★★★★★
Comeback albums present some of the trickiest decisions in a band or solo artist's career, primarily because it opens the door for so many questions based on previous efforts. Will the artist present a new sound? Or will the artist try to go back to an old sound to experiment with it some more? What was their original fanbase like, as opposed to now...
- www.sputnikmusic.com
2013-12-04
★★★★★
As time passes by and popular trends cycle and mutate, the internal and external pressure pressed upon respected bands who begin to write music after lengthy sabbaticals increases significantly. This pressure piles up because the chance of a great "comeback" album is about as rare as catching a rational soundbite coming from the mouth of Dave Mustaine these day, and the fruit of the band's labors usually highlights their middle-aged fallibility; consequentially the "comeback" album slots...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-10-18
★★★★★
Carcass have one helluva history and have cemented themselves as one of the premier death metal bands out there. It's only fitting that their new release, Surgical Steel, their first release since they disbanded back in '96, is a brilliant return to form and a worthy addition to their discography. Though it's not quite as good as Necroticism (my personal favorite), it's a well written realization of their unique brand of melodeath and is definitely one of this year's unexpected highlights...
- www.musicreview.co.za
2013-10-11
★★★★★
Surgical Steel is Carcass' first album since reforming in 2007 and follows up on 1996's Swansong. Emerging in the late 1980's from the same watershed Liverpudlian scene as Naplam Death and Godflesh, Carcass are considered innovators and originators within grindcore/death metal. At their peak in the 1990s, they attracted a considerable fan base both in Britain and internationally, not least amongst them being the late John Peel.
This album is a return at full strength...
- www.undertheradar.co.nz
2013-09-25
★★★★★
Assurance that death metal progenitors Carcass are back in full force on new record Surgical Steel starts with the packaging. The cover references their legendary Tools of the Trade EP. Deluxe editions come with an actual surgical kit. They have long hair again in pictures. The whole thing is so damn metal.
But what good are gimmicks without the tunes to back them up...
- www.punknews.org
2013-09-20
★★★★★
While their career initially went out with more of a fizzle than a bang, thanks to the aptly named Swansong (a great collection of rock-orientated songs, but not necessarily the right ones for the group's playing style), Carcass have finally made their much-awaited return after a near two-decade wait...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-09-12
★★★★★
Swansong, the final LP of Carcass' initial run, wasn't much of one. That 1995 album-- on which the pioneering Liverpool band broke definitively with their grindcore roots, opting for a groovier, more hard-rock-oriented sound-- had its moments, but in retrospect, it plays like a period curiosity rather than a worthy cap to one of extreme metal's most impressive evolutions. The band members seem to agree...
- pitchfork.com
2013-09-11
★★★★★
Carcass know how to make a return. "1985," the instrumental opener for this, their first album since 1996's , sends goosebumps all over the ol' cadaver, the Thin Lizzy guitar melodies quickly bashed into oblivion by the amazingly titled "Thrasher's Abbatoir." That track takes the rock smarts of and adds the gore of for the middle ground Carcass promised for their return, but no one knew if they'd deliver...
- exclaim.ca
2013-09-07
★★★★★
"...it feels a little more like transplanting a 'Heartwork' into the larger body of 'Necrotism,' even if that heart is pumping hard." Carcass is a band that has cut a very unique scar into the face of metal. Weaving its way throughout England's 90s scene, the band stood on a knife edge between grind and death metal before launching into both technical feats of medicinal horror in the epic "Necroticism" and pioneering melodic metal in the now orthodox "Heartwork...
- www.metalunderground.com
2013-09-11
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