American Bands

"Cannibal Corpse is by and large the face of the death metal sub-genre, and they have been ever since they broke out into scene in the early ‘90s. [...] the band’s ferocious songwriting and often comically vile lyrics have lended them to becoming one of metal’s most notorious and celebrated bands."

"What man creates Man will surely destroy The rule of thumb In the mouths of little boys Earth spins delight We kill everything in sight To serve the needs And all purple skies will bleed And a bird flies weak Against polluted skies Before it dies And nature becomes illegal According to rules Made by fools"

"They say you have a lifetime to write your first album and this was the case with Piece of Time. We didn't our entire lifetime creating it, but we spent many hours in a very hot warehouse in South Florida making our best attempt to combine the finesse and technical execution that we heard in Rush, with the ferocity we heard in Slayer and Merciful Fate."

"Arguably the ultimate progressive metal band of their day, Atheist's impossibly Byzantine death-jazz proved too advanced even for committed metalheads to stomach. Over the span of three albums admirably recorded in spite of crippling adversity, the band's inventive but inaccessible style has earned them a lasting respect, but likewise compromised their chances of attaining widespread success."

"One of the main reasons Atheist ended up being such a strange band was we were trying so hard not to sound like anybody else that we went way overboard. We were outsiders within an outsider's scene so we made it doubly hard for ourselves."

"Cannibal Corpse have so much gore in their songs that it's hard to think of any other band so hyper-focused on tales of people getting killed in gruesome ways."

"Ronnie Galetti used to have all these TV sets onstage that he'd smash, and I remember putting my fist through some of them. Talk about a show, the guy used to roll around in the glass from the TVs, and one night I saw his old lady pulling broken glass out of his back after the gig and I thought, Holy shit, this is the real deal."

"Down in Florida, people were listening to Nasty Savage and Savatage as well as shredders like Randy Rhoads before the really heavy stuff started with bands like Celtic Frost, Slayer, Hellhammer and Venom."

"Anyone doubting that Florida’s death metal community represented the absolute cutting edge of metallic invention during the early ‘90s need look no further than Sarasota natives, Atheist, whose experiments in jazz fusion – soon dubbed death-jazz – remain without peer, even today. Led by vocalist and guitarist Kelly Shaefer, Atheist began life as R.A.V.A.G.E. (Raging Atheists Vowing a Gory End) before making a head-spinning first impression with 1990’s ‘Piece of Time’ showcasing the incomparable bass skills of Roger Patterson (hailed by many as Cliff Burton’s heir apparent). But when Patterson was killed in a horrific van crash, the band recruited Tony Choy to give life to his bass lines on the group’s arguable masterpiece, ‘Unquestionable Presence.’"

"Almost as depressing as the song themes is the regularity with which the members of Cannibal Corpse have been forced to explain that a) no, they don’t take their violent lyrics seriously, b) no, they don’t advise that anyone tries these things at home and c) no, they themselves are not violent or in any way generally extreme as human beings."

"The things we sing about in this band are incredibly brutal and negative -- we want everything in this band to be brutal and negative. Really. And that might sound strange to the average person, but it's what we want. You know, that's the way to make it effective death metal and to effectively capture the emotion we're going for. If you're gonna make music that sounds aggressive and hateful, then [obviously] the lyrics should also be aggressive and hateful. It makes complete sense to me. And if it's something that is about something negative, but it makes you feel good when you're done listening to it, and no one's been harmed by doing that, then there's nothing wrong with it at all. [...] I mean, we're not too surprised that people want to censor us, because most of the people who are in political offices [...] they were teenagers when Elvis was being censored for moving his hips around on Sullivan's Show. So people who grew up with that -- what are they going to think of a band that sings about eating people?"

"We moved from Miami to Tampa when we were young, and the first people we came in contact with in our neighborhood were the guys in Nasty Savage and Savatage. Those were the two bands that even got us interested in playing music."

"We’ve really tried hard to make our songs serious horror songs. But the ones that have the more extreme gore in them, those lyrics sometimes make the audience realize there’s a bit of black humour to it, much in the way Evil Dead or Evil Dead II did. Those movies were meant to be frightening, for sure. But it takes some of the scare out of it because they were so over the top. None of our songs are written to be intentionally humourous or anything like that, but I think when you’re describing something that bloody considering the context: it’s coming from a band. It’s coming from a band and you’re enjoying the music and you’re reading the lyrics that’s describing something completely atrocious, you know, and people aren’t going to take it particularly seriously. [...] It’s strange, but if you edge off the gore a little, the song becomes more frightening. I would say Cannibal Corpse has a little bit of Evil Dead to it, but we have more serious horror songs too. Not that any of them were intentionally not serious. But when you edge the gore back a little bit and leave something to the listener’s imagination you can wind up with something scarier. That’s the same way with horror movies, I think. The movies that I found to be the most frightening weren’t particularly graphic, as far as violence goes. [...] There’s a number of dark, frightening movies that I really like and they aren’t that gory at all. Some of our songs are Evil Dead-like, but we have songs that are more like The Shining."

