A lot of people love Carcass, and I can understand why, they were easily one of the most influential and talented bands in the brief history of extreme music, but there’s a point when your fanaticism goes too far. Unfortunately, the underground grind scene is overrun by bands trying to be like Carcass if Carcass were to have continued writing in the same style with the same production as Reek Of Putrefaction and Symphonies Of Sickness. Let’s face it, Carcass changed, Carcass improved and then Carcass retired. Don’t get me wrong, I love Carcass, if they were to reform and play a one off show in Iraq, I’d toss on a helmet and flat jacket and make my way to Baghdad, but, Carcass are no more. I can accept that, why can’t all of these other bands accept it too? With that said, my expectations for this release were really low and evenly met. General Surgery are back after a 12 year layoff… sort of. The group currently consists of only one founding member in Grant McWilliams on vocals, and Joacim Carlsson, who joined the group shortly before the first demo recording two years after the band’s inception, on guitars, the rest of the band is all new, so it’s not really the return of General Surgery, just a continuation with completely different members. Musically they stick to the formula of old which was basically; try to sound like Carcass did on Symphonies Of Sickness, and they basically achieve that goal. The production is super muddy with everything pretty much blending together into one wall of noise, but despite their limitations they are able to come across with one great track in "Convivial Corpse Disposal Methodology", but the rest is pretty unmemorable. Had they cleaned up the production a bit, it may have been pretty cool, but, Symphonies sounded like ass when it was released, there was really no reason to keep the same production on a release of a different band 14 years later. Next up is The County Medical Examiners, who play… basically the same style of music, only a bit more in the Reek Of Putrefaction vein, with the same ass production. I love Reek and Symphonies, but you know if the guys in Carcass had their choice, the production of both of those releases would have been infinitely cleaner, more along the lines of what they did on Necroticism and Heartwork, so why live in the past by trying to make your band’s music in the 21st century sound like the crap production from the 80s? If nothing else the gimmick of The County Medical Examiners is pretty amusing, although it does start to worry me when people start speaking of them as though the guys really are medical examiners with a 60 year old bassist. It’s just a new project band of former members of… well, I won’t ruin the surprise for you if you don’t already know. I can see why bands like General Surgery and The County Medical Examiners are popular, because their sound is catered to a very specific fan of two specific releases by a very popular band, but, so many bands are going for that exact same sound and the whole underground grind scene is starting to feel like an Elvis impersonator convention. Yes, Carcass are legendary, groundbreaking musicians, but they’ve split up, and now it’s time to think of new ideas of your own and go in your own musical directions.

Written By: Teufel