Again an old interview I found on my harddisk which I don't wanna withold from you. It was done after the release of Cannibal Corpse's "Live cannibalism" album. When the mighty Cannibal Corpse released their first live album, we felt it was time to organize a cozy tea picnic. CC's singer George Corpsegrinder joined us and we had a little chat between drinking tea, the milk and cookies. Read all about the banning of CC's first 3 albums, their plan for complete world domination and a cult-gig at Cher's son-in-law birthday party!

You've just recently released your first live-album. Did you feel that it was just the right time to release one after having released 7 full-length albums?
-Well, a lot of it was from the feedback of the fans, we're doing so many tours and other bands had been releasing live albums. I think it made the fans wonder if we were ever gonna  put out a live album. They were always asking us about it. I think Metal Blade had talked about it a few times like maybe we should do a live album because obviously we've been around for s long. And it was just the combination of everyone inquiring about it, especially the fans. So here it is, we put it out, we listened to what they had to say.

What was done with the live-recordings in the studio? Did you re-master anything?
-I think they mixed everything but we didn't do any overdubs. We didn't go back in and fix any guitar parts or anything. If there's a mistake then we just kept it there because that's live, that's what it is all about. Colin Richardson basically just went in and fixed the levels of each instruments. So nothing was really altered in any way.
I mean every band releasing a live album always claims not to have used overdubs and all but when you listen to the album, you just know they've cleaned the recordings up.
-Yeah, no we didn't. I mean it, I'll swear on the fucking devil that we did not use 'em. Because that's why we put that little statement on the album (Ron: there are no overdubs of any kind used in the making of this CD),  because I know that it happened before. And we're very proud of the fact we did it like the way it is now. Like I said, there are probably some mistakes on there but that's live, we're humans and it happens. We're not trying to fool anybody, what you see is what you get.

The German version doesn't include the songs from the first 3 albums. I don't think that many of our readers know why your first 3 albums are banned in Germany. Could you tell us a bit about it?
-We don't either haha, it makes no sense to us. I mean as far as I know what happened, some lady saw someone wear our shirts, a teacher, her name is Christa Jenna or Jenal (Ron: some German woman) or something like that. And she just started this crusade against us and went to all the proper people to see about what laws there are in Germany that could basically prevent us from playing. This all happened even before I was in the band. I think she had a fucking show cancelled in Stuttgart there or that she had people there boycotting or something. She started up a lot of crap and because of that we had to sign a paper saying we, while we were in Germany, we wouldn't play songs from the first 3 records. Which makes no sense to me considering we can't play "The undead will feast" from "Eaten back to life" but we can play "Dismembered and molested" from "Gallery of suicide". I mean what's the difference, they're all about horror movies. We don't understand it, we don't understand it why they wanted to do it for the albums but that's just the way it is for us now in Germany. And rather than not being able to play there at all we just have to grungingly comply with their laws and what they've told us we can and can't do. Because lot of kids say, you can play the songs and they'll never know. You know, they usually send out fucking policemen out to check out the show. And I don't think any of them know our songs so we could probably could get away with it if we wanted. But we're just not going to, because we're not gonna risk, one going to jail and two, having to pay all the fines that they throw at us. So what I tell the fans is, listen the very least we can play, maybe we can't play all the classic songs that you want us to, which we would but can't, but at least we can play the songs of some of our albums. It's better than us being banned there totally, altogether.
Is she still active as before?
-I think no, she might not be. Because we're basically, our hands are tied as far as the amount of material we can play. But I don't know what she's been doing lately as far we're concerned. But what she did in the past was already enough., more than enough! It already screwed us enough. I hope she's not active, you know that would mean more sanctions and that could make it worse and worse and harder and harder for us. And I just wonder sometimes if we're ever gonna be to play there again. Like if we would be completely banned and they would tell us: you can't come to Germany. Which would really fucking suck!
It seems like that's the price you pay for being one of the first death metal bands around.
-Yeah, what we would have to do is do shows all around the borders of Germany, you know. And unfortunately, the people in the central part really would have to drive very far to any of the border areas to come and see us. And that happens now sometimes too you know. There's a lot people, when we play in Holland, people come from fucking Germany to see us. Because they know we can play all the songs we want in Holland.

