Wretched Spawn (W/Dvd) [Explicit Lyrics]

Cannibal Corpse | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 24, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Metal Blade
• ASIN: B0001CCXY8
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,598 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Limited purple vinyl LP pressing in gatefold sleeve. The Wretched Spawn was the ninth studio album by American Death Metal band Cannibal Corpse. The cover art is by Vincent Locke. This was the last studio album to feature Jack Owen, one of the band's founding members. Back On Black. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Death Metal!, February 26, 2004

By 

Andrew S (Chesterfield, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wretched Spawn (W/Dvd) (Audio CD)

Cannibal Corpse ... is an introduction really necessary? Well, for starters, Cannibal Corpse perform technical, brutal Death Metal straight from America. Making use of complex riffing, tempo-changes and sheer brutality, Cannibal Corpse have come up with a truly successful formula. The Wretched Spawn, Cannibal Corpse's latest offering is definitely what I consider to be their best recording yet.

Starting off with the very Thrash-inspired Severed Head Stoning, it's clear that Cannibal Corpse have mastered the art of Death Metal as well as flawless production. The guitar, drums, vocals and even bass all shine through on this recording not having one particular instrument over-shadow the rest.

The Wretched Spawn actually shows Cannibal Corpse using a variety of song-structures, tempos and ideas. You have an extremely technical, brutal track like Frantic Disembowelment then you have tracks like Rotted Body Landslide and Decency Defied that could almost be considered, dare I say it ... "catchy;" well, to a Metal fan anyhow. I'd also like to mention that not one particular member of the band dominates the writing. Jack Owen (guitar), Alex Webster (bass) and Pat O'Brien (guitar) all contribute songs on this album giving you a nice variety of writing-styles.

Lyrically, well, it's Cannibal Corpse so you can expect gore-laden themes displayed in the song titles and obviously the lyrics. As far as the seriousness, it's brutal music with brutal lyrics. This style of music would sound quite silly with upbeat lyrics and themes ... the lyrics are not meant to be taken seriously although they often are ... for a reason I don't know.

The Wretched Spawn also comes with a bonus DVD that is simply awesome. I have been a musician for over eight years and I really enjoyed seeing Cannibal Corpse describe their set-ups, how the studio time works and the like. The bonus DVD is a true treat for musicians and fans alike giving you a good look into Cannibal Corpse's studio-life. There are also some excellent jam sessions recorded for the DVD that are mind-blowing (especially Frantic Disembowelment). Basically, if you're a musician (or a fan) you'll definitely appreciate the bonus DVD featured here.

Overall, I'd say this is possibly the best Death Metal album I've heard yet. If you consider yourself a Cannibal Corpse fan you are definitely missing out if you don't pick this one up. If you are just beginning to explore brutal Death Metal, this is definitely a good place to start. Simply put, a killer album from a killer band.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We're Cannibal Corpse. Kill People. Eat Your Family. Roar., February 8, 2006

By 

Deathz Head - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wretched Spawn (W/Dvd) (Audio CD)

The title sums up Cannibal Corpse's imagery, and while it is an artificial means to provide shock value (which, even so, still works), it nonetheless has little to do with the quality of this album, a point obviously missed by many who gave low ratings to it.

Because the music here is excellent. It opens with Severed Head Stoning, which rips your face off with a brutally fast tempo that is too awesome to skip. It then continues to lead into highly variable-sounding songs that range from slow to mid-paced to fast again. There are no songs that sound like clones.

The guitars prove themselves worthy of playing the demandingly fast riffs while being able to sound more slowly sonorous in songs like 'Festering in the Crypt.' The drums, remarkably, can actually keep up with the fast paces when they need to (which couldn't be said of much of Cannibal Corpse's previous work) but can also compliment the slower riffs of the guitars when it needs to. The vocals, though not quite as low-sounding as Fisher's previous vocal-work, are more comprehensible and thus are more capable of being sung with.

The lyrics may sometimes sound a bit cheesy (part of this is due to the fact that you can distinguish the words more easily from previous works), as the rhyming structure is less subtle than on previous albums. Even so though, Cannibal Corpse has proven that you can indeed beat a dead horse by somehow still coming out with relatively original lyrics about rape, torture and murder even after 8 previous albums of the same thing. And though occasionally cheesy, it still works for the most part. Besides, whatever Cannibal Corpse loses on lyrics they more than make up for on the very professional-sounding musicianship and production.

The only substantial objection is that a lot of their songs are a bit short. None on here break the 5 minute mark either (sadly.)

