Starting out as a three-piece, Carcass were one of Earache Records' grindcore flagship and had a huge impact on the birth of so-called goregrind style…
Starting out as a three-piece, Carcass were one of Earache Records' grindcore flagship and had a huge impact on the birth of so-called goregrind style…
In a little under a decade, Carcass did almost everything a band could possibly do with death metal without having to stop calling it death metal. They did grindcore. They did deathgrind. They infused classic death metal with groove, melody and arena-sized ambition, and eventually alt-rock-leaning immediacy with 1996’s Swansong, just as the band came to a close for 11 years…
Ferocious and uncompromising in their execution, Carcass' ability to intricately dissect the innards of death metal, and display them for us to sonically understand has been their point of excellence for over three decades. In December 2019 the band released their first single in over 5 years "Under The Scalpel Blade," followed by a 4 song EP entitled "Despicable" (October 2020), setting a potent precedent for the full length album to come in 2021: "Torn Arteries". With the album title itself referencing an old demo created by original drummer Ken Ownback in the 80’s, "Torn Arteries" sits as a bookend on the modern side of the Carcass discography, connecting directly back to where everything began over 30 years ago. Most will find that the only real struggle when indulging in "Torn Arteries" is fighting the desire to start it over the second it finishes…
Ferocious and uncompromising in their execution, CARCASS’s ability to intricately dissect the innards of death metal, and display them for us to sonically understand has been their point of excellence for over three decades. Last December (2019) the band released their first single in over 5 years “Under The Scalpel Blade,” followed by a 4 song EP entitled Despicable (October 2020), setting a potent precedent for the full length album to come in 2021: TORN ARTERIES. With the album title itself referencing an old demo created by original drummer Ken Ownback in the 80’s, TORN ARTERIES sits as a bookend on the modern side of the CARCASS discography, connecting directly back to where everything began over 30 years ago. “I think as our 7th album, it does stand out from the others both sonically and stylistically,” explains Vocalist and Bassist Jeff Walker. “You can definitely tell that it’s CARCASS; when you drop that needle on the vinyl, when you hear that guitar tone, you can tell it’s Bill Steer, but each album is always a product of its time.” Most will find that the only real struggle when indulging in TORN ARTERIES is fighting the desire to start it over the second it finishes. It covers substantial new ground for a band with such a reputation, while still retaining that addictive, time honoured CARCASS sound that has come to represent the face of true death metal.
An amazing piece of work - a massive eight-disc boxed set that contains every one of Fats Domino's 1949-1962 Imperial waxings. That's a tremendous load of one artist, but the legacy of Domino and his partner Dave Bartholomew is so consistently innovative and infectious that it never grows tiresome for a second. From the clarion call of "The Fat Man," Domino's 1949 debut, to the storming "Dance with Mr. Domino" in 1962, he typified everything charming about Crescent City R&B, his Creole patois and boogie-based piano a non-threatening vehicle for the rise of rock & roll.
Released in conjunction in 2002 with the four-disc box set Walking to New Orleans, as well as three other titles in EMI/Capitol's Crescent City Soul series, The Fats Domino Jukebox: 20 Greatest Hits the Way You Originally Heard Them becomes the definitive single-disc Fats collection on the market nearly by default – it's remastered, it's the one in print, and it has a flawless selection of songs. It's not markedly better than, say, the '90s' definitive Fats compilation, My Blue Heaven, since it has essentially the same track selection and even if the tapes were restored to their originally running speed, the difference is not enough for most ears to notice, but it's still a great collection of some of the greatest music of its time, and it summarizes Domino's peaks excellently. So, if you don't already have a Fats Domino collection, this surely is the one to get.