Kev Rowland Seven years ago, I was fortunate to see one of the mightiest pairings ever at a metal gig, namely Carcass supporting Napalm Death, a line-up I never thought I would see in New Zealand. Most of the world see Shane Embury as the godfather of grindcore (and rightfully so), but on the stage that night there was only one person who had played on the almighty ‘Scum’, and that was of course Bill Steer. Along with co-founder, bassist and singer Jeff Walker, Bill has continued to push Carcass so that 35 years after their creation they are still showing younger bands how to do it. It when this was released in 2021 it was eight years since the excellent ‘Surgical Steel’, since when they and drummer Dan Wilding have been active on the touring front as well as releasing EPs and singles. On this album they were joined by guitarist Tom Draper who had been working with them for a few years but has since left.

What does one expect from Carcass? Melodic death of course, lyrics which often use medical terminology, complex musicianship, and a band who look back at what they have previously achieved yet also want to keep pushing forward. They have a breadth of influences and bring these when they make sense yet also ensure they stay true to their calling. I remember being sent Firebird’s ‘No.3’ to review back in 2003 and I could not believe it was the same Bill Steer as musically it was just so different to what I expected from him. That is still true today as he is an immense and highly influential guitarist who feels no need to stick to the type of solos expected from him if something more traditional is required to fit in with his mindset yet can blast away if that is the right think to do. Walker is as gruff and powerful as ever, uncompromising, and when the band provide the beautiful acoustic introduction to the lengthy “Flesh Ripping Torment Limited” it feels just right before we move into the metal which continues to evolve and twist throughout.

Carcass are a band who continually deliver, both onstage and on vinyl, and long may it continue. For fans of melodic death everywhere.

UMUR "Torn Arteries" is the 7th full-length studio album by UK death metal act Carcass. The album was released through Nuclear Blast in September 2021, almost to the day 8 years after the release of the preceding album "Surgical Steel" from September 2013. Carcass have been quite busy in the intermediate years though, touring the world and trying to profit as much as possible on their long awaited comeback. In addition to touring, the band have also released the "Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel" EP in 2014 and the "Despicable" EP in 2020, so there have been some new material for the fans between the two album releases. "Despicable" (2020) ended up being released as a gap release because Carcass didn´t want to release "Torn Arteries" during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally planned for a summer 2020 release, and the band had already released the teaser single track "Under the Scalpel Blade" in December 2019 to promote the release of the album, but as things turned out, they opted to push the album release little over a year.

"Under the Scalpel Blade" is included on the tracklist of "Torn Arteries", but other than that track, which was both released as an individual single and as part of "Despicable" (2020) (and is an absolutely brilliant track), all other tracks are new original compositions. Stylistically the material are unmistakably the sound of Carcass and you´ll hear elements on the album which will remind you of "Surgical Steel" (2013), but also elements from the three albums released from 1991-1996 ("Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious (1991)", "Heartwork (1993)", and "Swansong (1996)"). Sharp, aggressive, and melodic death metal with both thrash metal and tradtional heavy metal leanings. The lead vocals are predominantly handled by vocalist/bassist Jeff Walker (in his usual raw and aggressive snarling vocal style), which has been the case since the early 90s, but guitarist Bill Steer actually contributes a few of his low growling vocals too a few times during the playing time, and it´s a treat to fans of the early albums.

"Torn Arteries" is probably the most varied Carcass album yet, and stylistically it´s arguably a little inconsistent. When you opt to put a death´n´roll influenced track like "Dance of IXTAB (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No.1 in B)" on the same album as a death metal/goregrind track like "Under the Scalpel Blade" (the 9:42 minutes long "Flesh Ripping Torment Limited" also stands out as a unique song on the album), some listeners are bound to find either the former or the latter most interesting and hoping to hear more of the same, but if we´ve learned anything from Carcass over the years, it´s that they write and release exactly what they feel like witing and releasing. They are not an act who you can count on releasing formulaic albums. So "Torn Arteries" is not necessarily an album which will hook you on first listen. It takes time and an effort to listen to the album and hear all the details and let the different stylistic features sink in. Overall all tracks of course still sound unmistakably like Carcass. The vocals are described above, and the same with the death/thrashy riffs, but the many well played guitar leads and harmonies also deserve a special mention. Steer has again produced many memorable and powerful lead guitar moments.

