Smoke-Induced Success: The cannabis-obsessed metal of Cannabis Corpse

With a bustling extreme music scene thriving with
metal thrash and punk bands like GWAR, Lamb of God, Municipal Waste, Iron Regan
and others, the south is also home to the cannabis-obsessed death metal
fanatics known as Cannabis Corpse. The name of the band is a play on the band
Cannibal Corpse, one of the genre of death metal’s founding groups, and most
successful. Cannabis Corpse is very heavily influenced by the music of Cannibal
Corpse, and under the constant influence of THC, but they are not a cover band.
The band features bassist/vocalist Phil ‘Landphil’ Hall, guitarist Brandon
Ellis and drummer Josh ‘HallHammer’ Hall. ‘HallHammer’ recently took time from
the band’s rehearsal space and cannabis compound in Richmond, Virginia, to
speak with us about their love of the almighty herb, the song writing process
of the band, and its recent joint venture with Chris Barnes, from American
stoner death metal band Six Feet Under.

Being
such heavy smokers, how do you find the endurance to play such fast, technical,
brutal death metal?

You just have to make sure to do cardio. Everyone
smokes before they jam; you get used to it. It really isn’t bad; it loosens you
up and brings out the creativity. Sometimes it can give you energy.

What do
you prefer, joints, pipes, tinctures or edibles?

On our most recent tour last year, we ate some
cookies at our merch table at one show in Salt Lake City, and they got us so
ripped—it was amazing. I really enjoy edibles. I do like pipes and bong-loads,
but I’ve laid off joints and blunts. If it looks pleasing, I’m into it, and if
it gets me stoned, I’m into it.

Do you
have easy access to cannabis on the East Coast?

The East Coast definitely sucks compared to the West
Coast in terms of weed being around; it is there, but not as abundant as places
like Colorado or California. If I ever got busted on the East Coast for some
weed, it would really piss me off knowing that if I were just West in another
state, no one would really give a sh*t about it.

How does
the songwriting process work for the band?

The music comes first the lyrics come last. We think
of song titles at the beginning too. But the music’s always written first. Our
new album, From Wisdom to Baked is a bit different;
whereas, in the past we’ve written mostly parodies of Cannibal Corpse song
titles. But eventually you run out of songs. So with this one, we kind of
branched out to some Morbid Angel, Death and Gorguts songs. We try to keep
these as fathers of the extreme metal genre. It’s one of my favorite albums
we’ve had come out, by far.

Tell us
about the songs you wrote with Chris Barnes, from Six Feet Under.

We’ve collaborated with Chris Barnes on the new Six
Feet Under album. The first song is called “Open Coffin Orgy.” The
guitar-shredding on the album is the best Landphil and me have done so far,
we’re excited to be working with Chris Barnes and Six Feet Under, and think
fans will really dig the new album, which will be out in a few months.

Does the
band have any immediate future plans to tour?

We don’t have any current tours yet but stuff is
being set up. We did a full U.S. tour last year that was very successful, all
over. There is a lot of great footage of us on it online, with our new guitar
player, Brandon. Our best shows were in L.A., Vegas, Phoenix and Oakland.