We all saw the recent commercial for Mortal Kombat X, the
one directed by System of a Down’s bassist, Shavo Odadjian with “Chop Suey” as
the soundtrack. There was pretty much a near universal agreement that it was a
poor song choice. Most would say that the ubiquitous techno classic “Techno
Syndrome (Mortal Kombat)” by the Immortals should’ve been featured. Especially
considering that that song has been used in the original Mortal Kombat commercial
and is basically played in anyone’s head the moment that the words “Mortal” and
“Kombat” are uttered, it should have been a severed no-brainer. A fan took it
upon himself and had the anthem spliced into the new commercial. I think that
person could’ve done better. Obviously this blog is about metal music and video
games, so of course I’ll be picking a metal band. Now what we need a band that
is extremely violent, uncompromising, long running, and as influential as the
arcade classic. And that band would have to be the almighty Cannibal Corpse.
Let me explain why they are such a bloody good match for each other.
Why Cannibal Corpse? What about other bands like Death? Autopsy?
Deicide? Obituary? Morbid Angel? Aborted? Immolation? Carcass? It is because
Cannibal Corpse focuses far more on extreme violence than the aforementioned
bands tend focus on. And while there are some bands out there that put lyrics
of Cannibal Corpse to shame; those bands usually push it in the direction of
sexual violence. OK, sure in their first few albums they had quite a bit of
sexual violence going on with “Stripped, Raped, and Strangled” and “Entrails
Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt” but those topics were toned down and became near nonexistent
after Chris Barnes was kicked out of the band. Mortal Kombat doesn’t really
have sexual violence in it but some of its female fighters act in a sexual
manner so it’s not that much of a stretch.
Morbid Angel, Immolation, and Deicide also deal with
religious topics, generally anti-Christianity and Satanism which is something
that the quarter munching fighter doesn’t really dabble in. If anything, Mortal
Kombat just apes mythology from China and films like Big Trouble in Little
China to create their own mythology. There might some critique of religion
somewhere but it certainly not as overt as the previously mentioned bands so it
doesn't even factor into the decision here.
Mortal Kombat’s primary focus is violence. It’s a fighting
game! Just reading through Cannibal Corpse’s coffin catalog and it’s obvious
that most of the song titles would be perfect as fatalities, which many have
become at some point.
Take “Purification by Fire” for example, it can obviously describe
Scorpion’s classic fatality where he removes his mask then sets his opponent on
fire. Or it could even describe Sonya Blade’s fatality of blowing her opponent
a flaming kiss of death. Additionally, Sektor’s fatality of roasting his
opponent alive could match the song title.
Then there is “Barbaric Bludgeonings” which could refer to Quan
Chi’s fatality where he removes the leg of his opponent and beats the shit out
of him. And there’s Darrius’ similar fatality but has him removing his opponent’s
arms then beating them with it.
Mileena’s fatality of swallowing nails and spitting them
back out at her opponent could be a reference to “Five Nails through the Neck”.
That might be a bit of a stretch but it would be suitable for the most part.
There really aren’t any fatalities that have opponents “Pounded
into Dust” but there are fatalities where the victim is pounded enough to
explode into chunks that they might as well be dust. Bo’Rai Cho’s fatality of
bouncing on his opponent is one example. Ermac’s fatality of lifting his
opponent repeatedly and slamming into the ground is another gory example.
The classic “Hatchet to the Head” from Gore Obsessed
perfectly describes Nightwolf’s fatality of delivering a hatchet to the head of
his victim. And instead of a hatchet, Shao Kahn likes to use a hammer to smash
the face of his victims in his fatality. I don’t really have to name the song
since I already did and it’s the band’s absolute classic. Drahmin’s fatality
could be a literal example of that song as well, even though he doesn’t use a
hammer; his fist is enough of a blunt weapon to work.
And of course songs like “Frantic Disembowelment” or “Savage
Butchery” or “Bloodstained Concrete” could easily describe the general violence
of the digitized fighter. And it’s not just the song titles and their penchant for
violence that make the band perfect for slaughter happy fighter.
Mortal Kombat brought the violence mainstream and helped
usher in the ratings board ESRB that Americans know all too well. When the
original Mortal Kombat was released on the Super Nintendo, Nintendo had the
game censored turning all of the blood into sweat (or dust as I thought it was
when I was a wee pixelated metalhead). Cannibal Corpse has garnered similar
controversy with releasing censored alternate covers and their first three
albums being banned in Germany until recently. They also made the shit list of politicians
like Bob Dole. And Mortal Kombat made the shit list of Joe Lieberman (along
with Night Trap).
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