The album features a darker and more organic sounding production that the more clinical, sharp, and sterile sound production on "Surgical Steel" (2013), and that production choice suits the material on "Torn Arteries" well. Upon conclusion it was worth the wait as "Torn Arteries" is a high quality Carcass album. It´s familiar enough to please the fans, but still features enough development and small experiments with sound and form to keep Carcass relevant. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Vim Fuego “For fuck’s sake, give it here and let me show you how to do it properly!” – Carcass to every other melodic death metal band.

OK, this quote is obviously made up, but this is what “Torn Arteries” feels like Carcass is saying to other bands. After all, Carcass gave them the blueprints back in the early 90s. “Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious” showed societal satire could be combined with glorified gore and head kicking metal. And then with “Heartwork” they threw in huge chunks of unexpected melody, mountainous riffs, and a crystal clear yet distinctly deathly sound, and defined a whole new metal sub-genre. The band then got justifiably pissed off with the music business and fucked off for more than a decade. The creaky old zombie was stitched back together in 2007, and since then seems to be on a fairly relaxed album cycle. It’s been 8 years since “Surgical Steel”, and “Torn Arteries” was well and truly worth the wait.

You see, when it comes to melodic death metal, Carcass focuses on the death metal, and the melody comes second, and not the other way round. This is evident right from the first bars of the first track on the album, also the title track. It has a punishing drum intro and then into the trademark riffs. No samples, no atmospheric fucking about, just foot to the floor metal. Yes, there’s melody, but it’s dialled way back and comes more through lead guitars than vocals. It’s the perfect mix of “Necroticism...” and “Heartwork”, but dragged battered and bleeding into the 21st century.

The humour, both philosophic and comedic, drips from almost every track. “Dance of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No.1 in B)” refers to the Mayan goddess of suicide by hanging. “Eleanor Rigor Mortis” has the fastest intro this band has written since 1991, and thankfully has nothing to do with The Beatles song this title parodies.

“Under The Scalpel Blade” seems to be a pointed examination of the cradle-to-grave medical industrial complex, which profits from pain. “The Devil Rides Out” is an anti-Satanism song, but most definitely isn’t pro-Christian, with some evil, twisted riffs, an outro which could almost be a black metal parody. And then just to fuck with you, the intro to “Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment Limited” is some gentle acoustic picking… and then the song then smashes into full death metal fury, transforming into a near 10 minute epic. Yeah, they nearly went prog here, but kept it interesting.

From a band which seems to have produced masterpiece after masterpiece (consider “Swansong” a minor blip on the radar), and is justifiably said to have produced the best album of their career each time a new disc drops (yes, skip “Swansong” again), Carcass have done it again. Only the most primitive gore freaks who never moved on from the “Reek of Putrefaction” days could be dissatisfied with this album.

“Torn Arteries” takes everything Carcass has created over the past 35 years and distilled it down to the finest essence du mélodique morte métal. No one else is going to do it better than this.

LightningRider I don't normally listen to violent albums, but Carcass's ypical lyrics are just barely under the maximum level of lyrical violence I accept when I listen to a new album. I'm familiar with Heartwork and Necroticism, both of which are almost phenomenal. But this album pretty much just feels like a rehash of all of those strengths. Torn Arteries is pretty much Carcass saying, "this is what we do and even though all our best ideas have been used up, we still have good ideas." To be fair, those strengths are still healthy and apparent, allowing for a great balance between technicality, melody and brutality that Carcass is known for, especially in the longer and more progressive songs like "Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment Limited," but every this this album did was already brutally outdone by Carcass's earlier aforementioned albums. Basically, it's a good album almost strictly for Carcass fans.