IMPETIGO – Last Cannibal World

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9.0

• Bands:
  IMPETIGO
• Duration: 00:44:48
• Available since: 1990
• Label:

• Wild Rags Records

There are albums in the history of metal that have played a fundamental role in the development of different subgenres, and it is more than reasonable to include “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” by the Americans Impetigo in this category of essential masterpieces to understand the genesis and development of certain sounds or strands. Published by the legendary Wild Rags Records, a label that launched several gems during the Novata years, “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” is the debut album of the Bloomington (Illinois) band, three years after its birth and after three self-produced demos and an EP. The group will remain alive until 1993, always with the same line up composed of bassist/singer Stephen 'Stevo' Dobbins, guitarists Mark Sawickis (who passed away in February 2026) and Scott Bross, plus drummer Dan Malin. The album, as already mentioned, was released in 1990, but the version to get is the reissue by Morbid Records and released in 1999 with eighteen tracks in total, including the bonuses “Bad Dreams” and “Who's Fucking Who?”.

When we put “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” on the turntable and lower the needle, we are in the presence of a true totem for the goregrind scene, in particular the one linked to the horror/splatter concept, which stands out from the pathological current referable to all the groups influenced by the seminal “Reek Of Putrefaction” by Carcass. Not only that: thanks to their debut album, Impetigo also began to give an indelible direction to that typically American death/grind in gore sauce, which would be perfected two years later with “Horror Of The Zombies”.

Simplifying as much as possible, the idea behind “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” – revolutionary for that time – is the union of the primordial grind of Napalm Death, Repulsion and Carcass with the thrash/core of Cryptic Slaughter and The Accüsed, as well as a marked imprint of primitive death metal attributable to Macabre, Master/Deathstrike, Mantas/Death, Deceased, Slaughter and Necrophagia. The innovative side does not end here, because Impetigo also have an intermedial value, given that, taking inspiration from what Possessed has already done in “The Exorcist” and Necrophagia in “Season Of The Dead/Forbidden Pleasure”, they exasperate the connection between horror cinema and extreme metal both on a visual and lyrical level, and in the use of clips taken from cult films as intros to the pieces. Here music merges with cinema, starting from the title – proudly in Italian – in homage to Ruggero Deodato's 1977 cannibal movie, but also from the cover, created by Stevo himself, which is a further tribute to the boom in Italian anthropophagic films between the Seventies and Eighties. In this sense, subsequent reprints will use alternative artwork (not all created by Stevo) inspired by other infamous classics such as “Cannibal Ferox” by Umberto Lenzi (1981) and “Cannibal Holocaust”, also by Deodato and dated 1980.

Continuing what has already been done in the previous “All We Need Is Cheez” (1987 demo) and “Buio Omega” (1990 EP), the mix between extreme metal and cinema becomes a fundamental factor in “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale”, with intros extrapolated from “Paura Nella Città dei Morti Viventi” and “Zombi 2” by Lucio Fulci; “Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS” and “Ilsa, Harem Keeper Of The Oil Shieks” by Don Edmonds; “The Wizard Of Gore” by Hershell Gordon Lewis; “Mark Of The Devil” by Michael Armstrong and “Cannibal Holocaust” by Deodato. The choice to use an intro that mixes a classic of the genre is curious nazisploitation/women in prison like the Ilsa series and a folk horror like “Mark Of The Devil” to open a piece inspired by the horror/gothic “Bloody Pit Of Horror” by Massimo Pupillo (it could have been taken directly from here), while for “Mortado” the recording of a prank call made to the Texan grinders Splatterreah is chosen.

The entire album is permeated with horror and gore elements: just think of the lyrics of “Dear Uncle Creepy” which, in addition to being a tribute to the “Creepy” and “Eerie” comics from Warren Publishing, denounces the excessive commercialization and mediocrity of the big horror film productions of the Nineties. Our points of reference are the films and B-movies ranging from the Sixties to the Eighties. Impetigo also invent horror characters such as the serial killer of “Unadulterated Brutality” and the monsters of “Revenge Of The Scabby Man” and “Bitch Death Teenage Mucous Monster From Hell”, the latter piece also using an intro made in the studio by Stevo. There is no shortage of songs on critical and provocative topics about the United States of America, such as “Heart Of Illinois”, “Jane Fonda Sucks, Part 2” and “My Lai”.

Once the concept has been clarified, on a musical level, among the peaks there is undoubtedly the vocal performance of Stevo, who juggles between an ultra-phlegmy and absolutely schizophrenic scream, a guttural sound close to the British grindcore of Napalm Death with Lee Dorrian and Dean Jones of Extreme Noise Terror, in addition to the growling effected with the pitch-shifter borrowed from the second voice of Bill Steer in “Reek Of Putrefaction” and “Symphonies Of Sickness”. The album starts out great with the homage of “Maggots” to the scene of the blizzard of dogs taken from “Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi” by Fulci, an almost entirely instrumental piece that is to Impetigo what “Genital Grinder” is to Carcass.

The album never drops in intensity, on the contrary it keeps the pace very high from start to finish, thanks to the excellent guitar textures designed by Mark and Scott, which alternate super catchy and almost punk riffs with accelerations of minimal tremolo death metal: the best example of this formula is “Dis-Organ-Ized”, but also the lilting “Intense Mortification”, “Harbinger Of Death” and other very classics of the genre like “Red Wigglers”. The two guitarists also prove they know how to do the solos: nothing hyper-technical, mind you, but between chaos and melody they manage to add macabre and bizarre nuances to the final result. Dan's drumming is wild and highly original, always precise and straight in the d-beats, as well as in the blast-beats, which, although not standing out for linearity, are among the most particular and brutal of that period, both in terms of setting and speed reached. Note of merit to the drum work also for the excellent use of orchestrations on the toms, which follow the musicality of the riffs and, for example, in a piece like “Mortado”, it also takes on an almost tribal approach and perfectly in line with the cannibal concept. There's also a taste of pure full-speed grind/noise with “Venereal Warts, Part 3” and “Jane Fonda Sucks, Part 2”.

The three days it took to record it in January 1990 demonstrate that “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” is the product of a metal scene still characterized by spontaneism and creativity. An album that unconsciously gives the guidelines for the development of the goregrind and death/grind currents to follow, which will abuse the lesson of the Illinois quartet ad nauseam. Impetigo are still a cult band that, in just six years of activity, has left an indelible mark on the underground world with two masterpieces, as they will also go down in history with the subsequent “Horror Of The Zombies” in 1992, before disbanding and reforming for a celebratory live show in 2007. “Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” absolutely cannot be missing from the collection of every true fan of grind, death metal and film of horror. A timeless classic that we must also rediscover in the memory of Mark Sawickis, a true point of reference for the American underground, and beyond, who between 1986 and 1989 was also the publisher of the legendary fanzine Uniforce.