There are 6 songs missing on the German version, which has 2 cover songs to ease the pain. But are 2 songs enough to fully ease the pain? I mean the normal version still has 4 more songs on it. Couldn't you have recorded more songs/covers?
-No, if we could have put out the whole album, that would have eased the pain really. I mean it's bad enough that kids can't come and see us live and now they can't even hear it on CD unless they go out of Germany and get it. The only thing we could have put on there was a re-do we did for "The undead will feast"-track from the "Vile"-recordings, but that's a song of the first album we couldn't put it on the CD. So actually there was one bonus song which we could have put on the album, but because it's from the first record, even though it's redone and with me singing it, it wouldn't matter, we couldn't put it on the record. For "Vile", that redone version of "The undead will feast" was on the Japanese version. And for "Gallery of suicide" the cover song "Sacrifice" was on the Japanese version, and the Japanese version of "Bloodthirst" had "Confessions" on it. Like I said, it could've been 3 songs but considering that 1 of the songs was a remake from 1 of the 3 banned albums, we could only put the 2 songs on it. And I don't know if that's gonna ease the pain but the only thing I can say to the German people reading this interview: we're sorry, it's not our fault, we don't have any control over the law makers and the laws over there. It's not our country, we can't fight it like we could if it were here in our own country.
Why did you choose these 2 particular songs to cover?
-Well, they're bands which we grew up listening to, so fuck we covered them. I think the Possessed-cover was supposed to be on a Possessed tribute album on a Polish label. But I don't think it's ever coming out so we just ended up saying, fuck it, we'll just put it on the Japanese version. As I said, they're bands we grew up listening to, and we want do covers of bands we don't listen to. We're not gonna do obscure covers really unless, well you never know but we rather not do those. We rather do covers of bands we grew up listening to. I mean, it could very well have been a Kreator song or something because we listen to them too you know. Actually we did an Accept-song as well for "Gallery of suicide", but I never ended up doing the vocals on it for that one so it's still unreleased floating around. We did "Demon's night".  

Are there plans to record a whole cover album?
-Probably not, not right now. I think we rather just concentrate on what doing another studio album. But I'd love to do one, I think it would be cool to just bring out a bunch of old fucking covers of Sodom and Kreator and stuff like that. That would be totally amazing and a lot of fun to do. I think the most of the other guys would much rather just concentrate on writing original songs.     
Is there no feeling of saturation in the band? I mean, you've released 7 full-length albums, toured all around the world, you are one of the most successful death metal bands. Is there still anything left to achieve?
-Yeah, always. Making a million dollar haha! That would be great. No, uhm I mean that would be great but as long as we did it on our own terms. As long as we did it fucking playing brutal death metal, that would be great. I think we want to achieve fucking supremacy of this music. To all throughout the world. I mean, I don't know if the rest of the world is ready to accept death metal but we're gonna try to make 'em. We're at least gonna let them hear us, roar and let our voices be heard and the voices of all the other great bands that are playing it. We're happy with what we're at, we're happy with the fan-base that we have and we wouldn't trade them for nothing in the world. Like I said, if we would make a million dollar, if millions of people loved us, it would be because they accepted us for what we do. Cause we're not gonna tone down our lyrics or cover for anybody. We're a death metal band and we love playing this music. We're not gonna turn our back on it just to sell some fucking records. That's what we're not about. That's what you call poser, that's what you call sell-out.
I think there's plenty more to achieve like I said; bigger tours with bigger bands. I mean Morbid Angel are touring with Pantera over here in the States. And that's a big step, it's really good thing that it's happening. There's thousands of people that have no clue who Morbid Angel are and they're gonna get to see them. I wish it was us but you know, I'm happy that if it's not us that it's another killer death metal band. Because Morbid Angel were one of the first to really put this kind of music, you know the way it's played now with blastbeats and things. And I'm really happy for them. 

