It would seem that the COVID scare is over. Right? Local, state and federal officials are ending states of COVID emergency everywhere. It’s becoming practically more common to spot someone wearing a ski mask and robbing a bank than it is to encounter a person wearing a face mask.
Slowly but surely, the pandemic is apparently ebbing away, becoming less of a public concern—but still leaving a nightmarish legacy in its wake.
Musicians, artists, medical providers, teachers, librarians, and first responders were among those hardest hit by the pandemic and its ramifications. And while most would surely agree that the COVID crisis is over, many of those same individuals would probably say, “Except …”
Except… let’s not forget the 1.1 million Americans who died from COVID or other health problems that the virus exacerbated. Corporate America cynically exploited consumers amid the chaos, jacking up grocery prices to sickening levels well over the rate of inflation.
COVID seriously messed with not just how businesses operate but how musicians and other artists (the vast majority of them independent contractors) do as well. What was essentially a year and a half without concerts in the U.S. squeezed musicians at one of the worst possible times. With bands rarely making money from selling records and instead relying on gigs and merch to make ends meet, if only for a few minutes, their COVID hell was especially torturous.
In late 2021, authorities started easing restrictions that would allow for live music performances in the U.S. and help facilitate bands from other countries to play here. Uncertainty still followed everyone, everywhere, all the time—like the cloud of dirt that perpetually hangs over Pig Pen in Peanuts.
In light of the mood across the country at that time, it seemed opportune to check in with bands and learn how hard COVID was hitting them—even if they hadn’t contracted the virus or knew many who had. Also, since the pandemic had a global scope, we assumed a similar point of view and touched base with artists from roughly countries around the world.
Had we waited until after the pandemic had more severely subsided to talk with musicians about their experiences, we probably would’ve received a lot of unreliable information that had congealed post-emergency. After all, if you don’t get 2020 and 2021, or 2021 and 2022, confused at least sometimes, you are probably a supercomputer.
The first installment in our COVID Chronicles series puts the spotlight on British extreme-metal gods Carcass. We came to find out that the pandemic did quite a number on the band consisting of lead vocalist and bassist Jeff Walker, guitarist Bill Steer and drummer Daniel Wilding.
In October 2021, we talked with Walker from his home in Liverpool, England. While pleased with the band’s first new studio record in eight years, Torn Arteries (Nuclear Blast), Walker also revealed the extent to which COVID decimated promotional plans and tours supporting the record. (In fact, Carcass are still making up for lost time, currently supporting Torn Arteries with shows until at least mid-August of 2023.)
Our conversation is below.
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No one in their right mind—and it’s debatable whether anyone who digs technically proficient schizophrenics Carcass is in their right mind—would begrudge Jeff Walker and his mates Bill Steer (guitar) and Daniel Wilding (drums) for squeezing Torn Arteries to a pulp. A bloody pulp, as they’d blasphemously say in Carcass’ merry olde homeland of Liverpool (also home to the Beatles!).
Not only did Torn Arteries end an eight-year drought of studio full-lengths for Carcass, but it amassed even more accolades for a band whose trophy shelves were already buckling. Along with 2013’s Surgical Steel, Carcass’ two “new records” following their 10-year breakup cemented their status as one of the most important underground metal bands of all time.
At long last, the trio will reach the light at the end of the tunnel of their current U.S. tour on April 30, with a Los Angeles gig also featuring their current road dogs Municipal Waste, Sacred Reich and Creeping Death. After that, the band—which originated in 1985—will then slog across Europe until the cows come home. Cows, mind you, that will not have meat torn from their carcasses, as Walker and Steer are vegetarians.
New Noise had the distinct pleasure of engaging in a lengthy conversation with Walker, one of metal’s most worshipped guitarists, around the release of Torn Arteries. At the time of the exchange, Carcass’ record was still fresh, Walker’s sense of humor as wry as ever, and the band’s near-ceaseless touring plans off in the distance. Here is the document of our conversation with Walker (who just celebrated his 54th birthday last month).
It’s a pleasure speaking with you again, Jeff. My notes from the last time we spoke said you’re one of the funniest musicians I’ve ever interviewed.
Well, don’t be expecting too much this evening.
Haha, I won’t. But I am eager to talk with you about Torn Arteries, which is on my list of top 10 albums of the year.
Boy, it must’ve been a lean year. Or maybe I’m getting ahead of myself and your list is of the top 10 worst albums of the year?
