Cannibal Corpse - Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead

Cannibal Corpse's 3-DVD set Centuries of Torment comes out today. It celebrates 20 years of the band's existence, which is a feat given myriad lineup changes, surrounding controversy, and the general vagaries of the music business. Centuries is the best metal DVD package I've ever seen. Disc 1 is an incredibly well-constructed documentary, disc 2 contains live footage and music videos, and disc 3 has a series of highly enjoyable featurettes, including one on the band's lyrics. Evidently, vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher hardly writes any lyrics, so it's up to his bandmates to write them - and lay them down on demos. One gets to hear "death metal" vocals by drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz and bassist Alex Webster, whose "whisper technique" had me nearly in tears from laughter.

The music videos on disc 2 are surprisingly compelling. Even across multiple videos and directors, Cannibal Corpse have maintained a remarkably consistent visual essence. Basically, their videos are mini-horror movies. "Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead" was their first official video. It was their only one with original vocalist Chris Barnes, and came from their final record with him, 1994's The Bleeding. The presentation of the band is startlingly sleek. They're masses of hair and fingers on fretboards; Mazurkiewicz looks nothing like the nice guy he is. Back then, Jack Owen still had hair (and was still in the lineup); Rob Barrett was working his first shift in the band. The solo trade-offs near the end are thrilling. Owen's bluesy side (he's on the Flying V) comes out with an Albert King lick and an unexpectedly perky major third; Barrett (with the Dead Kennedys sticker) answers with diminished arpeggios and an incisive whammy bar divebomb. Perfect solos, perfect song, perfect video.