Cannibal Corpse

Cannibal Corpse is an upstate New York death metal band that the book places among the genre’s best-known acts outside its two principal centers, Tampa and Stockholm. It appears both as part of death metal’s culture of extreme imagery and in a later legal dispute over whether music influenced a violent crime—a connection presented as an allegation, not an established finding.

Place in Death Metal

The book identifies Cannibal Corpse as a group of gore fans from upstate New York, distinguishing it from the leading bands associated with Florida and Sweden. Its brief account situates the band within death metal’s celebration of the morbid and decaying, while describing the genre more broadly as grounded in sonic brutality rather than elaborate stage theatrics. The evidence does not provide a detailed account of the band’s lineup, formation, or musical development.

Allegations Following the Convenience-Store Murders

In lawsuits arising from a convenience-store attack, the surviving employee and the family of the deceased argued that the youths’ behavior had been heavily influenced by music from Cannibal Corpse and Deicide. During police questioning, one of the youths, Rabago, was recorded attributing the crime to the example of Glen Benton and Chris Barnes, whom the book identifies as Cannibal Corpse’s lead singer. The youths were also alleged to have listened to Deicide shortly before the attack. These claims formed part of the plaintiffs’ case; the account does not establish that Cannibal Corpse caused or directed the crime.

Litigation and Limits of the Record

The lawsuits were brought principally against Roadrunner Records and Metal Blade Records. CDs, T-shirts, band photographs, and Satanic literature seized from the youths’ homes were entered as evidence. The record labels settled out of court for substantial sums, expressly without admitting guilt. The settlement therefore records a legal outcome, not a finding that the band’s music caused the violence or that the band itself participated in it.

Significance in the Account

Cannibal Corpse’s role in the book is chiefly contextual: it is named as part of death metal’s gore-oriented culture and later becomes one of the bands invoked in a dispute about music and criminal influence. That juxtaposition exposes the distance between a band’s public association with extreme subject matter and proof of responsibility for listeners’ actions. The account preserves the allegations and their consequences while leaving causation unproven.