Teeing off, to what extent was it relieving to finally release the album, due to the delay with the pandemic? Or did you just want to get the damn thing out?
It was like a damp firework. Bit of a non-event, to be honest. I’m somewhat kidding, but as you get older and have put out so many releases, you get a bit blasé about it. It’s not the same as when you’re a teenager, and it’s your first record. “Eh, it’s another one.” I’ve gotta be honest: I wasn’t that excited.
As you get older, is it more challenging to get yourself into the studio to record? Eight years elapsed between Surgical Steel and Torn Arteries, which is the longest span between studio albums for Carcass—even when you were broken up—right?
There actually was a bigger gap between (1996’s) Swansong and Surgical Steel. Then we had a year forced on us because of the pandemic. It wasn’t a case of us avoiding the studio, we were just so busy touring. It took about a year, on and off, to get the album recorded. We never blocked off a studio booking. We were doing it in between other sessions.
The drums were done in November or December 2018, maybe. Then we built up all the guitars in ’19, probably finished recording (later that year); then it was ready to go at the beginning of 2020. And then the pandemic came along and scuttled our plans.
So the real gap between albums was more like five-and-a-half years. Every time we would decide to take some time off and do an album, we’d get offered some (tour dates). I recall we were going to try to record the album [in 2016], but then we got offered the Slayer tour in North America, and you can’t turn down offers like that.
The problem is, you get old, and time just flies by. There just doesn’t seem to be enough minutes in the day, weeks in the month, and months in the year anymore.
It’s funny; Gojira told me the same thing: They were about to record a new album, and then a Metallica offer came in. Would you have recorded those video clips on YouTube building up to the release of Torn Arteries had you known there would then be downtime with the pandemic?
Nah, (Nuclear Blast) did something similar before Surgical Steel. Labels nowadays have a hard-on for social media, so they’re all about video clips to engage the audience. We’ve got more of an aging demographic; they’re not kids who are glued to—I was about to say MySpace, showing my age—Facebook or Instagram. I’m not sure the Carcass demographic is watching that stuff.
I’m old-school. I still think there’s magazines out there that people read! I’m obviously wrong, though.
You’ve said this record stands on its own from past Carcass releases, both in terms of sound and style. To what extent do you consider each Carcass album to be a product of its time?
Did I say that? It sounds too positive for me.
Yeah, each album sounds like a product of its time, sounds different. It’s the nature of the beast, isn’t it? This was an album that was recorded in 2019, and we tried to make it sound as organic as possible. We didn’t record it to tape, which can be a negative or positive thing. We tried to make it sound as lively and realistic as possible.
In some ways, it’s good and bad. If you listen to an album like this on your laptop or YouTube or something, it doesn’t stack as well against some other stuff—or even Surgical Steel. I’m not saying (Torn Arteries) is sonically inferior; we didn’t cynically mix it for the digital age, if you see what I’m saying. We mixed it under the assumption that people still have hi-fidelity stereos and good speakers.
In some respects, we weren’t clever and shouldn’t have done that. We should’ve just mixed it to sound great on shitty speakers! But we didn’t. We’re old-school in that way. We mixed it for ourselves, because we have pretty decent speakers at home. If we were more cynical, we would’ve mixed it with more samples and sound replacements, because that stuff cuts better through laptops or pods… headphone sets… whatever they call those things.
A lot of movie directors insist on audiences going to the theaters to truly experience how their film was intended to be. Do you feel that way about the vinyl edition of Torn Arteries, like you’re not getting the full impact of the record unless you get that version of the album?
I think it would be a bit rich of me to insist on that. The only record player I have doesn’t work anymore. The belt’s broken, I think. I really don’t listen to vinyl, in all honesty. I’m pretty sure Dan doesn’t. Bill’s a vinyl purist. I’m not that snobbish about it. We’re definitely about the physical medium, because that’s where our sales [come from], but however people consume it, there will be a batch of people who listen to it on good speakers.
I think metal fans are pretty clued up a lot of the time. But I think younger people aren’t really that interested in hi-fidelity. They’re used to shitty PC speakers. Sometimes I’ll see some criticism of this new album because to some people, it sounds muddy. People are so accustomed now to things that are very digitized and have sound-replaced stuff and not live drums or live guitars, basically. They plug guitars into a laptop and an emulator.
