Album Review : Carcass - Torn Arteries (2021)
Extreme music has always thrived on purity of intent. The faster, angrier and riffier records are, the better they are perceived. The flaw in that logic is obvious: you can only go so far until your music goes from acquired taste to unlistenable. Carcass were one of the first bands to understand this problem when they rolled back on the goregrind sound they pioneered to embrace the nuances of melodic death metal with the now classic Heartwork.
On their first record in eight years Torn Arteries, Carcass demonstrate that you can write the shit out of a death metal record if you know what you’re doing, but that going crazy on riffs, themes and complexity will only lead you so far.
Torn Arteries is the seventh album of Carcass thirty-something years career and the fourth of their melodic death metal era. It is built out of ten rich, complex and guitar-driven songs about a wide array of medicolegal horrors, which is exactly what anyone would’ve expected from a Carcass record. Torn Arteries delivers the riffs and the complexity expected while being almost completely devoid of surprises, innovations or fun, rotten callbacks.
The lead up to Torn Arteries’ release offered two very different singles: the dark and groovy Dance of Ixtab, which could’ve featured on Heartwork and the more traditionally death metal Kelly’s Meat Emporium. It was difficult to know what to expect based on these two songs, but the variety and rage of Carcass’ music is celebrated on Torn Arteries. It’s somewhat of a grab bag of what Jeff Walker and Bill Steer are capable of, which is both good and bad.
It’s good in the sense that songs like Dance of Ixtab, Under the Scalpel Blade and The Devil Rides Out show the creepy, gloomy yet aggressive signature of their glory days and it’s bad in the sense that something the band seems to wonder where exactly they want to go. Some of these songs are excruciatingly long and meandering. I challenge you to listen to Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment Limited and knowing exactly when it starts or ends or what’s going on.
To a certain extent, I don’t think it’s entirely their fault if Torn Arteries doesn’t have the catchy signature hits of yesteryear. Making a death metal record in 2021 and wanting to capture people’s imagination is an extremely difficult task because you’re dealt a limited number of cards to play with. You can either go where you’ve already been and riff salad old ideas or fuse elements of other genres and I think Jeff and Bill couldn’t be bothered.
They wanted to make a record, not redefine what the band is about and in that respect Torn Arteries is a success.
What really defines this record is, I suppose, it’s sense of humor. Carcass never took themselves entirely seriously, but it is more on-the-nose than it’s ever been. A song like Eleanor Rigor Mortis isn’t really dark or menacing, but it kind of confirms their role as the elderly boogeymen who’ll gladly take a piss on sacred grounds. The Arcimboldo inspired heart on the cover is another indication the went full meta on us and that’s cool. It’s a statement.
So, di I like Torn Arteries? Kind of? It felt like a victory lap more than a full-fledged comeback but Jeff Walker and Bill Steer remained true to Carcass’ musical and aesthetic direction. It was fun to heart them again. I would probably choose to listen to Swansong or Heartwork again before revisiting Torn Arteries because these records are just THAT good, but I’ll add a song or two to playlists of mine. Playing death metal in 2021 is a difficult business, folks.