If you like death metal at all, then you will appreciate this. If you are a Cannibal Corpse fan, then you will most certainly appreciate this. If you are some idiot who is going to judge the quality of music on artwork, you will appreciate my fist in your face as you shut the hell up.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The death metal giants have done it again, April 23, 2005

By 

Matt Pullen "stickyshooZ" (USA, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wretched Spawn (W/Dvd) (Audio CD)

One of the marks of a good band is songwriting. If you look at Cannibal Corpse's song writing from Eaten Back to Life to the present day, you notice significant advancement in musical composition. When Cannibal Corpse started with Eaten Back To Life, they sounded more like heavy death thrash...but this is a jaw dropping promotion to hellish, brutal, and technical death metal compared to the primitive and gruesome debut album. Instead of setting themselves into a comfort zone, they push harder and harder with each album, which shows in The Wretched Spawn when compared to their previous release - Gore Obsessed. Not only does this package come with the feral and fierce Wretched Spawn album, it also comes with a bonus DVD which contains footage of the making of the album.

I'll say right now that the drumming doesn't really compliment the acrimonious guitars and bass on the equal level. Paul is a great drummer for being self taught, but let's face it; the guy has been doing practically the same thing for the last ten years. Mid-paced blast beats and other medial drumming techniques are all he really seems to go for in a world of hasty music. I don't mind a drummer taking an intermediate stance in speed, but when it becomes the only style the drummer uses, it's pretty much an unspoken connotation that maybe they need to try something new. This isn't bad drumming by any standards; it's just very parallel to previous albums.

Gathering from previous performances, this is George Fisher's best vocal delivery since he's been with the band. Instead of trailing off in mid song and going in seemingly random directions, Fisher's singing goes more with the flow of the music and keeps that tight formation all the way through. This is why Barnes can't hold a torch to Fisher. Other than the fact that Barnes' bloated ego helped him gain momentum to being ejected from the band, he had no vocal rhythm in comparison to Corpsegrinder. Barnes, more or less, would wait for the band to conjure some devastating tunes, and then just dump his vocals onto them without any precision or planning.

Let's face it - Barnes was sloppy and Fisher is not. Undeniable is Fisher's ability to sing more coherently as well. Take Tomb of the Mutilated for example; that was a great album, but most of the time it was a vein effort to even attempt to understand what Barnes was singing. While vocal comprehension isn't always priority to most people who listen to death metal, I consider it a pleasure to be able to decipher what it is I'm listening to while it remains brutal and heavy. Little has changed in Fisher's voice since Gallery of Suicide; it's still got that mid-tone growl that lies in comparison with death metal singers like Glen Benton and Erik Rutan.

Jack Owen and Pat O'Brien rend flesh into nothing but pulp by creating a razor storm of sharp and succinct structure with their fleet and expeditious playing styles. Jack Owen wrote four songs on this album, some that I enjoy immensely, others that I think are just good. I don't know what it is about Owen's writing style, but his songs don't stick with me the way O'Brien's or Webster's do. Jack Owen tends to overuse fast chug riffs, has seemingly synthetic aggression, as well as lack of memorable tunes. Owen just seems to be short of passion in a lot of the songs he writes, as if he couldn't get into it.

I find Pat O'Brien to be much more of an interesting song writer than Jack Owen on this album, due to the fact that he usually goes for faster and more difficult riffs than Owen. I am not a believer of the whole "complexity equates to splendor" type of mind set, but Pat writes catchy stuff and manages to keep pushing the boundaries on difficulty. If you watch the DVD that came with this album, you'll be able to see Pat playing guitar for one of his songs, "Frantic Disembowelment," which takes away any doubt that Cannibal Corpse go for simplicity as Pat runs his fingers around the fret board with amazing speed. When Pat plays, he goes for unrelenting aggression and brutality; I notice that Pat tends to favor tremolo harmonization as well. This also gives me the idea that he actually loves what he's doing, unlike Jack (it's why he left the band after all).

The entire production is crystal clear, much like Gore Obsessed. This is also the first all digital album that Cannibal Corpse have done. The problem with old Cannibal Corpse albums was that the production usually rendered Alex's bass sounding almost like a joke. Remember the nice little bass solo on Hammer Smashed Face before the singing started? It sounds like a piece of rubber!

Thankfully, the serene production allows you to hear Alex's bass as it pummels in the background like a machine gun. I'd love to hear more standout bass activity from Alex, maybe a bass solo or two, but I digress. Production can't get much better than this. Almost every song on here is built around speed, except for the ever groovy "Festering in the Crypt," which speaks in more of a "sit down, relax, and enjoy" type of manner. Some thrash elements show themselves in songs like "Severed Head Stoning," and attack all bones in the listener's neck by forcing them to head bang until paralysis is achieved.

I can't say I was really looking forward to this album. I purchased it the day it came out, but I was expecting it to be somewhat of a Gore Obsessed clone, but no...This is even better! I tip my hat to the death metal veterans for spawning this fine creation.