Killer beat to this one and as Chris Barnes is usually into his low-end bellowing voice it's a little different on here. It's not really guttural voice he actually sounds just right on this one. It's low-throat but not like 'Butchered at Birth' or 'Tomb of the Mutilated' (1991 & 1992 respectfully). It's actually better than both. Not musically, but his voice doesn't ruin the music. The music with the vocals go hand in hand. The riffs are spot on! This is where he flourishes especially various different vocals styles. Barnes is at his best on here, he's tops with me. I don't know why he wasn't able to spew out better vocals on the first few releases. They definitely hit their pinnacle here.

The music on here is simply killer! It's a little of the past mixed with the present releases. It's catchy. Every song on here deserves praise. They've just put some juice in these riffs that keeps them everflowing! Barnes has a little bit of high end screams though they're not held with great immensity.

The riffs on the guitars mix well with the vocals. It just fits on here. By far, this is Barnes's best output and contribution to the band up until his departure. What an onslaught musically and vocally. It's strange that we didn't see this in a part of him when Cannibal was just starting out.

I'd have to say that the following outputs with Cannibal like 'Vile' (1996), 'Gallery of Suicide' (1998) and 'Bloodthirst' (1999) were good but they got even better. I'd say with George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher they slay on 'Kill' (2006), 'A Skeletal Domain' (2014), 'Red before Black' (2017) and without Pat O'brien they needed someone like Erik Rutan to fill O'brien's shoes. The new one 'Chaos Horrific' is one of their better with Rutan, not so much on 2021's 'Violence Unimagined'. 'The Bleeding' was able to capture some very good songwriting and is one of their finest. Barnes is at his best, the music just crushes, and the musicianship is astronomical. here will never be a release like this one. Whatever happened to the band was that they were duplicating releases. When Corpsegrinder joined, they had already established themselves as a primordial death metal musicians. And when Jack Owen left, part of Cannibal wasn't the same. Cannibal seemed to duplicate recordings you sort of knew what to expect. But on 'The Bleeding', they were at their best. Cannibal and Barnes. They tore it up!

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
04/14/2024 19:12