After a eight long year gap of 2013’s Surgical Steel, England’s longtime veterans Carcass are back and this time around they’ve created the most important, iconic and memorable albums in extreme metal history. From the earliest stages of their goregrind and grindcore days of albums such as Reek of Putrefaction and my favorite being Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious, to when they started to abandon the genres and ultimately created a huge change in their sound being 1993’s Heartwork which is purely melodic death metal, Carcass were one of the pioneers to not only be a huge inspiration amongst many fans and bands, but the foundation and influence for artists in the goregrind, deathgrind and grindcore bands have to be given major credit for all the amazing contributions and efforts they’ve created for fans. Now, Torn Arteries is the latest offering into the band’s wonderful embodiment of work and for a album like this, this is the meanest, diverse, experimented and polished sounding albums Carcass has done in the modern-day era of extreme metal.
Now, Carcass not only is a huge household name for all the musical abilities and dynamics they’ve brought to the community, but I truly feel that Carcass are a band that’s been around since 1986 was a band that never sounded like them before and therefore, I have to give a standing ovation for their hard-working efforts and musicianship to make every album sounding dynamic and consistent as possible. Released on Nuclear Blast Records, Torn Arteries is a album showcasing emotion, character and informing the listener that they’ve still continuously made some astonishing pieces of music that is everlasting and the quality on the album speaks for itself. Everything from the vocals, guitars, bass work, drums, production, songwriting Carcass surely knew what they were achieving back in the day and now in 2021, Carcass’s ability to make extreme metal sounding as contemporary and modernized all these years makes Carcass one of the most well-being and legacy artists in extreme metal history.
Torn Arteries is simply put, an embodiment for death metal music and its simply a work of art with musicianship being the biggest highlight of the record. Even when you hear songs such as Wake Up and Smell the Carcass / Caveat Emptor, Eleanor Rigor Mortis and the punishing track of Dance of IXTAB (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No.1 in B), have shorter length of song duration but don’t let it fool on you because the way this band utilized their formula is simply put, astonishing. Even on the seconds half of this album truly shines where the songs Kelly’s Meat Emporium and the epic 9 in a half minute banger of Flesh Ripping Torment Limited is highly full of energy, dynamic intensities and doesn’t overstay its welcome by all means necessary. They’ve taken the best aspects from The Interstice, mashed it altogether to create death metal nastiness and creative instrumentals to showcase the band’s side for many different genres all in one album is fantastic. The production, vocals, guitars, bass, drums and everything provided to the album’s listening experience is nothing but amazing.
While some songs do contain melodicism and technical proficiencies, this is a album that is surely gonna be worth mentioning in the 2020’s decade of extreme metal. Torn Arteries is going to be special many years down the road for extreme music fans and if you were impressed with Surgical Steel, this is an absolute must listen and one of my favorite albums of the year.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