Are still some countries you haven't played yet, which ones are there?
-Fuck yeah, actually the band went to Australia when Chris was in the band but I wasn't with them, we never played in Australia which I'd love to go. They also played in Russia before I was in the band, I never went there. There's a lot of places like Turkey and Bulgaria we've never been to. We just went to Greece for the first time, we went to Japan when I first got in the band. Estonia on the last tour we did in Europe. We've been to Bellaruse, Latvian,  Lituwanian tour before that last year. So, we've been going to a few different places. So more and more we've been playing places that we never thought we'd be going to.  

Another thing that is censored is your artwork which seems a bit ridiculous nowadays as many bands use real pictures of gory accidents and the likes for their covers. Maybe this is the price you pay for being one of the first death metal bands using covers depicting gory actions. Have you ever considered also using real pictures?
-No, that why we don't get the fucking whole big deal with everybody giving us a lot of shit. These are fucking paintings, and they're not even paintings of real stuff. I mean look at the cover of the censor-free version of the live album. There's a guy walking around dead bodies. If you have the German version, what you see bodies burning in the furnace. If you expand the picture outward, you'll see a guy walking, you see a bunch of bodies laying under the furnace like with blood running down on 'em. And some of 'em have their spines ripped out, they're just waiting to be fucking thrown in the furnace. And there's this guy with stilts, which are basically long spikes, and he's walking on the people, and stabbing into them. The guy looks like a fucking zombie or something, he's got an arm sewn into him, he's not real. And that's what the point is, it's not real. It's fiction, it's horror movie, it's gore movie, that's all it is. And we don't want to use real stuff because that's fucking someone. I'm not saying that it's wrong but I think that it's right for us and for me personally. That's a sort of exploiting what happened to someone, and someone died. I mean, if I saw a band had my wife like shot in the head on their album cover, I don't know how I could take that. For me, I'm not saying I would be angry but I would be a little upset. We don't want to exploit anyone's real pain. Maybe some of the songs we write about somehow could actually happen. And that's one of the reasons. But none of us is basically inspired by you know, like anything someone dead. It's just all stuff that could happen in horror movies basically. Any of the slasher-stuff could be stuff that you see from Jason of Friday the 13th or from Freddie Krueger. That's where some of our lyrics come from, and sometimes also from gore movies and zombie movies. Fuck, we love zombies too! Besides, we're much happier with Vincent Locke's artwork, because he does a great job and he's fucking really killer.   

About achieving new things: I heard a rumor that you played at a birthday party of Cher's son-in-law?
-Yeah, we played at his birthday party. We played at Johnny Depp's club called the Viper Room Club. And we went to Cher house and hung out. Her son is really into the band you know, he's really into fucking death metal. He's got his own band, with which he'll be coming out with. I don't think they really death metal but he's really cool, he's totally into it. We couldn't believe it when we first heard that he wanted us to play at his birthday party. We were like: get out of here!, you know. I mean, it was definitely an experience and there were a lot of people there at the show that were like famous. And we, me and Alex, were just like: dude, do we even belong here?
Which famous people were at the party? 
-Carmen Electra came out, do you know the movie "There's something about Mary"?
Yeah, with Cameron Diaz.
-Yeah, she was there.
Did she bang her head?
-She was in the front row, no lie! I've seen her there, not really headbanging but she was getting into it doing the metal sign. We met her the day before at Cher's house. We went there and Cher was really cool, she was really nice, talking to us, She wasn't freaked out by us you know. She wasn't freaking out like cause we're maniacs or anything. She knew we're just musicians, playing music because we love it and for the people who want to hear it. She just was really cool. And yeah, there were some people there. I don't know if you remember the band Warrant?
Yeah.
-Do you also remember this song they had, this cherry pie song?
No.
-On one of their albums they had this fucking Blondie girl that was all there. She was I guess married to one of the guys. Her name is Bobbi Brown and she was at the show. She was one of those rock and roll-chicks or whatever haha! So, there was a few people there you'd have been surprised by, you know. It was really crazy, it was really different.
Was Jim Carrey there too?
-No, I wish, I wish. I think if they tried to get hold of him or something, but I don't know, I don't know if they even did. But the singer of Sugar Ray was there, one of the guys from Marilyn Manson was there too. It was crazy, it was wild, I mean it was people that I don't think would have ever come to see us otherwise, checking out the show. It was something definitely different.  

