This CD has been in my car stereo since
the day that my pre-ordered shiny digipack copy of Surgical Steel
arrived. Every errand, every commute to work, every drive to the
shops it has been on. Shuffled tracks too, so from the openings of
the mainly pointless intro '1985' to the official ending of the track
with the more progressive 'Mount of Extinction' these songs have
haunted me near enough constantly.
I may only be in my car a fraction of
the time but I find my self humming a particular riff or remembering
a particular hook and the feeling is like a relentless Carcass
experience. Not a bad thing most metalheads would argue. The time
from release to review here is substantial, and has made clear that
there might be three reasons why I or any other reviewer worth their
salt could be biased and totally lodge tongues in arses.
Number one: Fan-boy syndrome. I am a
Carcass fan-boy yes, I heard 'Corporal Jigsore Quandary' back when I
was a long-haired responsibility-shunning youngster and that was it
for me. Completely sold, the combination of nasty sounding Death
Metal, Jeff Walker's poisonous vocals and the sheer weight of the
groovy main riff on that one song alone were enough. However the
length of time (about 3 months) has had me question the album over
and over again. The media had reacted very strongly in a positive way
and this made me nervous, hoping the fatal fan-boy (or girl) syndrome
hadn't become an epidemic.
Number two: The fact that this is the
first album in 16 YEARS. Ever since the reunion shows from about
2008, two of which I was lucky to see, there has been a buzz about
the band. A faint hope that on the strength of these performances and
the crowd's overwhelming reactions that there might be new material
on the horizon. Then earlier this year the news dropped like a bomb,
new Carcass album coming this Summer on Nuclear Bast! Then the track
'Captive Bolt Pistol' acted like a 'single' and became available for
streaming as a taster for Surgical Steel. It was extremely
exciting, and you can easily imagine many foolhardy reviewers
experiencing the journalistic equivalent of premature ejaculation,
and giving 'Instant classic', 5 out of 5, album of the month and so
on. (You can't have an instant classic – it needs to stand the test
of time first surely?)
Third and Final Reason: The new
material doesn't suck. That is relief enough to those who have vested
time, money, blood, sweat and tears over the years into being a die
hard Carcass fan. It would easily be enough to trigger a rushed
review and slapped on gold star, but I have resisted temptation.
Terrorizer magazine here in the UK released the track 'Unfit for
Human Consumption' on a recent Fear Candy CD, and I was so close to
letting it all slide. Dignity, integrity and my pure unbiased nature
nearly went out the window. It was such a fast, blood-pumping song
with amazing clear powerful and melodic leads, the lure was mighty
powerful.
After all that, these reasons
dissipate. After 3 months a new singular reason emerges to get
over-excited about this album. Because its freaking amazing!! It
sounds like a Carcass greatest hits but remixed to current standards
of production. Occasionally a riff will sound like it would belong on
either Heartwork or Necroticism, but there are so many
new ideas on here, its more like an amalgamation of the two dragged though a portal to the present day. There is
a melding of the two best (I know still up for debate) albums here.
Raw, intricate, obtuse but groovy death metal fused with super-slick
pulse-pounding melodic metal and it works extremely well.
Many will notice the absence of Michael
Amott on this latest album, but as it stands he is not an integral
part of this band, the duo of Steer and Walker remain strong and
focused enough to write some incredibly infectious material. The
appointment of drummer Dan Wilding seems to be a perfect fit. The
tightness is most profound on songs like 'The Master Butcher's Apron'
with its mighty meaty breakdown after a whirlwind of riffs and blasts
from the outset.
A resurrected British metal institution
is back firing on all cylinders and with deadly surgical precision,
and it just feels great. So many have said how bands like Impaled and
Exhumed are what Carcass would sound like today, had they not split.
Now they wish they sounded like Carcass, back from the dead! Here's
to another great album in an already spectacular line up.
