Early vs Modern Cannibal Corpse, Which is Better?

Many metal fans refer to the "good old days" of the genre with a kind of naive nostalgia. Fair point when you look at the output of most modern death metal bands. They clearly aren't putting their best foot forward. But what about bands like Cannibal Corpse, where the consensus appears to be that they got BETTER not WORSE, after each album?

Granted there may be some exceptions, like in the "mid period" where they released stuff like Vile, Kill and Gallery, but most metal fans I know seems to be split into two camps: old school vs new.

What's your opinion on the matter?

Also, anecdotally, do you think the departure of Chris Barnes and arrival of Corpsegrinder had anything to do with the renewal of the band?

You're conflating two things here.

Many metal fans refer to the "good old days" of the genre with a kind of naive nostalgia

It's not 'naive nostalgia'. Most metal was objectively better in the early days. Heavy metal as a whole suffered an Eternal September at the turn of the century.

All new bands are garbage (see, The enshitification of metal), and to add insult to injury, even once decent bands like Morbid Angel, Dimmu Borgir (yes, they were once good), Incantation, Mayhem, Suffocation, and so forth, started playing utter trash just to please their non-fans... and alienate those that did like their music in the first place.

what about bands like Cannibal Corpse, where the consensus appears to be that they got BETTER not WORSE, after each album?

This is just Alex Webster and Paul Mazurkiewicz deciding to kick out Chris Barnes from the band. It wasn't a secret that the other members couldn't stand Barnes. He wanted to turn Cannibal Corpse into a deathcore band, something he eventually achieved with Six Feet Under.

CC are more of the exception than the rule.

@Burzumination: You deny the power of EATEN BACK TO LIIIIFE?

Pre-Fisher CC had one good song, Hammer Smashed Face. And they play it all the time, to placate the misguided 'old school' hordes that mistakenly believe that early Cannibal Corpse was anything like Suffocation and Infester. It wasn't. It never was. If anything, CC was always a proto-deathcore act, and only recently did they - slowly, baby steps - turn to a real death metal band, notably by recruiting some ex-Monstrosity (Fisher) and ex-Morbid Angel (Barrett) members.

Had they never done so, they would have ended up exactly where Six Feet Under is today. The laughing stock of metal fans worldwide.

OP you should seriously read The Death Metal Bible if you haven't done so already. It answers most of your questions.

@Burzumination: I wouldn't call early Corpse a proto-deathcore band, but you're right on the money saying they weren't proper death metal yet. They were more like a speed metal band with very deathy vocals, and a lot of distortion. Much like Chuck Schuldiner's Death project, they lacked the distinctive percussive riff style of an actual death metal band.

@Nimda: Exactly! I couldn't put what I was thinking into words. Bands like Death, Possessed, early CC, Sodom, etc. They are speed metal at the core. Even much of modern 'slamming death' is speed metal/thrash metal influenced more than many would like to admit.

Yeah Chris Barnes was pretty much a douche - every one involved with the band thinks so. What is he doing now btw? Anyone know? He just disappeared from the face of the earth after the inevitable failure of Six Feet Under.

He should have retired as the "ex Cannibal Corpse vocalist" rather than be associated with SFU (sounds like MCU, and equally fecal).

@Viridian: They are still releasing albums. They are signed to Century Media. It's just not many people care about Six Feet Under. They became involuntarily underground.

Did Cannibal Corpse actually become better or has the general level of what constitutes acceptable death metal declined so much that it seems that they are improving at a rapid pace when, really, it's the rest of the scene that's going down the drain?

Imagine something like Onward to Golgotha, Nespithe, Effigy to the Forgotten or To the Depths in Degradation being released in the current year. Unthinkable. This really puts the Cannibal Corpse constantly getting better crowd in perspective.

@Evil: None of those albums are by Cannibal Corpse. And by my own calculation, Ascension of Erebos, the Leader of the Gods was released pretty recently... and was praised almost universally as one of if not the best blackened death metal album ever.

The "best" part about Cannibal Corpse is when their guitarist Pat O Brian got arrested for attempting a home invasion. Apparently he was hallucinating and thought "evil butt demons" were coming for him, so he rushed into a house with a knife. He was then tased by the police and detained until trial. Now he has to pass drugs tests every year (he was also fired from Cannibal Corpse, and is now with the thrash/speed metal band Exhorder).

"Evil butt demons..."

nice sounds like a new SFU album in progress xD

More like a Euronymous tribute IYKYK