"It worked out for me because I wasn't happy in that band ever since Bob Rusay left."

""Hammer Smashed Face," ' (1992) as quoted by"

"I am my own self-ruler I need not any ministry I see our music scares you Can't you see that? There's no truth in modern religion A god we do not praise There's no truth in heaven or hell Or what lies in between There's no truth in a man-made Bible So who are they to say? There's no truth, we are our own god And that's the only way People living their lives By something never seen Dreaming all their lives Of a place they've never been Why can't you see you live a lie? Humor yourself until you die We're atheist as you can see We all control our own divinity There's no truth"

"Death had beaten Morbid Angel to the honor of releasing the first unadulterated death metal album, but Morbid Angel took the blueprint and built the damn house. The seminal ‘Altars of Madness’ came in 1989, marrying Trey Azagthoth’s jagged, earth-heaving riffs with Pete Sandoval’s unmatched double kicks and unhinged blast beats."

"[...] Morbid Angel's ' changed everything [about the Swedish scene]. Before that there was no clear distinction between death, speed, or thrash among regular metalheads. It was just brutal metal. But Altars of Madness opened people's eyes, and made us realize something new was going on. Everybody bought that record. Everybody. And thrash was executed by it – the whole genre just disappeared."

"Come to me, lord of filth Hear my cries, princes of nightmares Touch us with your morbid lips Let us taste your foulness."

"Few albums struck a chord within the ears and minds of the late-'80s underground metal scene like Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness did at the end of the decade, setting a new precedent for metal bands to reach."

"I’d met Chuck in ’89 [...] We got in contact with him and hung out for a while, he introduced me to [producer and engineer] Scott [Burns] who was doing sound for a show at an airplane hangar. It was Morbid Angel, Obituary, Atheist, Amon and Nocturnus. That’s where I met every key member of every band. That was the first sign that something really cool was happening."

"I’ll never forget a party I went to in an old barn in central Florida. [...] Amon were playing and then Xecutioner (which became Obituary). I went to the party with Chuck [Schuldiner] and I remember David Vincent saying to Chuck, ‘Man, I love your vocals on ', which he had the advance cassette of. It seemed like every band that became influential from that Florida scene was there that night. It was just a room of artists interacting and there was a lot of camaraderie and respect. And you could feel it. It was like, ‘Whoa, this is a scene.’"

"The Florida technical death metal scene was huge for me. The mind-bending songs of Atheist were just so out of this world and even if I didn’t understand the songs back then they still resonated with me. I couldn’t love this more if I tried."

"To make it fun and exciting, we kind of looked at it like wrestling. You know how in wrestling you've got these big guys and it's all competition and they've got something to say about this or that guy, but it's all in fun? The idea was to write songs that blew everybody else away and pull off the most wicked, fucking beats. But it was only in fun, and it was a motivational tool."

"I didn't really see [Morbid Angel] as competition. I just saw it as someone who was shit-talking who was gonna get pounded. But after a confrontation at an airport, that came to an end. We got on a plane with them and I went, "Hey man, what the fuck is this shit about?" And there was an about-face. "Oh, we didn't say that, man." But we have some mutual friends and shit, so we know what was said. And it was like, "OK, you know what, if you want to take it to the next level, we're ready." We made peace after that and realized we were all on the same team."

"It was more competitive in Florida than in Buffalo, which is where we were originally from. But I don't know if it was a completely negative thing because sometimes that competitive spirit helps bands better themselves. Everyone wants to be the fastest and the heaviest, and that kept the scene moving forward in a faster, heavier direction."

"Down in Florida, people were listening to Nasty Savage and Savatage as well as shredders like Randy Rhoads before the really heavy stuff started with bands like Celtic Frost, Slayer, Hellhammer and Venom."

"To be honest, the early Tampa scene was very divisive, and a lot of the bands didn’t like each other or talk to each other because it was extremely competitive. No one knew that literally every single one of their bands was going to get signed."

"I remember walking backstage in the early days and seeing the guys from Morbid Angel sitting around a chalice, cutting themselves and bleeding into the cup. I thought, That's fuckin' nuts. We played crazy music, but we didn't roll like that."

