your former producer Erik Rutan. In your opinion, what did Mark bring to the table in terms of production and why have you decided to switch producers now?
We decided to switch just to give us a fresh perspective on everything. We had great success with Erik but we thought a change of producer and studio could be interesting. Mark and Erik are both great producers but they each have a different idea of what sounds good. So, the differences between them are easier to hear than explain. I think in general Mark’s productions have a sound that most people would say sounds more “modern” than Erik’s.

Which songs do you think stand out the most for you on “A Skeletal Domain”?
Very hard to say. Of course, I pay the most attention to the songs I wrote so it’s hard to be impartial, but I’ll try. Probably “Kill Or Become” stands out for its catchy chorus, “The Murderer’s Pact” stands out for Pat’s leads, and “A Skeletal Domain” stands out due to its sludge/doom sections.

Let’s talk now about the artwork of your records. Do you guys come up with the ideas of how you would like the covers to be, does the artist submit the final work to you or do you collaborate during all the creation stages? How does the whole process occur and other than that, what are your favorite Cannibal Corpse album covers of all eras of the band?
Our artist Vince Locke comes up with ideas on his own by interpreting the lyrics how he sees fit. During the process he shows us sketches and we give a little input, but usually the basic concept for the artwork is his, not ours. I like all of the covers, but maybe “Torture”, “Gallery of Suicide”(censored version), and “Butchered At Birth” are my favorites.

You have this new book, Cannibal Corpse’s first official biography titled “The Bible of Butchery” which was written by metal journalist Joel McIver. It’s coming out simultaneously with the record. What can Cannibal Corpse fans expect from it?
It’s a fairly short book that has a lot of great pictures. The text covers our early years, plus stories from the road, and insight about our lyrics. We think Joel did a great job.

Cannibal Corpse were banned from playing songs of your first records in Germany up until 2006. Sales of your records were also banned in Australia since 1996. Do you think these restrictions still make sense nowadays, if they ever made sense in the first place?
I don’t ever really know exactly what’s banned where, when, or why. These are problems the record label deals with. It all seems pretty pointless and arbitrary to me. In those same countries where we are banned, there are horror movies available that are just as graphically violent as the lyrics in our songs. It doesn’t really make sense.

Next year “Eaten Back to Life”, your first record hits the 25 year old mark. Go back to the 20 year old Alex Webster of that period. Did you ever think that you would get this degree of success 25 years later? What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
No, we had no idea that a 25 year career in death metal was possible. At the we released “Eaten” even Black Sabbath hadn’t been around for 25 years, so we couldn’t conceive of such success. We have been very lucky. I would tell my younger self to just keep working hard, it will pay off.

You’re considered to be one of Death Metal’s top references in terms of bass playing. Instead of just asking you what your influences are in terms of bands, I would like to know, what albums do you consider to have the best and most influential bass playing in your opinion?
There are many, and I’m sure after this interview I’ll remember a few that I forgot to mention, but anyway, here’s a few that I found very inspiring as a bassist:

Autopsy “Severed Survival” (bassist Steve DiGiorgio)
Sadus “Illusions” (bassist Steve DiGiorgio)
Atheist “Piece of Time” (bassist Roger Patterson)
Iron Maiden “Powerslave” (bassist Steve Harris)
Metallica “Kill ‘Em All” (bassist Cliff Burton)
Anthrax “Among The Living” (bassist Frank Bello)
Racer X “Second Heat” (bassist Juan Alderete)

And like I said, there are many more…

What do you think of the quality of the music being currently produced on the extreme metal scene in comparison to when you started? You guys along with a few others have essentially dictated the rules and wrote the book on how it’s done. Do you think the new generations are still sticking too much to the rules you’ve dictated or have they successfully found new ways to deliver?
I’d say the current level of musicianship is much higher. I’m not exactly sure why this is but easier access to instructional materials via the internet is likely a factor. Whatever the case, there are a lot of great new bands out there. Some are playing more traditional styles of metal, others are finding new sounds and creating new genres. The extreme metal scene is very healthy, no doubt about it.

Last question Alex! Can you tell us about Cannibal Corpse’s immediate tour plans and other releases that might be coming out in the next few years?
We are currently on tour in Europe with Revocation and Aeon (two amazing bands), that tour lasts until December. Next year, we plan to tour the USA and Canada with a great line up of bands, details about that will be coming soon. After that, we’ll be returning to Europe in the summer for some festivals. We’re also hoping to set up some shows in other parts of the world too, but nothing is certain yet. As for releases, since we just put out “A Skeletal Domain” we probably won’t release anything else for a while.

Thank you for the time you took to answer our questions Alex!
Thanks for the interview!

Originally published on Against Magazine on November 2, 2014.