Former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owen has revealed there's one album from his back catalogue he'd most like to revisit, and it's a fan-favorite from the band's early era.
Speaking in a new interview with Spain's Made In Metal, Owen pointed to 1991's Butchered At Birth as the record he'd consider re-recording, citing both production issues and the pressure surrounding its creation: "Maybe the Cannibal Corpse album Butchered At Birth that came out in 1991.
"The production could be a lot better and the writing process was a little more stress filled, I think. We were trying to make up for sounding simple on the first album, so we overwrote a little bit. So, yeah, I think that's the only one that's hard for me to listen to, to this day… Of the first four [Cannibal Corpse] albums, it's the one that's probably number four out of those four — for me, anyway."
Cannibal Corpse began writing new material right after releasing their debut, Eaten Back to Life, aiming for a heavier sound and more gruesome imagery. They wrote and rehearsed in Buffalo, holding intense 4-hour sessions five days a week.
The songwriting was highly collaborative – guitarist Jack Owen said everyone contributed heavily, while vocalist Chris Barnes noted they produced a song every two weeks. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz described months of striving to be "the most brutal band," and wrote the opening riff for "Gutted."
After recording in Tampa, they became part of its growing death metal scene, which pushed them to work quickly. Their second album, Butchered at Birth, was recorded in just two weeks with producer Scott Burns, who helped refine their sound while noting Barnes' vocals needed little enhancement.
Released at a time when the band were rapidly evolving their sound, Butchered At Birth has long been regarded as a cornerstone of early '90s death metal – though Owen's comments suggest its legacy isn't without personal reservations.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Owen – now a member of Six Feet Under – discussed his long-standing creative partnership with Barnes, describing a no-frills, trust-based songwriting process built on decades of collaboration: "Oh, [it's] very simple. I write a song, I demo it, I record it and send it to him.
"And it's usually, 'Yes, let's go with that.' Or, 'Eh, maybe not,' and I just move on to the next song. I've known him so long, we're just kind of family and we're brothers, really. So, we can always talk to each other about anything, musically or really anything about life… I can just e-mail him songs as I finish them.
"So [during the songwriting process for Six Feet Under's upcoming album Next To Die] we ended up with a lot of extra songs that weren't very good on my part. So maybe we will retool those and they'll end up on the next album."
