When an artist or band with a highly regarded and fully established catalog decides to call it quits, it becomes heavily controversial among fans, if they decide to make a comeback down the road. Depending on how long the band will take to actually make a comeback, if ever, either fans will expect too much and be highly disappointed, or find themselves underwhelmed with what they get even if they do happen to enjoy it. For a band like Carcass, a massively influential extreme metal act from England known for pioneering their sound, this becomes highly critical. Having been absent from the music industry for almost 18 years, they released their comeback album Surgical Steel just last week on September 17. Needless to say, it does not disappoint.
Any convinced fan of the band’s earlier output should know exactly what to expect from the album: melodic but hugely aggressive music. But this time, everything is cranked up a few notches. Since Carcass’ last album was released way back in 1996, production quality of music has gotten clearer, more polished, and overall better. The modern production gives the album a sound the band hadn’t previously been capable of recording in a studio, making for a much bigger-sounding release, and a milestone in the band’s history.
The songs on the album range from relatively long, to reasonably short. The shortest song (if you don’t count the intro track “1985”) is “Thrasher’s Abattoir”, which is 9 seconds short of 2 minutes in length. The longest song is the closing track, entitled “Mount of Execution”, which is just over 8 minutes in length. As for the actual sound of the album, if you love extreme music, you will be in for a joyride.
Vocalist Jeff Walker still sounds just as good as he did over a decade ago, belting out growls that remain intelligible while still desensitizing the listener with his signature deceitful anger that spawned numerous copycats in the metal scene when Carcass were active back in their heyday. Giving this album a listen, it’s no wonder he is still stated to do it better than everyone else. His vocals compliment the music by following each track with a distinct vocal rhythm and multiple pitches. There is no melodic singing present, which will be off-putting for those not used to the band’s style.
Aside from technical terms, describing this album is nearly impossible. It is crafted in such a way that you must hear it for yourself to experience how great it is. All that needs to be said, has been said. This isn’t just the best album Carcass has ever made. It’s arguably the best metal album of 2013. If you are tired of the over-saturation of breakdowns and generic songwriting, but you still want something incredibly hard-hitting, you must own this.
