# Vile (album)

Vile is the fifth studio album by American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, released on May 21, 1996 through Metal Blade Records.
It is their first album to feature vocalist George Fisher and the last album featuring guitarist Rob Barrett until 2006's Kill. It was also the last Cannibal Corpse album to feature Scott Burns as producer.
The album was re-released in 2006 with new liner notes and a bonus DVD (titled "Vile Live") featuring a full concert from the Vile tour, during which many songs from the album are performed.

## Background and recording

Vile was originally titled Created to Kill (which is featured in the Cannibal Corpse Box set) and had partially been completed, with Chris Barnes having tracked vocals for seven songs. During the album's production, Barnes was dismissed from the band due to creative differences. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz said, "I think over a period of time he saw Cannibal Corpse as being his property, and he would do things in his way, never listening to anyone else and never yielding from his viewpoint. [...] He had a way of doing things, and that had worked – until then. But, quite honestly, when we heard what Chris was doing vocally on the new record, all of us knew we had a serious problem on our hands."
The band had also expressed dissatisfaction with Barnes' lyrics he had written for the album. Mazurkiewicz said, "The lyrics Chris was coming up with just didn’t seem to fit where the rest of us were taking the songs [...] He was stuck in the old ways, whereas we wanted to progress. We did try to help him out, but Barnes was so stubborn that it was very tough. I remember one of the last conversations that I had with him outside the studio…I said we wanted to be as supportive of him as possible, and he admitted that he was struggling to step up a gear. At that point, we were all committed to getting him through, and making this work. [...] The final straw, though, came when we heard what he’d done on Devoured By Vermin. This was always gonna be the opening song on the album. As such, it had to have an immediate impact, to make a statement about what was to come. But Chris hadn’t risen to the challenge. After hearing what he’d done, Alex Webster bluntly turned on him and said, ‘I’m gonna completely re-write the lyrics.’ That finished Chris. He was devastated. He’d lost control. [...] We just knew Chris had to go – that was the only thing to do. So, we phoned him when he was on the road and said, ‘Dude, you’re out.’ It was as simple as that. None of us could live with what he’d done in the studio, and we knew there was no way he’d change. The problem we had was where to go next."
Webster commented, "When it came time, we thought ‘well we have to make sure these lyrics are killer’. Not just a killer read, so much as they just sound good with the music [...] I think a lot of the problem was that Chris didn’t practice with the band too much, that he didn’t really pay attention to the riffs, and he would just write stuff that went over the top of it instead of actually working with it. And now that the band is helping write the lyrics, I think that you can hear that they mesh better."
According to Mazurkiewicz, "We had to fight with him to make lines fit in the song. Barnes wrote his lyrics and didn't want help from anyone. We were okay with that, but when he was in the booth, Alex and I started saying to each other, "Man, this doesn't sound right." Then we would suggest to Barnes, "Hey, if you took out this syllable or if you took out 'uh' or 'the,' then the line would fit better." But Barnes pushed back like we were stepping all over him like it was his poetry we were ruining. [...] I'll never forget Alex telling Barnes while he was still in the booth, "Hey, Chris, I'm going to rewrite the lyrics." Barnes did not want to hear that, which was hard for him. He removed the cans [headphones] and left the studio. We'd never said those things, but it needed to be said. Otherwise, the song would have been ruined. That was the last day in the studio with Barnes."
To replace Barnes, the band hired Monstrosity vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher to re-record the former's vocal tracks, with the rest of the band sharing duties rewriting the lyrics. Fisher recalls feeling extremely nervous during his first vocal tracking sessions with the band. He said: "It felt like the world was finally gonna know who I was and I’d wanted that for so long. But I remember that I lost control of my voice at first and could see the guys in the control room looking like ‘did we make the right choice?’ and I was nervous. I went into the bathroom and told myself ‘you know you can do this, so do the damn song’. Rob had pushed so hard for me to join, like ‘George is the only guy that can do this’ and that first scream you hear is the first one I did when I walked back into the room."
Fisher made few contributions to the album due to time constraints. Webster and Mazurkiewicz, who had contributed lyrics in some capacity on the band's debut album, assumed lyrical duties in Barne's absence. Mazurkiewicz recalled, "We were flying by the seat of our pants, but got the job done. We both enjoyed getting involved with that side of the songs. Chris had never previously allowed anyone else near the lyrics."
During the Vile sessions, "The Undead Will Feast" from Eaten Back to Life was re-recorded with Fisher on vocals. This version of the song would first appear as the only bonus track on a Japanese import edition of Vile and then on the Worm Infested EP in 2003.

