After the December 1988
formation of Cannibal Corpse, the subsequent demo, and the signing of the band
to Metal Blade Records, it was finally time to record our first album for the
label. Being a big fan of Scott Burns because of his work on Sepultura's
Beneath the Remains, we inquired about booking time with him at Morrisound
Studios in Tampa, FL. In the meantime, we put the finishing touches on more material
to fill the album. Up untill then, we wrote songs that were an average
of two minutes in length. Five of these songs were released on our demo to
lure record labels into signing us. The five demo songs were, in order:
"A Skull Full of Maggots", "The Undead Will Feast", "Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains", "Put Them to
Death", and "Bloody Chunks". The longest of these songs clocking in at
2:46...
Thus, we concentrated on new songs that
were more involved, and arranged more dramatically such as "Edible Autopsy", "Shredded Humans", and "Mangled".
"Buried in the Backyard" had an instrumental intro that added to its length.
We worked at a feverish pace, rehearsing every weeknight, and some wekends, constantlycoming
up with new material to work on in our dimly lit rehearsal
room.
With an early 1990 studio session booked, we solidified all the material by
playing some local shows to try the material out on a live audience.
The response was incredible, and our fan base began to grow by leaps
and bounds. We packed my van, and Paul's truck and headed for
Florida...
We arrived in the sunshine
state, and were welcomed by the Morrisound staff, including Tom and Jim Morris,
and the guru himself--Scott Burns. Our studio experience was next to none,
so we put all produciton aspects in the hands of Scott. From what I
recall, we performed the songs live, and kept the drum and bass guitar tracks on
tape, and went to work overdubbing the guitar thythm tracks, vocal tracks, and
lead guitar work, in that order. With little time off, we worked in the
studio from 11 in the morning until at least midnight or later, driving Scott
crazy with our inexperience and endless questions about the music
industry. We spent little time working
on tones, opting for performance rather than over-anal;yzing, making the tracking brisk and smooth.
Scott truly deserves the recognition for his great work at the studio. He was a
natural fit at the board, and kept the session upbeat and professional, while
becoming a sixth member of the group. Some sessions went so late, he
didn't bother going home, and slept on the floor in our hotel!
Dedicated...
Back then, Morrisound was a
big hang out for all the local bands who lived in the area.
Deicide and Incubus frequented the place while we were there, and that led
to Glen Benton's and Francis Howard's backing vocals on a couple of
tracks.
The album also began our long relationship with artist Vince Locke, who
we idolized for his work in the comic book "Dead World". We couldn't
think of a better match for the band to get our visual perspective
across to music fans everywhere, leading us to censorship problems throughout the
globe.
The recording session was a bit of
a blur due to being young and overwhelmed by being thrown under the studio microscope
for the first time, but in my opinion, the album is still quite
listenable to this day for me. It holds a lot of memories of
the early days of the band that are special to all of
us...
We loaded up the vehicles and headed north out of Florida
only to run into a blizzard before reaching Buffalo. Little did we know
that years later we would leave the arctic climate of the north, and
relocate to Tampa to continue our quest to become better with each
release...
-Jack Owen, Aug 13,
2002
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