How about some new stuff, have you written any new songs yet?
-Not right now. We're playing a show in like 2 weeks, here in Tampa. Sort of a Halloween-show. And after that we'll probably start writing new songs, I think so. It's really up to Alex, Pat and Jack cause they write the fucking music. But we'll probably start writing around then. I think those guys have a few ideas and stuff written down or recorded on 4-tracks. But we haven't got anything together yet.

You've also re-released some of your recent previous albums (e.g. "Vile") with some bonus live tracks and multimedia-stuff on it. In general many fans don't like this re-releasing stuff as it feels like a cheap way to earn some more money.
-I didn't even know that we did! I didn't even know that it was re-released at all.
Maybe it was just Metal Blade re-releasing it?
-Yeah, it could be, I don't know. Maybe they mentioned it to us and we were like: yeah, whatever. Cause I don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff unless it's the actual album that we've just put out. I know they did one thing, might be what you're talking about, is the video of "Devoured by vermin" and added a couple of live songs. That might be what it is. But that had a bunch of extra stuff on it so it was more worth it then just a re-release of the album with just one live song.

Wouldn't it be wiser to re-release your first 3 albums? I think these are not as familiar to many CC-fans as the albums on which you grunt.
-Yeah, I'd like to re-release those with me singing haha. But I doubt that that's ever gonna happen! But I don't know, I don't know what the plans are for any of that. Maybe they one day want to re-master them or something, I don't know. We'll see what happens with that but I think it's just better to have the actual album out. And right now we have the live album out. So any re-releases wouldn't make any sense to me right now.

What's your opinion on the internet, many bands have a website with which they reach many more people than they used to. However there are still many bands who don't have a website, claiming that it's not underground.
-Well, I think it's good if you can reach people that maybe just somehow link on to your site and get into you website and start to check it out and see what the band is really about. And you can pick up a few fans like that. I think it's good there's nothing wrong with that, I mean it's technology. If you don't want to have a computer, then don't have one. It's that simple, nobody forces you to go on the internet. Anyone could say that it's not underground or this or that, but I'm tired of that old fucking bullshit what underground is. I know what the underground is, I've fucking been doing this a long time now and I don't need some nimrod telling me what the underground is. I think if people want to use the technology, it's there just go ahead and use it. And if they don't want to, they don't have to. I mean I don't even have a computer so I'm not on the internet. But it's not that I don't have one cause I think it's not underground, or that websites are for posers or something. I think it's good you know. New people can be exposed to your band and there's nothing wrong with that. I want as many fans as we can get. Yeah, I want really true death metal fans but if we tour with a band and people don't know who we are or don't know what death metal is, maybe we can get them into death metal. What's the harm in that, nothing, nothing at all. That's why we did the tour with the Misfits and Anthrax over here. And there were a lot of kids who came back after we did that tour. A lot of the fans of that shows were like: we never heard you guys and we came back here just to see you. And we were touring with Immolation so they were gonna see Immolation too. So maybe we turned them onto them too. Maybe there are a lot of kids who say: man we didn't even know this kind of music existed. And maybe right now these kids are buying tons of death metals albums and now they're death metals fans.      
That's the point, that's the reason why I think this whole think with the internet is great. And people who are saying that it's not underground enough, I can understand what they're coming from somewhat, but then sometimes I think it tends to become a bit foolish. Like: it's only my music and only I can like it, and that's ridiculous. I mean, music is for everybody and it would be great if everybody thought like we did. But it's not always gonna be that way. We will play for who we ever can and hopefully we can turn them onto us and onto the rest of the death metal world.      

