Carcass – the legendary death metal band from Liverpool who need no introduction. Or do they? The band have undergone various mutations and shifts in their sound, and have almost always been right at the top of their game; from the seminal, filthy, gory grindcore of their early releases, to the (also) seminal bone crunchingly heavy yet utterly distinctive death metal albums of their later material. They have always known how to write a killer riff, a memorable yet earth-shatteringly heavy song, and have always sounded totally unique.
This EP, however, is not one of those moments. Rather disappointingly, these aren’t 5 fresh, new songs they have penned for dedicated fans who are beside themselves with joy at the re-animation of Carcass. Instead, what we have are 5 songs rejected from the last album (which was excellent in many ways). 5 songs that weren’t good enough for the album, yet for some reason were deemed good enough to release separately. A cynic would say this is a ploy by the record company to make a few extra Euros out of gullible fans who’ll buy anything from the band. Maybe I am being too much of an old grump, but this collection of songs definitely seems sub-par to me. Almost without exception they are extremely mid-paced, if not plodding. I can understand what they may have tried to do here, emphasising groove over speed, however these songs are just way too pedestrian for my liking.
Carcass fans may be thinking `but surely they have the catchiness of later Carcass?’ Not as far as I can see; none of the songs have that berserk rage, explosive riffing and general grisly majesty that is present on most Carcass releases, nor is there the melody and catchiness one would expect either. The only song that comes close is `Zochrot’, yet is still seems uninspired and dull, despite the extra injection of twin guitar harmonies. There are quite a few riffs which sound like cast-offs from a stoner rock band – maybe Bill Steer got carried away with these songs? Firebird’s own material was still way more exciting than this. There are some shining moments though; some truly excellent guitar solos. These alone link this EP to the rest of Carcass’s work. There is no doubt that when the brains behind Carcass put their heads together, they can create pure, crushing metal magic. This EP however, feels much like an afterthought in my opinion.
(6.5/10 Jon Butlin)
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