- Review by Faye Coulman
Cannibal Corpse unleash deliciously twisted 'Red Before Black' music video
Here’s one to take you back. It’s like the 1980s have returned and gore is being dragged back, kicking and screaming, into the foray - with no mercy.
At once reminding the viewer of such video nasties as Blood Feast, Driller Killer, Evil Dead and Bad Taste in the energetic compulsion of seeing bodies torn apart and ripped into pieces, porn actresses are eviscerated at every turn. POV shots reveal stomachs cut into, arms and legs sawn off in graphic detail, decapitation and even the classic shot of a head blown clean apart with a shotgun. It’s like Maniac is on the prowl once more. The photography has that glorious video grain and you are transported back to a time when the video shop would rent you banned films from under the till. Blood runs throughout the duration, covering the lens and obscuring what is being seen. Guts are piled high and the floors are sticky.
Other influences could be attributed to Necrophagia’s music videos which were verging on the sickness of snuff films, and since Killjoy has died, Cannibal Corpse have no competition. The visual style of the protagonist has a sniff of Richard Stanley’s Hardware, and gives it a sci-fi edge, but really this is slice and dice, no more. Much like the song it features, it is simple, driving and nothing special, unless you are into this kind of thing. It will appeal to viewers of a certain age who recall the glory days of gore, and harkens back nicely in a comic book-like style.