Maybe it’s better for people to just come see the band live!
There you go. Given that you haven’t been able to tour for a while, was it hard to gauge how people were reacting to your new material?
Well, yes and no. I avoid reading reviews because they can be annoying. Even good reviews can be irritating at times when people like it for the wrong reason. In all honestly, Surgical Steel did about 8,000 copies in America in its first week, and (Torn Arteries) did about 6,000. On some level, that might sound like it’s done worse than the last album, but we’ve got to keep it in the context that it’s been seven years since the last album, and that physical sales are all in decline. I thought it’d sell only about 3,000 copies.
Acquaintances or peers have contacted me—like (engineer) Stanley (Soares), who does the sound for Megadeth. I hadn’t spoken to the guy in years, but he sent me a message on Facebook saying he loves the new album. It was like, “Wow.” Because he’s not just saying that. He’s a friend, and I know him. I’ve had people like that come out of the woodwork and congratulate me on the album, and that’s priceless. It’s great that it’s resonated with people on that level. I can gauge whether it’s good or bad based on that.
To what extent has the strong positive reactions to Surgical Steel and this record surprised you after you guys broke up for a while? Did you make any changes to Carcass as an entity?
I still think, for a lot of people, it’s a nostalgia thing. It resonates on that level because it reminds them of the ’90s or something. It sounds like Carcass, and we disappeared for a while. There’s still a big element of that.
I’m kind of uncomfortable in a way, because I thought (with) this new album, there’d be more of a backlash. (Surgical Steel) was so well-received; it was almost embarrassing. Decibel put it as their album of the year, and I know Albert (Mudrian) quite well, but it looked like a sycophantic (move) on his part. But then he said… it was voted on by the journalistic staff there as their favorite.
In this life, as you know, people build you up and knock you down. Lightning never seems to strike twice. So I was expecting a bit of pushback (with Torn Arteries), regardless of how strong the material is or isn’t. But it just doesn’t seem to be there. And that’s cool.
Going back to what you said earlier, yes, it is hard to gauge what’s going on when we’re not touring or playing live. In a way, it feels like the album got released, we did some interviews, and then it fizzled out.
What kind of a backlash were you expecting, or what elements of the record did you think might cause one?
I don’t think it would matter how strong or weak the material is. It’s just the nature of people to not let others have any success. In my cynicism, I figured people wouldn’t pour much love on us this time, because they poured on so much last time.
For me, for some of (the praise) on (Surgical Steel), I don’t think it was deserved. And this time, I don’t think some of it is deserved. But it’s really not for me to judge, either—Just deliver the goods, and let other people absorb and enjoy it as they will.
There’s no specific reason I thought there’d be a backlash. I just figured your luck doesn’t last that long.
Going into the making of Torn Arteries, did you have specific creative ideas that you wanted to execute? Or did it just evolve on its own, over the long period of time it took to record?
A few pieces fell into place, and a lot of its was accidental—as with most of the things that happen with Carcass. There was no big, grand plan. We didn’t know who we were going to use as a producer, where we were going to record it. We basically started with Daniel doing the drums in a certain studio in Sweden that he liked (Studio Gröndahl). Bill wanted to do the guitars with his friend in Leeds, so he did the guitars there. It was patchy. There was no big grand design. It just fell into place.
What spurred you to make a new album anyway? Was it having the wind at your back after the strong reception that Surgical Steel garnered?
Part of it was that. But it was just a given. It wasn’t even something we discussed. We just started playing and touring. If you’re going to continue as a legitimate band, it’s what you do, innit? You make records and you tour. We never discussed stopping. So, if the band was going to continue, we needed to justify our existence. Bill had some material, so we just kind of did it. There was no strong motive or plan about it—We just fell into it, I guess.
Did you rediscover a joy for Carcass’ sound that lured you out of retirement? Were you bored?
(Surgical Steel) was so successful, it just propelled us along. We never stopped playing or doing cool gigs or tours. The trajectory just seemed to be going up. Maybe we’re sliding down now, I dunno.
With the long span between starting the record and getting it to fans, were you tempted to revisit some of the earlier ideas you laid down for the album and change them? Or did you stick with what you had the whole way through?
We just stuck with what we had. At some point, you have to put these things to bed and stop messing with them. We recorded (Torn Arteries) over nearly a year anyway, so we spent enough time on it. At some point, you gotta let go.
