Cannibal Corpse vocalist George Fisher is also known to many as “Corpsegrinder.” When somebody who is not Peter Stormare’s character in Fargo has such a nickname, you start to wonder what makes a guy like that tick. And in this day and age, where else would you go when you wonder something but to the internet?
First stop – Wikipedia, which told me that Corpsegrinder is apparently an avid fan of World of Warcraft and live concert albums. I also came across this fun quote on his Wikipedia page: “He is also a fan of the US Olympic Women’s Curling Team, San Antonio Spurs, Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL and the Denver Broncos.[citation needed]” The best part of this is obviously the fact that this info is uncited and possibly wildly incorrect, but it seems pretty interesting to me regardless. One can only speculate on how the topic of Corpsegrinder’s favourite CFL team would have ever come up in any conversation, but I’m glad we now know this. Also, it’s fun to imagine him cheering on the women’s curling team, screaming “Hurry! HURRY HAARRRRRD!” in his best death growl, followed by some of his trademark windmill style headbanging. Perhaps he would then shotgun a (possibly non-alcoholic) beer and follow that up with an impressive belch, or maybe he might even go out for sushi afterwards. Who really knows? There is still much to learn about the man they call Corpsegrinder.
Speaking of Corpsegrinder’s headbanging, it truly is one of the most entertaining elements of Cannibal Corpse’s live show. Watching him whip his hair back and forth like some kind of crazy pinwheel is almost hypnotic. I assume the fact that his neck is roughly the size of a small village would account for his maximum headbanging capabilities.
Along for the ride on their current tour were fellow old school death metallers Crytopsy and Obituary as well as relative newcomers Abysmal Dawn. Floridians Obituary put on perhaps the most engaging performance of the night, full of slow, heavy riffs and the vocals of John Tardy, easily one of the more recognizable voices in death metal. Montreal’s Cryptopsy also put on an entertaining, high energy show, driven by the hyper-fast technical drumming of Flo Mounier.
For their part, Cannibal Corpse, touring behind 2014’s A Skeletal Domain, didn’t really offer much of a different show than the last time they played Toronto (just under 1 year ago) and frankly, I started to get a little bored by the midway point, but that hardly mattered to the fans, who drank, moshed, and shouted along to lyrics covering various acts of depravity.