Carcass – Torn Arteries (2021)

The Carcass guys never wanted to be grindcore; they wanted to be guitar fireworks speed metal, and on this album, they stick to roughly where they were on Heartwork: fast and intricate speed metal and power metal riffs based on established patterns with an ear for melody but linear development.

Torn Arteries will not appeal to the fans of the first two Carcass albums, only the first of which seems really relevant from the eyepiece of history, but if you wanted a version of Heartwork with more of the rock-n-roll flash and guitar megalomaniac pyrotechnics of Swansong, this album has both with a bit more energy.

Songs build up from a short, punchy intro to a verse-chorus riff loop with rhythmic breaks for guitar flare or drum fills to keep things moving along. None of this seems terrible, but none is particularly compelling either, since it feels almost like a nostalgic tribute to a past that did not exist.

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19 thoughts on “Carcass – Torn Arteries (2021)”

  1. Poser Rapist says:

    CARCASS SHOULD BE RAPED!!!

    1. I find myself listening to very little after Reek of Putrefaction, but that first album is gold.

      1. T Malm says:

        Hey Brett, my comments aren’t showing up. Is it because I called you heterosexual?

          1. T Malm says:

            Nothing particularly important, I said something about the Sammath preview being lackluster, Slayer remasters, and that despite rumors to the contrary you’re actually a deeply closeted heterosexual man. Just wondering if I’d enraged you somehow.

            1. Found three of them in the spam trap. I’m the last stage in an automated process, and often things do not get to me before the system tosses them in the circular file.

              1. Robert says:

                Brett, what do you think of the band, Iniquity?

              2. T Malm says:

                I see that, thanks.

                Also Iniquity is great.

            2. Hardcore Gay ANal Sextbot says:

              Sammath have absolutely fucking horrible vocals on their newer one, not that something industry standard and stock would be better but they don’t inspire repeated listening.

      2. N Word Scissor Hands says:

        what are your thoughts on symphonies of sickness? I used to love that album. I gave it a re-listen a few weeks ago for the first time in years and it seems to have not aged well. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for it’s tongue-in-cheek stylings though….

        1. Last time I listened to Symphonies of Sickness, I found myself putting Reek of Putrefaction (mid-1990s sterile re-issue) into the player instead. I think Carcass were surrounded by toxic people who convinced them to turn the humor inherent in their work into the main point of their work, at which point irony took over, and then without self-respect, Carcass had no path except to become shredding instrumentalists making tongue-in-cheek hard rock.

          1. Large Throbbing Veiny Rectum With Eyeliner and Cigar says:

            I had the budget reissue that had both albums on one CD so I never really thought of them as two separate works growing up with it, just an album that gradually got better as it went along.

  2. Fckk Godl says:

    Carcass had one A- album (Reek) and one B/B+ album (Symphonies). After that they turned into a joke. Thoughts on https://youtu.be/b6ApRAEjHnY

    1. Looking back, I think fondly of Heartwork, which is not bad, but really, only that first album is compelling now.

      1. Arsepuss says:

        Heartwork isn’t bad if you accept it for what it is. Necroticism is the same way. Symphonies is my favorite Carcass album.

      2. Fisted With Creamed Gheezus says:

        Years of worthless late 90s and 00s euro grind and the Carcass clone era of US death metal and punkish/grind in the early 00s has all but covered up and buried just how original and awesome their low/high vocal dynamics with pitch shifted parts that sounded like the glops of rotting guts and corpses was coming to life and doing vocals as well. It was so evocative, when I was a teen and weed had more psychoactive effects I could envision that when I’d sit back and close my eyes while listening to Reek. I spent hours drawing demonic gore battle landscapes to their first two albums, I’m still looking for metal that takes you on a journey but I don’t think that experience is going to happen again.

        1. 1983 says:

          Ive pretty much just been listening to the same shit for 20 years because I found all the stuff I like within the first couple years and Reek is one of those albums.

          Lately though I have been digging the carcass/bolt thrower disc of grind madness at the BBC.

          I don’t give a fuck about anything after necroticism

      3. RDS says:

        Wholeheartedly agree with this statement

  3. Glibert says:

    Swansong post era R.I.P

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