Tag: Carcass

2021 Best of Metal: #9 Carcass-Torn Arteries

Origin: Liverpool, England

Release date: 9/17/2021

Personnel: Jeff Walker-vox/bass, Bill Steer-guitar, Daniel Wilding-drums

The wait was well worth it for this one. Torn Arteries was supposed to be a 2020 release, but the band pushed the release date back to 2021 due to pandemic issues. Don’t let the bright and shiny veggie heart album cover fool you. The godfathers of gore have delivered another slab of sonic putrefication (said bright and shiny veggies are pictured in an appropriate state of decay on the inside of the album liner). They even pay homage once again to their fellow Liverpudlians with Eleanor Rigor Mortis. Seems appropriate with all The Beatles hoopla of late.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

9. Carcass-Torn Arteries
10. Omnium Gatherum-Origin
11. Be’Lakor-Coherence
12. Hooded Menace-The Tritonus Bell
13. Quicksand-Distant Populations
14. Harakiri For the Sky-Maere
15. Converge and Chelsea Wolfe-Bloodmoon: I
16. At The Gates-The Nightmare of Being
17. The Vintage Caravan-Monuments
18. Nervosa-Perpetual Chaos
19. Baest-Necro Sapiens
20. Agrypnie-Metamorphosis

Carcass-Torn Arteries

Finally. Feels like we should have already had this album in our grubby little hands for a year at this point. This was was in the can last year, but was put on hold due to the pandemic. Instead, they put out the Despicable EP as a tide-me-over until the proper album could be released.

It’s been quite a wait for them to follow up the stellar comeback album, Surgical Steel. This latest release doesn’t have quite the ferocity of the prior release, but it is right there in terms of quality. Feels more like a mid-tempo thrasher on this one rather than the all-out blitzkrieg of Surgical. Subject matter is the technical surgery-flavored splatter-fest you’ve come to expect out of these dudes. Song titles again are among the best in the business (Eleanor Rigor Mortis, Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment Limited, Kelly’s Meat Emporium, Wake Up and Smell the Carcass). Bill Steer still remains one of the unsung guitar heroes in metal. He just manages to come up with creative riff after creative riff.

And how’s that for a different sort of album cover. It’s not everyday we get a sculpture for an album cover; let alone one made up of veggies. Rest assured, by the time you make it to the end of the liner notes, the veggie heart has decayed into a putrid, blackened mess.

This is just a classic thrashy death metal album. One designed to be played loud and to definitely annoy the neighbors.

4 flip flops out of 5