(Live Review) CANNIBAL CORPSE + MUNICIPAL WASTE + SUPPORT - Milwaukee, WI (9/26/25)
- Mark McQueen
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Greetings friends, fans, and followers, and welcome to episode #91 of Beard Reviews. This one was an unexpected addition to our normal review episodes because it was fully booked by your favorite mayhem master, Little Johnny.
Where the Beard errored was in not more fully supervising the lad. I stupidly trusted him when he said, “Don’t worry Beard. I’ve got this. She will love it.” He then unveiled that for her birthday, he had gotten us all tickets to long time death metal mavens and gore masters extreme Cannibal Corpse, along with support from thrash legends Municipal Waste, East Coast grindcore act Full of Hell, and Italian Zombie gore from Fulchi.
Miss Kelly was (at first take) somewhat underwhelmed.
Now, the lad, trying to be helpful, also indicated that as Miss Kelly is a rather tiny lass at 5’6 and about a buck something, that if she were just willing to join him on the mosh pit floor, that there was a good chance he and his friends could “load her into a trash can and throw her onto the stage.” Municipal Waste has been known to encourage fans to do that sort of thing. Once again Miss Kelly was not favorably responsive to this suggestion.
Still, after I explained that in his own way Johnny meant well, always the kind and polite lady, Miss Kelly said, “What the Hell Beard. Let’s give it a listen. Who knows maybe I will like it.” So, off we went to the smaller room at Milwaukee’s Eagles Club affectionately named “The Rave.”
The room at The Rave only holds a few hundred on the floor level and another few hundred in the balcony. There was (as the phrase goes) “no room at the Inn” by show time. Fortunately, in a thoughtful gesture, Johnny had secured front row VIP passes for Kelly and me affording us excellent views without having to be anywhere near the mass of moving chaos that existed floor level.
Suitably outfitted with our seats, VIP lanyards, and drinks, we awaited the first band of this four-act maelstrom of mosh, Italian Zombie Metal specialists ...
FULCHI
With deep guttural growling from Flore (the tall & long haired ex-Necrophilism and ex-Exhumer frontman), on vocals and a band that initially played intense, but slow (by death metal standards) music, Fulchi worked through a handful of numbers before discovering their second gear.
Things picked up on "Splatter Fatality", "Vile Butchery" and the always upbeat "Fucked with a Broken Bottle", before finishing with the tasty little number “Eye Full of Maggots.” All songs were enhanced by a lot of director Lucio Fulchi’s Italian Zombi flick footage, so the audience could be disgusted both audibly and visually.
Little Johnny, as fully expected, moshed like crazy while Miss Kelly wondered where an audience for this sort of musical act even came from.
As it was death metal, I will go 75/100 because it had all the elements and went the extra mile with the video footage.
FULL OF HELL
Next up was Full of Hell, east coast grindcore from Maryland. Often referred to as power-violence spreading sonic malevolence.
Grindcore is not my thing. To explain for the uninitiated, grindcore is often three minutes of violently explosive music and screaming. Just imagine the fastest playing possible accompanied by how you would sound if someone laid a hot branding iron on your groin.
This is then often followed by thirty to forty-five seconds of just screaming instrumental feedback before the band explodes into another three-minute song essentially doing the exact same thing. Grindcore is sort of like the musical equivalent of purposeful projectile vomiting.
Of course, Little Johnny thought this was one of the greatest acts we had seen this year.
The Beard says 64/100 because, frankly, I hate the whole style. Sorry, grindcore fanatics, it just makes no sense to me.
Miss Kelly, always trying to find the positive aspect said, “The people watching was fun, and they were less disgusting than Fulchi.”
MUNICIPAL WASTE
Third up to the stage were Municipal Waste, Virginia's crossover thrash and Little Johnnys favorite live act of 2024. Last year, this band challenged the balcony to fight the main floor, asked the audience to throw garbage cans at them, then when security denied that, they settled for asking the audience to throw other audience members at them. Now THIS was an interesting band.
