This interview with Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse took place on October 6 at Lupo's in Providence, RI. It was a pretty fun interview, discussing metal, their place in metal and music in general. The Absence started playing during the interview, but which made it hard to hear him talk in person, but everything sounded fine on the recorder.

PL: Whats one misconception people have about Cannibal Corpse?
AW: It depends. I think different people are going to have different misconceptions. I think people outside of the death metal scene would assume that we're a bunch of maniacs or whatever. We're all pretty down to Earth guys, pretty mellow. People generally assume, mostly outside of the death metal scene, that we don't really spend enough time taking our music seriously, but we take it very seriously.

PL: How did you get to be the spokesman of the band?
AW: Its by default. The other guys don't like doing interviews a whole lot. If I didn't like doing them either, than just about nobody would be doing them. I end up being the one who types up statements after a tour to thank people. Any of that type of stuff and any of the public relations type of stuff; an awful lot of time that responsibility falls to me because no one else wants to do it. If somebody else wanted to do it, I would probably let them do it. The band is very important to me, and I want to make sure that we get information out there about things that we're doing, so I try to take care of that, but the other guys are welcome to do this. I certainly didn't request to do it.

PL: Do you generally like doing it?
AW: Yeah, its okay. I'll tell you, you just have to be very careful and watch what you say, because its very easy for people to misunderstand what you said. Even one word being printed incorrectly in an interview can slightly color the meaning of something you were trying to say to make it seem different. When you're doing the interviews, you never know how its going to end up in the end. Most people are good at getting the meaning across that I was trying to get, but its easier typing up the statements ourselves. Sometimes, when I get home from a tour, the last thing that I want to do is think about the band, but I've got to get there and make a thanks list for the tour. I'd rather just stay away from the computer and hang out with my wife. But its a minor responsibility; its no big deal.

PL: What impact do you think Cannibal Corpse has had on metal?
AW: We've had a pretty decent impact on the death metal scene. On the regular metal scene, I can't really tell, but we've had some sort of impact on the death metal scene, along with some of the other bands that came out around the same time that we did. I hope it was a positive one. I always look at music as kind of a staircase, going up and up and up. People continue to build on what came before them, and I hope that our band will be seen as being a good part of that progression, that step in the staircase.

PL: Is metal different now than when you guys started?
AW: Yeah, definitely, there are certain things that are different. In general, its still the same idea; you're making aggressive music. You try to make heavy riffs, aggressive music, a lot of speed is involved. The scene has changed a little bit. Probably one of the most significant things about it is with the internet: its really easy to learn about new bands. 20 years ago, you had to really make a special effort to learn about bands. Sometimes before a band gets signed, they already have thousands and thousands of people aware of their music, and 20 years ago, it wasn't like that. The old days, it was all demo trading and that type of thing. That availability and information about bands has changed the way the scene works, I think.

PL: Do you think that an argument could be made that metal musicians are the most talented musicians?
AW: There's a lot of talented musicians out there, and whatever area they focus on, they're going to be really good in that area. Classical musicians are some of the most impressive, they're unbelievable. They're totally focused in on the performance aspect and performing other people's compositions. They're probably the best of all of them, as far as the performance aspect goes. Then jazz fusion with the improvisation. But, for sure metal musicians, and in my opinion, death metal inparticular, are some of the ones that really have pushed it the most, as far as modern rock music goes. The best musicians in rock most of the time are in metal bands, not just regular rock bands. It wouldn't be easy for a good classical musician or a good jazz musician-although they could probably do it, it wouldn't be easy for them to immediately jump into a technical metal situation. It would be harder than some people might expect, I think. In the same way, it would be difficult for a metal musician to attempt to do their job. Its serious enough music that anyone who tries to play it has to take it seriously and put a lot of work into it.

PL: If you could go back and change anything about your band, would you?
AW: There are a few things that maybe could have been done better here and there, but I think that maybe I would leave it all alone, because things turned out pretty good for us, and changing one element could have changed everything, and maybe we wouldn't have done as well as we did. Sure, there were some small mistakes here and there, and some things could have been done better on some of the albums, but I guess maybe those imperfections are the things that the fans like anyways; it gives the band character. Fuck it. I would just leave it alone. I wouldn't go back and change anything.

PL: What do you think metal would be like had Metal Blade never existed?
AW: Its hard to tell. Brian's (Slagel) label, Metal Blade, has done a lot for the heavy metal scene worldwide, and especially here in America. Metal was around before the label, but the label has definitely helped bring it to a lot of people. Brian and Metal Blade were the ones who signed Slayer, they put out Metallica's first song on the first Metal Massacre. I could be wrong, but I think it is, if I'm remembering it right. He put the music out there for people to hear. Back then, like I said, before the internet, labels were that much more important because, unless you were going to go through some super special effort to go get demo tapes, you had to rely on what was in the record store, and Metal Blade, along with a couple other labels like Combat and Megaforce, they really got a lot of the best bands into the stores for everyone to listen to: Sacrifice, Hallow's Eve, Slayer, Cryptic Slaughter, DRI; that was all Metal Blade. Some of those bands might have been stuck doing demos and not have been as widely known without the label.

PL: Do you think your taste in music has changed as you've gotten older?
AW: Yeah, I've always liked a lot of different stuff. I'm in my late 30s now, and I've been listening to music for as long as I can remember. I've always liked all kind of different stuff: classical music, some jazz, some rock. Metal has always been my favorite, and death metal is my favorite kind of metal, but I listen to a lot of other stuff too. I've got to say that I still listen to a ton of death metal. There's enough death metal bands out there, but there's always a few that are just amazing. A lot of them are really good, but then there's that handful thats just spectacular. I think that death metal has been getting better as the years have gone by, so as a fan of death metal, its great because there's always something new to look forward to. This band Aeon-they were supposed to be on this tour-they are one of the great newer death metal bands thats come out in the last decade. Whenever Krisium puts out a new album, I always want to hear it. Any of my favorite bands, Nile and stuff, but I do like a lot of other stuff.

PL: Whats a little known fact about Tampa?
AW: Tampa? I don't know. As far as metal goes-one of the things that people may not know about our band is that we're not originally from Tampa; we're originally from Buffalo, New York. They make a lot of cigars there. Its hard for me to think. Its a really big metal town and its got a long metal history. I'm not sure if a lot of younger fans are 100% aware of just how important Tampa is to the American metal scene, especially death metal. You've got bands like Nasty Savage, Athiest, Death is from Orlando, but thats not far from Tampa, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Deicide. All of those bands are from the Tampa Bay area, if not from Tampa itself. Tampa and central Florida are very important areas for death metal, and other types of metal too. The Absence are from Tampa, so theres a lot of good metal out there. Its a good metal city, and a lot of people might not know that.

PL: Name one album, besides your own, that you think all people should have in their collection.
AW: Slayer Reign in Blood, for sure.

PL: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
AW: Thanks very much for the interview and thanks to anyone who has ever supported our band. See you on tour.

Written by: RF
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