Carcass - Surgical Steel - guest review

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Carcass - Surgical Steel - guest review

Cover image of the reviewed item
Band
Carcass
Album
Surgical Steel
Style
Melodic death metal
Release date
September 13, 2013
Reviewer
8.0
8.4
Tracklist
01. 1985
02. Thrasher's Abbatoir [feat. Kenneth "Ken" Owen]
03. Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System
04. A Congealed Clot Of Blood
05. The Master Butcher's Apron
06. Noncompliance To ASTM F899-12 Standard
07. The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills
08. Unfit For Human Consumption [feat. Kenneth "Ken" Owen]
09. 316L Grade Surgical Steel
10. Captive Bolt Pistol
11. Mount Of Execution
12. Intensive Battery Brooding [limited Digipak bonus]
Guest review by
Deadmeat
March 30, 2015
17 years have passed since the last Carcass album. In the meantime, the band suffered a lot of problems: 11 years of inactivity, health issues, changes in musical direction for most members, etc. Finally, in 2013 they are back in form with Surgical Steel. The new album is closer to Heartwork compared to the other Carcass albums, which is surely a good thing as Heartwork is one of the best and most important (melodic) death metal albums ever made.

Now let's discuss the album itself. It seems that in Surgical Steel the band has put in more effort than ever. Every detail of the album is perfectly worked. The cover artwork is 100% Carcass, as are the titles and lyrics of the songs which remind the grind era of the band and increase the need to listen to this album for every old school fan. The production of Surgical Steel is also incredible; clean as glass and sharp as steel, very few albums manage to have such a great sound each year.

Speaking of the songs, the band seems to have precisely (or clinically as we are talking about Carcass) worked on the song structures. They give us everything in the right quantity: there is one short instrumental intro, a thrash/grind song ("Thrasher's Abattoir"), a longer song as closer of the album, a short death metal holocaust song ("Captive Bolt Pistol") and a handful of songs with different song structures, enough solos and leads in different parts of the song so you never expect them or get used to them.

"So this could be the death metal album of the year! Why did you give it only an 8?"

Unfortunately, Surgical Steel lacks the most important element to make an album sound special. Aside from taking care of every detail of the album with clinical accuracy, the band musically seems uninspired and without energy. It's like they run out of (great) ideas. As if a great band finally comes to your town, they play a nice setlist, the sound is good, but they are too "cold" on stage without caring for the crowd, soulless. So, the main problem of the album is that while having great song structures and adequate variety there are only a few great riffs, leads or solos as the majority of them are kind of uninspiring.

In conclusion, Surgical Steel is a strong death metal piece, well-produced and well-arranged, from a band with great skills and experience who had everything they wanted to write their music. It's just that something's missing in terms of "musical inspiration" from a band that has done very well on this aspect in the past?
Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 6
Production: 10
Written by Deadmeat | March 30, 2015
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Comments

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Comments: 4 Visited by 89 users
Jaeryd
Nihil's Maw

Posts: 1062
Permalink
30.03.2015 - 09:54
Jaeryd
Nihil's Maw

Posts: 1062


Written by deadone on 30.03.2015 at 02:09

It's interesting you gave performance a 10 and songwriting a 6 as you praise the songwriting but state the performance is "uninspired and without energy". Surely performance would then get a 6 and song writing at least a 7 or 8.

I think he's likening it to a performance, but he's actually talking about the songwriting and musical ideas themselves.
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Deadmeat
Necrobutcher

Posts: 2437
Permalink
30.03.2015 - 13:19
Rating: 8
Deadmeat
Necrobutcher

Posts: 2437


Written by deadone on 30.03.2015 at 02:09

Thanks for a well written review.

It's interesting you gave performance a 10 and songwriting a 6 as you praise the songwriting but state the performance is "uninspired and without energy". Surely performance would then get a 6 and song writing at least a 7 or 8.


Personally I thought the song writing was great (catchy, memorable) and they incorporated some new elements (thrash) whilst mixing older ones together (e.g. comboing elements from different eras). The performance is great - there's a real sense of tongue in cheek and jaded satire in the performance.

Unlike At The Gates whose performance on their latest album seemed cold and unispired to me even though the song writing was ok.

I rated Performance as their abillity to play their songs (accuracy etc) and Songwriting as their abillity to write great songs. So, an uninspired lead would mean that the their songwriting was kinda poor..

Indeed Carcass performance sounds better than At The Gates..
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Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
Contributor

Posts: 5289
Permalink
30.03.2015 - 20:47
Rating: 7
tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
Contributor

Posts: 5289


Nice review. I have never thought of Carcass as grindcore. More melodic death metal to me.
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rekt
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Posts: 92
Permalink
08.04.2015 - 02:17

Posts: 92


I agree with most of the review. The album works very well despite it doesn´t have that "huge" originality. I just would change the rates to other less extreme ones. But wait a minute... we´re talking about Carcass.
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