Many death metal freaks always claim that they only listen to brutal music as if they want to prove that they're no sissies. I can't help but laugh, I mean listening to only one music style gets boring after a while and there's so much more cool music out there.
- Yeah, I love all forms of music but I mean metal is my love, it's my life. But it doesn't mean if you feel like listening to something non-metal, it doesn't mean that you're a fucking poser. I would say this: if someone is a fan of us and a fan of Nile and Krisiun and Vader and all the other death metal bands, if they like all those bands and then they have one Korn album and they like that album, then that 's doesn't necessarily make them a rapcore fan. Maybe they just like that one album. And vice versa, maybe some kid that loves Korn and Limb Bizkit, Kid Rock and all that kind of stuff, maybe he likes Nile and that's the only death metal band he likes, that doesn't necessarily mean he's a total death metal fan. He likes one band and he probably wouldn't look at it like most of us metalheads do. We look at it like: we love metal. Because basically the bulk what we listen to is metal. But one thing outside of metal doesn't make you a fucking poser. I think it's great that there are people who only listen to brutal death metal. That's just fine, if that's what you really like, that's fine. But if they would attack me and say that I'm a poser for liking something that they don't think is metal then: fuck 'em. You know what I mean, I don't care, I don't need to hear that kind of opinion because that's fucking close-minded opinion. And that's just the same kind of opinion that they fight against when someone say ' metal sucks, it's all noise'. That's just the same thing, it's close-minded, it's just stupid.           
To what music do you and the rest of the band members listen to?
-What kind of music? Ah, from Marduk to Judas Priest to Vader. I mean you name it. Old Paradise Lost, Kreator, Destruction, Pestilence, you name it. Almost any band in the metal scene we like, over the years there have been so many great bands, I could name a million of them.
Actually I meant to what NON-metal music you listen to.
-Non-metal, oh well, fuck, I don't know. For me, I listen to a lot of hardcore-stuff like old Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, stuff like that. I don't even know for the rest of the guys. But Alex listens to a lot of jazz, kinda bass player-stuff. Pat listen to a lot of classical shit, Jack listen to Jimi Hendrix which he loves, he really loves guitar player-stuff like Stevie Ray Vaughn. Paul I think, I don't even know man, he listens to some goofy stuff like fucking Alanis Morisette, fucking Presidents Of United States if you know what band that is (Ron: Yes, I know, "Peaches" kicks ass!), he listens to some stuff like that. But I think that everybody in every band has a type of music that they listen to that you'll go: what, I don't believe that. But, I listen to what I listen to and I don't care who likes it. It's that fucking simple. But people that would complain about that, hey listen to what we put out on album, do you hear Alanis Morisette in our songs? (Ron: haha, is this a hint?) No, you don't. I think it's good that people listen to different kinds of music. I mean, I listen to mostly metal, there are times when I'm not and the same goes for Alex. He's a bass player and he's inspired by a lot of these guys that are playing bass which helps him to become the bass player he is. There's nothing wrong with that.   

Oh yeah, one more question, it seem you do a European tour almost every year. I mean you always play on the No Mercy-festivals and Morbid Angel always half a year later.
Yea, we've doing a lot of the No Mercy festivals the last couple of years. However, we're probably not gonna be over there for a while now because we've been there a lot these years and we're just gonna wait till our new album comes out. There's no reason to tour for a live album because basically they're the songs that we've played on the last tour. We wouldn't be playing anything different so it would be the same show. I know that people would come out but we're just gonna wait and get this new album out. And then we'll be back, sometime next year hopefully. If not, then the beginning of 2002.   
Okay that were all my questions, if you have anything to add of whatever, say it. Thanks for answering my questions!
-Just fucking thanks for the interview, thanks to all our fans everywhere and in Holland of course. Hopefully we'll get to see you on our next tour, watch out for our next album, maybe next year sometime.

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