Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Carcass’ Heartwork is the 100th Album to Enter The Hall of Fame!
Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…
One hundred fucking Hall of Fames. That’s where we’re at now with the induction of Carcass’s Heartwork, which of course is their second plaque, following real-life predecessor Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious (our eighth HOF honoree, a long, long time ago). Raise your hands if you can’t wait for J. Bennett to immortalize Swansong 92 issues from now.
Anyway, everybody knows that Surgical Steel is coming out later this year, and most of you are probably hoping it approximates, well, any combination of the first four records, as opposed to Swansong. Of course, the great thing about Carcass is that they often successfully tinkered with their deathgrind formula before that infamous left-field finale, so odds are whatever hybrid they deliver in 2013 will be of considerable value. We all hope.
Back to Heartwork, though. One of the first things the inimitable Jeff Walker reveals in the HOF feature is: “We took a stylistic cue from Metallica’s “black” [album] and Nirvana’s Nevermind. We tried to make the songs more straight to the point. That sounds ludicrous in print, ’cause I’m not trying to say we were influenced [by] or tried to sound like those bands, but we definitely wanted to cut the crap.” Ambition is good—we’re not judging. Also, it’s fun to learn that the Liverpudlian legends considered Heartwork a product of their shared record collection—Helmet, Vicious Rumors, Wargasm, Pantera—but in a more abstract sense. Read all about it in the June issue. In the interest of never giving this band enough credit, we’ll give Walker the last word on the album title: “Heart. Work. Heartwork. It sounds a bit gay, really.”
The June 2013 issue of Decibel also features Napalm Death, Immolation, Kylesa, Intronaut, and an awesome Cannibal Corpse flexi disc. You can purchase it here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?