When I listen to it, sometimes I think we should’ve done this or that differently. But in all honesty, they’re just tiny things that don’t affect the overall sound or impacted the songs. So it’s irrelevant. You can only put so much icing and sugar on these things; the crux of the songs are there, and tiny embellishments aren’t going to make or break it. We sometimes wondered if doing something would sell even a single more copy of the album, but nine times out of 10, the answer was no.
You mentioned the word “crux.” Was there a point during the creation or recording of Torn Arteries that you found the crux of the album? Did you crack it and know what it was going to be about?
Only when it was completed, I think. Once we’d sequenced the tracks. If it had been up to me, I would’ve swapped some of the songs on the album with some of the songs on (October 2020’s Despicable) EP. But like everything, these things are a democracy—which reinforces my idea that a democracy doesn’t work. It is what it is. Everyone has a say. There’s not one person who’s in charge.
The material on the EP was recorded at the same time as (Torn Arteries). I would’ve been happy just putting out a double-album!
What does Torn Arteries accomplish best?
Well, it’s not our worst album. And I’m not sure it’s our best album. It achieves all the lauding and praise that people were prepared to give it.
It’s hard for me to be that close to it. I just deliver it and let other people decide how they view it. I’d be too much of a narcissist if I were to play the album every day and say to myself that I love it. Maybe I’ve already moved on.
Are there any ways in which Torn Arteries captures the true essence of Carcass, especially because you named it after an old demo that your former drummer Ken Owen recorded?
This album has a lot of hard-rock influences, so maybe this is our “hard-rock album,” and maybe Surgical Steel was our “thrash album.” Which is a joke, of course, because there’s still high velocity and violent stuff on there and blast beats. But there’s a lot of rock influences.
I’ve read some people compare this album to Swansong, which is ridiculous. This album is more “real” rock, in parts.
Do you perceive the two reunion albums and EP to be a triptych in any way?
Well, the EP was a stopgap, because we knew (Torn Arteries) wasn’t going to get (delayed). Otherwise, we might’ve released the album and then the EP.
Last time we spoke, former guitarist Tom Draper had recently joined the band. Was him playing on Torn Arteries ever in the stars?
I would’ve been quite happy with having another lead guitarist on the album, just to mix things up, but Bill—rightly—wasn’t happy about that. It’s too much risk to bring someone into the recording process when you don’t know what the future holds. You don’t know how things are going to pan out.
As it stands, Draper’s got such an issue with his work visa situation in the States that he can’t perform with Carcass, and he probably can’t perform with any band, till his green card comes through. That process hasn’t even started. So he’s backed himself into a really crappy situation where he’s a musician and a performer, and he can’t do either anymore. He moved to the States with his wife, who has a job out there, and pursuing the green card… He’s also in limbo because of the government shutdowns and the pandemic slowed everything. He’s in a crappy situation.
Speaking of touring, are you starting to plot an itinerary?
As far as the States are concerned… we were meant to tour last year supporting a band. And that got postponed to this year, which now isn’t happening, so it got pushed to next year. We’re not in a position to announce our tour plans yet, but we’ll be supporting a bigger band. (Ed: That bigger band turned out to be Amon Amarth, with whom Carcass toured America last fall.) Then we have festivals and European tour dates that got postponed.
The pandemic is still shitty. I’m not about to throw my lot in and tour, with all the stops and starts.
By my count, you played 324 shows and toured for almost seven years, from April 2013 to February 2020, in support of Surgical Steel.
I’m glad you’re counting! That’s quite lazy, is that all we did? In six years?
Do you see any prospect for touring as long behind Torn Arteries?
We’ve had so much time off, I guess we have to make up for it now. We just get offered cool things, and we do it. There’s really no master plan. But once you’ve paid for a U.S. visa, you’ve got to get your money’s worth out of it. Those things aren’t cheap anymore.
The result of Trump’s policies dealing with immigration is that the processing departments for work visas are underfunded now, because not enough people can apply for visas, which would generate the income for that part of the federal government. So you can see what the Catch-22 is: Because they’re not processing enough immigration, the budget has disappeared—and that’s a direct result of Trump. And I’m not ragging on Trump here. But when we get a U.S. visa, we milk it.
Last question: Who is the smart-ass who came up with the idea of creating a dinnerware set for the boxed version of Torn Arteries?
I sent that to the label as a joke, and they ran with it!
Photo courtesy of Carcass
