I've heard it on a doco looking into the history of metal, it's on big metal websites (search for cannibal corpse in www.metalunderground.com and it's the first line of their Background.). After years of believing it true, and living with the image that New Zealand is a prudish and backwards country that refuses it's young folk exposure to the refined art forms that spew forth from the wondrous Cannibal Corpse; I actually went to go check it out.
After much googleing, re-googling, and several government department websites later I found www.censorship.govt.nz (seems kinda obvious now, but you google banned songs in NZ and see how far you get)
Below is a screen shot of results of a search for 'cannibal corpse'.
Of the bands illustrious career of 11 studio albums, a live album, 2 EP's, 4 DVD/VHS releases, 8 music videos, and one box set...
Of all that: the advert for "The Bleeding" is listed as both 'Objectionable' (i.e. Banned) and 'Unrestricted', the advert for Tomb of the Mutilated/hammer smashed face, the lyric sheet for 'Tomb..." are banned.
The top two 'Cannibal Corpse' links are for "Hammer Smashed Face" and "The Bleeding" respectively, which are both banned.
Problem: Given that "Hammer Smashed Face" is only a song (i.e. not album) and "The Bleeding" is the name of both an album and a song, and with nothing distinguishing the two rulings in terms of format, it could be seen as unclear whether or not the whole album "The Bleeding", as opposed to just the song of the same name, is also banned. But this is a government thing, so I'd almost bet the album is banned, if it were to ever become an issue.
In summary, the only music from the band Cannibal Corpse to be official banned in the country of New Zealand is the song "Hammer Smashed Face" and the song and/or album "The Bleeding".
Funny, 'cos "Hammer Smashed Face" is probably the more requested 'Corpse song, to date, on the show.. although the official terminology is: Objectionable material is banned - it is illegal to possess, own, sell, hire, give or buy an objectionable publication. So, hypothetically, if I had any banned songs, it looks like I would get in trouble for possessing them, but not broadcasting them over the radio waves & internet streaming and podcasting...
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