Former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owen has opened up about his lingering dissatisfaction with the band’s iconic 1991 album “Butchered At Birth.” He revealed that both the production quality and the writing process left much to be desired.
In a recent interview, Owen candidly discussed his struggles with the album, stating: “Yeah. 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.”
Owen explained that the band’s approach to songwriting on the album was driven by a desire to distance themselves from their debut. “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.”
The guitarist’s candid assessment reveals the internal pressures the band faced during this critical period in their career. Understanding the context of these challenges requires examining the circumstances surrounding the album’s creation and the band’s rapid evolution during this era.
Jack Owen’s detailed account of the recording process reveals that the band entered the studio with an ambitious and somewhat chaotic approach to composition. The album was recorded just one year after the release of their debut “Eaten Back to Life,” a remarkably short timeframe. This tight schedule left the band eager to prove their capabilities. Owen noted that the band “started kind of overwriting and everybody was writing tons” of material as they sought to demonstrate significant growth from their initial effort.
This aggressive writing approach stemmed from the band’s desire to avoid being perceived as simplistic. The pressure to evolve quickly resulted in an overabundance of material and compositional choices that Owen himself would later regret. The rushed nature of the writing process created a stressful environment. Combined with the limited time between albums, this stress ultimately compromised the album’s cohesion and Owen’s personal satisfaction with the final product.
