Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel

Carcass made a more than amazing comeback in 2013 with the refreshing Surgical Steel album. An album which truly grasped the old origins of punk and thrash which, back in the eighties, were an important part of the early Carcass sound. Because without thrash (and consequently punk) grindcore would never have existed in the first place. With Surgical Steel Carcass brought back their punkish influences and attitude they left behind during their slicker days of Heartwork and Swansong. Surgical Steel was balancing between Necroticism and Heartwork but with a huge extra doses of punky thrash thrown in.

And that is were the songs that did not make the album fall short. Listening to these tunes it becomes clear pretty quickly why they did not fit on the album. What we have here are 4 songs (not including the obsolete '1985' reprise) which have a different feeling altogether. 4 songs which are reminiscent of the era between Heartwork and Swansong. What if the band had released an EP somewhere in 1994? Chances are big it would’ve sounded quite like this ‘Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel’ release.

The majority are not bad songs per sé but they are meandering slow tunes and picking up the pace on the second half of ‘Intensive Battery Brooding’ is not enough to give this EP a more energetic attitude. The quality of the material decreases which each song as well, the first two being the most ‘decent’ ones, third song 'Zochrot' being a dull death-n-roll tune and ‘Livestock Marketplace’ a quite horrible snoozer with a ‘melodic’ chorus which might appeal to Amon Amarth kids but does not suit the grandeur of Carcass and their history in any way. It's as if Nuclear Blast asked the band to write an 'epic' tune within the boundaries of the Carcass sound to appeal to the new generation of adolescent fans with recently (read: in the last 2-5 years) grown beards. ‘Livestock Marketplace’ is a godawful song.

No, it must be said, when it became known that Carcass were to release a new album, most people feared they couldn’t pull it off to release anything close, in terms of quality, to their first three albums. We feared the band would release an ‘old mans album’ of slow material filled with songs like on this little EP. Forget this EP, quickly, put back on Surgical Steel.

Let’s hope the next full length Carcass album continues the energetic pace of Surgical Steel and not this tame heap of middle of the road death metal. I'm blasting 'The Master Butcher's Apron' and 'Fermenting Innards' again to get this taste from my mouth