## Composition and style

The album is seen as a return to the brutal death metal sound of the band's previous releases, and as a departure from the groove-oriented style of The Bleeding. Greg Pratt of Exclaim! said, "Vile practically mocks that album's groove and open space with an oppressive onslaught of full-on, no-nonsense, blinders-on extreme metal." It has been noted for its complex song structures. According to Malcolm Dome of Metal Hammer, "[George Fisher's] vocals seemed to feed off the dynamism, freshness and vitality that lit up the music." Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster said: "[Fisher] was exactly what we wanted. If you listen to bands like Kreator and Dark Angel, they have that really rapid-fire vocal delivery and George was able to do that in a [death metal] way. We wanted the Tom Araya of [death metal] and we found him!" Vile is the band's first album to use Bb standard tuning, as opposed to Eb standard tuning on all prior releases (although a few of the album's tracks are in Db standard). Vincent Jefferies of Allmusic noted Vile's album art and song titles, while "gruesome and extreme to the max", are "toned down" in comparison to previous releases by the band. Fisher described the album's fifth track “Bloodlands" as having more of a psychological horror theme as opposed to the usual graphic violence themes of earlier releases.

## Reception and legacy

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 6/10 |
| Metal Hammer | |
AllMusic wrote "Fisher brought a vocal dynamism and character that livened up the band's six-year-old sound. Fisher's ability to match the musical intensity and rhythm of Vile's more complicated assemblages of riffs created a more sophisticated yet equally tortuous essence."
Vile was the first death metal album to appear on the Billboard 200 chart, debuting at No. 151. Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz said, "It may have been partly due to the leg work we’d done with The Bleeding, and also because we’d matured as a band as well. But it was a great moment when Vile charted. Here was proof that people had embraced what we were doing, in bigger numbers than ever. And it was a vindication of our decision to bring in the new man." He believes Vile to be a turning point in the band's history, and possibly one of the band's most crucial releases. He said, "we ditched so much of our past and went towards an uncertain future. It could have backfired badly. But thankfully it worked. Without [the album] and everything that happened while we did it, we might never have survived into the 21st century."
Created to Kill was eventually released as part of the band's official boxset. According to Mazurkiewicz, "Virtually everyone who’s heard these has the same reaction: ‘No wonder you had to get rid of Barnes.’ [...] I’ve yet to come across anyone who rates them as better than what’s on Vile. We didn’t put them on to embarrass Chris at all. But they are part of our history, and have become quite celebrated over the years. It was a chance for people to make up their own minds. [...] This band tries to keep everything we do, because it’s part of what we are – no matter how awful we might feel it to be."

## Personnel
### Cannibal Corpse

* George Fisher – vocals
* Rob Barrett – guitar
* Jack Owen – guitar
* Alex Webster – bass
* Paul Mazurkiewicz – drums

### Production

* Scott Burns – engineer, mixing
* Mike Fuller – mastering
* Brian James – design
* Vincent Locke – artwork, illustrations
* Brian Slagel – executive producer

## 2007 Vile Live DVD track listing
### February 3, 1997

* "Perverse Suffering"
* "Stripped, Raped and Strangled"
* "Covered with Sores"
* "Monolith"
* "Addicted to Vaginal Skin"
* "Force Fed Broken Glass"
* "Fucked with a Knife"
* "Gutted"
* "Bloodlands"
* "Shredded Humans"
* "Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead"
* "A Skull Full of Maggots"
* "Devoured by Vermin"
* "Hammer Smashed Face"

### February 4, 1997

* "Pulverized"
* "Puncture Wound Massacre"
* "Mummified in Barbed Wire"
* "Orgasm Through Torture"

## Created to Kill

Several of the songs from the finished album were written while Barnes was still in the band, and were recorded in demo form with his vocals. These tracks were collected for disc three of the 15 Year Killing Spree box set. They are:
* "Unburied Horror" – 3:28
* "Mummified in Barbed Wire" – 3:07
* "Gallery of the Obscene" – 3:37
* "To Kill Myself" – 3:41
* "Bloodlands" – 4:29
* "Puncture Wound Massacre" – 1:43
* "Devoured by Vermin" – 3:11

## Chart positions

| Chart (1996) | Peak position |
| US Billboard 200 | 151 |