Carcass - Torn Arteries Review

Please my dear fan fan of the old school putrid rotten Carcass of the beginning of career do not weep. It’s not today that you’ll Carcass make a return to the good old days. “Torn Arteries” isn’t a comeback to this era not a little bit. In fact, to be really frank, there is nothing in here that reminds that era. On the contrary, the album is a following of the controvertial, but yet, masterpiece “Heartwork,” an album that shaped and defined what Melodic Death Metal would be. I don’t really know if the guys from Carcass have the exact notion of the monster they created, but it gets so clear with the album that they did like what they saw. “Torn Arteries” delivers not only some Melodic Death Metal, it is the perfect definition of Melodic Death Metal for the best and for the worst. Besides being the end of a hiatus of about eight yers of no full-length release.

Opening and tittle act “Torn Arteries” may deceive the eager fan as it sounds as if the butchery is about to come and Carcass would return to their years of rotten and gore act. “Torn Arteries” is fast, powerfull and full of the Death Metal features the band helped build years ago. But make no mistake the real soul of Carcass may stand now with the following track “Dance Of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No. 1 In B) ADM” – wow, what a long and enigmatic name – which is the perfect image of the music the band likes now with some swing, some evil cadence and, the better, the inspired and precise guitar interventions made by Bill Steer and Tom Draper whose guitar solos are much more than the up and down major (or minor or exotic) scales, they are inspired and, wow, sometimes they use the underestimate but perfect pentatonic. Pay attention to the guitar solos in each track. They recover the healthy tradition of playing slow phrasing thinking on each note to be played. That’s really something out of the box in these days of scalating up and down in the speed of light and no emotion and nothing else. Third and fourth tracks “Eleanor Rigor Mortis” and “Under the Scalpel Blade” may surprise the fan a little more if it is possible, but Carcass really know how to do it, with their Thrash Metal cadence and some jazzy guitar phrasing. Both tracks are cadenced in a way only Thrash Metal bands can do it. Pretty far from what the band used to do, isn’t it? I guess the old school Carcass fan might have stopped the listening right now or even earlier. If not the intro to “The Devil Rides Out” might complete the work. The track is a kind of continuation of what the band did in “Heartwork” with its ols school Heavy Metal instrumental with a mild gutural vocals. But the guitars… Ah, the guitars.

In 1993 “Heartwork” shook the world with what would be called years later as Melodic Death Metal. I dare to say it’s an album that is so influential as Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” Judas Priest’s “Sad Wings of Destiny,” Iron Maiden’s “Iron Maiden,” Venom’s “Black Metal” and a few others in the history of our beloved Heavy Metal. Twenty-eight years laters the album meets its heritage with “Torn Arteries” which for some may be as inspired as. “Torn Arteries” isn’t perfect because “Heartwork” came before. When I received the email telling that “Torn Arteries” was available I rushed to download it and to listen to it eagerly. I was certain that whichever was the result I would be happy and satisfied because the band maintained the loyalty to the subgenre of Metal they helped creating and shaping. Here I redeem myself for not loving Carcass before “Heartwork.” Well, I guess there is no need for redemption, isn’t there?