While the debate over the exact origins of death metal often spans multiple continents and bands, Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster has pinpointed one specific thrash titan as the genre’s primary architect. Speaking on the latest episode of the “100 Songs That Define Heavy Metal” podcast with Metal Blade Records CEO Brian Slagel, Webster argued that without the influence of Slayer, the death metal landscape would look vastly different.
Reflecting on the evolution of extreme music, Webster noted that the genre was born from a desire to constantly push boundaries.
“Metalheads are always looking for the next heavier thing, or the next step forward, and everybody sort of adds to that,” Webster told Slagel (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “So I would say out of the thrash bands, death metal owes the most to Slayer. They were the band that had those kind of lyrics. I feel like if you’re looking at a family tree, then a lot of death metal comes from the Slayer branch, in a way. And there’s other bands too, for sure — Venom stuff like that. But for us, Slayer is probably the biggest influence of the thrash bands, for sure — Slayer, Kreator, Dark Angel, bands like that.”
Before he was helping to define the sound of brutal death metal, Webster’s musical diet was surprisingly mild. He recounted his journey from his father’s record collection to the heavier sounds of the 80s.
“Well, when I was really young, single-digit age or whatever, I listened to ’50s rock, like Chuck Berry and Elvis [Presley], stuff like that, records my dad had lying around from when he was a teenager, that kind of stuff, the ’50s rock,” Webster explained. “But, yeah, I got into just regular rock, like The Police and stuff like that. And then pretty much around my early teens, that was when metal came in, and then it was bands like Accept and Iron Maiden, those two really in particular. And then Metallica, all the thrash bands, Metallica, Slayer, Kreator, all those bands, Megadeth, all that stuff. And it just kind of builds up.”
The interview also touched on the development of the harsh vocal style that defines death metal. Webster expressed a desire to see a historical analysis of how singing morphed into growling, tracing the lineage back to icons like Lemmy Kilmister.
“I really would love it if some of the original death metal and growling kind of thrash metal singers would get together and maybe do a roundtable on the origins of this style of singing or something like that, because I think it kind of starts maybe with Lemmy [Motörhead], who was still singing — Lemmy and Cronos [Venom]; they were singing, but it was getting into a growl, but there were still melodies going on there.”
He noted that subsequent vocalists pushed the envelope further, removing the melody entirely.
“And then you get Jeff [Becerra] from Possessed, Chuck [Schuldiner] from Death, Kam Lee from Massacre, people like that, doing something deeper, more guttural. And then it just goes on and on to [where] everybody ended up being pretty guttural and not really having any kind of a melody. There was a point where it was still singing, where you’re carrying a tune, and then it just really became more of a rhythmic growl.”
Webster also credited German thrash legends for their vocal contributions: “And that, I think it kind of started with some of the really early death metal, of course, like the bands I mentioned, and then also thrash, like Mille [Petrozza] from Kreator was a big inspiration for us as well.”
Unlike some bands that stumble into a sound, Webster confirmed that Cannibal Corpse was formed with a very specific sonic goal in mind.
“When we made Cannibal Corpse, that was the plan. That was 1988, so there were already death metal bands out there that we liked. We had the Morbid Angel demo, we loved Death. Kreator Pleasure To Kill, to me that album is sort of — at least at that time, it was very close to being death metal. Same thing with some of the Sodom albums. So when we made Cannibal Corpse, it was pretty clear that we were gonna go in that direction.”
He contrasted this with his previous project, which lacked that singular focus.
“The band that [ex-Cannibal Corpse guitarist] Jack [Owen] and I were in before was more of a crossover kind of band where it was sort of a mixture of Kreator and D.R.I., that kind of a thing. To make a long story short, we had a lot of different sounds, but we were a crossover band, that band Beyond Death that Jack and I were in before Cannibal Corpse.”
By the time Cannibal Corpse released their debut, the vision had solidified.
“But, yeah, when we made Cannibal Corpse, we were already pretty inspired by bands like Death and Morbid Angel, so we were ready to kind of get going in that direction. And it still took us a little bit of time. But I’d say by the time [Cannibal Corpse‘s 1990 debut album] Eaten Back To Life came out, we were there — you could hear, for sure, that we had thrash roots, but it was death metal right out of the gate.”