I have to say, these guys are still fun to watch. Although not death metal, their brand of thrash is plenty fast and in a huge positive for me, I can understand some lyrics. This set was great. Little Johnny hit the pits like a Tasmanian Devil. They had the largest circle pit of the evening including a guy in a full out Ronald McDonald costume and make-up thrashing with Little Johnny and ultimately being hoisted on the lad’s shoulders and run around the Pit in circles during one number. (Check the videos on the Beards Facebook page by friending and following Mark McQueen.)
Even Miss Kelly was into Municipal Waste declaring their set “a lot of fun to watch and listen to.”
Although this set was not as insane as the one last year at Milwaukee Metalfest, it was easily the most fun one of the evening for this reviewer. 88/100
CANNIBAL CORPSE
Headlining, were Florida’s own purveyors of gore-soaked death metal, Cannibal Corpse. This would be the Beard's third time seeing Corpse, but the first time was so long-ago original vocalist Chris Barnes was still singing for them and the second time was a part of one of the Ozzfest supershows back in the day. This would be my first time watching them headline a set.
Coming out with "Blood Blind" from their latest release 2023’s Chaos Horrific, thirty-five years have not softened them any. Although not the unrepentant depths of horrifying lyrics that Chris Barnes penned in the 1990’s, George Corpsegrinder Fischer has been spewing vile lyrics since the album of the same name back in 1996.
Cannibal Corpse rhythm section remains the originals Alex Webster on Bass & Paul Mazurkiewicz on drums, but the addition of ex Morbid Angel and Hate Eternal axeman Eric Rutan to guitars really put them up a few levels.
Rutan & long-time guitarist Rob Barrett were great and that is from a guy who does not like death metal very much. Rutan’s solos were incendiary, and I was excited each time he let loose a flurry, while Fischer apparently had the neck muscles of a particularly large Ox because “my” neck hurt watching him bang “his” head for an hour.
As always, for me Cannibal Corpse's lyrics are indistinguishable from white noise. Songs such as "I Cum Blood", "Stripped Raped & Strangled", and "Disposal of the Body" are abhorrent content wise (which of course is exactly what this band goes for), but unless you already know the lyrics, you aren’t going to understand them live anyway.
Miss Kelly watched and while impressed with the aforementioned Rutan playing, and Fischer’s unlimited energy on stage happily said “I am glad I don’t know what the lyrics really are. One song sounded like he was singing about a dog eating a duck.” “Trust me, it was about stuff WAY more disturbing than that.”
Little Johnny, (as everyone who follows this column already knows), doesn’t really care about the lyrics in a band like Cannibal Corpse, he just wants to circle, bounce off other crazy metalheads, get surfed to the front of the room and happily do it all over again on the next song.
Cannibal Corpse are for whatever reason long time stars, and they carry themselves that way. The crowd turned out in huge amount, and they also treated the band like big stars. Between that and the really good guitar work, I have to say two things; one, I do not ever need to own any Cannibal Corpse music, and two, I will still award them an 84/100 because they are very good at what they do and a lot of people seem to get a lot of enjoyment out of what they do.
One such person was our own little sweaty, smelly, and sleepy lad who came running up to us when we made it back down to the main floor exclaiming “Did you love it? Wasn’t this awesome? Beard, we need to book more shows like this.”
Miss Kelly, polite as always, sincerely thanked Johnny for the gift (and getting us prime balcony seats), but declined a hug due to his wet dog-like condition instead bumping fists and smiling. As for the Beard, it was another adventure in the books, and I am glad to have done it. We ALL talk about what we would “like” to do but many of us never “DO” any of it. While I will not buy any music from any band we watched tonight, that does not mean I didn’t enjoy watching it.
Beard Reviews carries the tag line “Live Life.” That is not just a phrase; it is a reaffirmation for all of you readers. Don’t think “Someday I will do that.” Just book it and do it, and then you can reflect on, “Remember when we… instead of I wish we had…"
And that brings Beard Reviews episode #91 to a close. Remember to read all the Beard Rock & Metal Reviews each Tuesday on your home for metal, Chris Tighes “The Mighty Decibel,” you can also catch Chris on “Wild Dogs Radio each Saturday.” For videos of all the Beards concert outings, check out our TikTok at thebeard0728, and of course friend and follow the Beard on social media at Mark McQueen. So, until next time, this was the Beard telling you “Live Life.” ‘Stay Heavy’ and ‘Horns Up.’
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