"For anyone who looks beyond the band’s Satanic image and bloodletting rituals, Morbid Angel were death metal masters. Their debut album, 1989’s Altars of Madness, raised the bar from a musician’s perspective and gave others in the scene a motivational punch in the teeth."

"Back then, I really wanted to destroy everybody. I wanted people to have to work a lot harder after the fans witnessed what we had going on. I wanted to smoke people. I really believed that bands were challenging each other, trying to outdo each other and make each other quit - almost like the rivalries with East Coast and West Coast rappers. I really kind of thought people wanted to write parts that would engulf the whole world. I wanted to get onstage and have people go, "Holy shit - what the fuck is going on?" I wanted to write stuff that would make other bands run and hide. It's not really very nice, but that's what drove me."

"This album is dedicated to the underground and all , death, and black metal fans everywhere."

"is a really , , . So, it's a weird place to begin with, and then you have these kids with no place to go. So maybe death metal happened as a reaction to that or maybe it's just some energetic physics thing—a spirit that's in the air and kids tune into it if they have an artistic bone in their bodies."

"Tampa never really got the shows coming through town that New York or the West Coast got, and that created a real hunger for good music. We kind of had to create our own scene."

"Back then, we were all trying to define our own sounds and images. I don’t wanna say there was unfriendly competition, but I don’t wanna say there was friendly competition either. We were all competing for the front seat. It all started with and . You had the thing going on with and we wanted to outdo that. My goal was to be heavier, vocally especially."

"I was jamming with a few other guys in in the late 80’s, when we collectively decided to move to Florida. […] It was who actually told us about the scene in Florida before we came down. […] So we moved down in December of 1989. […] But when we first moved to South Florida, the scene was just killer for metal. That was a big reason why we moved down."

"You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

"'Cause my monsters are real, and they're trained how to kill. And there's no comin' back and they just laugh at how I feel. And these monsters can fly, and they'll never say die. And there's no goin' back, if I get trapped I'll never heal. Yeah, my monsters are real."

"No one gets out alive, Every day is do or die. The one thing you leave behind Is how did you love? How did you love? It's not what you believe, Those prayers will make you bleed. But while you're on your knees, How did you love? How did you love?"

"Now you pack your bags, the party's such a drag, And everyone can tell that you're poisoning the well. But there are no mistakes, except what you create, You need to know your place."

"Nothin' 'bout me is ordinary, My friends all say I'm goin' crazy. I don't hear a word that they say, 'Cause the voices in my head are legendary. But I'll never tell 'em where the bodies are buried. Keeps 'em comin' back every day."

"Guess you might say I'm a little intense, I'm on the bright side of bein' hell bent. So, take it from me, you're not the only one Who can't see straight (Can't see straight)."

"Oh, my eyes are seein’ red Double vision from the blood we’ve shed The only way I’m leavin’ is dead That’s the state of my, state of my, state of my head. They don’t know, where we’ve been We got that concrete street skin The only way I’m leavin’ is dead. \That’s the state of my, state of my, state of my head."

"Out here on planet zero, We live like no tomorrow. I think we've reached the ceiling. They'rе canceling your feelings. On to better days or so thеy say, But I don't think so. They're murdering our heroes Out here on planet zero."

"I'm gonna make it rain, so ring the bell, I know it all too well Switchblade on the edge of your wrist Can I get a witness? (Witness!) 'Cause agony brings no reward For one more hit and one last score Don't be a casualty."

"The dead don't die, the heart still beats Head held high, I haunt these streets Life's killed me a hundred thousand times You can try, you can try, but the dead don't die."

"Maybe you talk too much and you were asking for it, asking for it, asking You can blame bad luck but you were asking for it, asking for it, asking When all is said and done, you need to tie your tongue 'Cause when you spit on everyone You are, you are, you know you're asking for it, asking for it, asking."

"It's amazing what the hard times can reveal, Like who shows up, who walks away, and who's for real. So take me on, I'll take the wheel and we can both outrun the past. We will always live forever if we don't look back.You saved my life, not once but twice. You keep me free from falling, You saved my life, make it all alright. When I don't feel like talking, You make sure I always see the daylight."

"You've always been slightly awkward, kind of weird, Upside down and not all here. What's wrong with me and you is crystal clear.Sometimes I'm in a room where I don't belong, And the house is on fire and there's no alarm. And the walls are melting too. How 'bout you? I've never been the favorite, thought I'd seen it all 'Til I got my invitation to the lunatic ball And my friends are comin' too. How 'bout you? Don't worry, it's all just a symptom of being human."