[Let's show] a generation of kiddies raised on Darkest Hour and the Black Dahlia Murder how we old farts really do shit up in this bitch.

My expectations for band reunions are usually pretty low—like, Van Halen low. My expectations for death metal band reunions are even lower—like, Candlebox low. Sure, the semi-recent rebirths of both Obituary and Suffocation produced a pair of decent records from each. And Morbid Angel’s fence-mending with frontman David Vincent did lead to a Decibel cover story in early 2005. (Uh, how’s that new studio album coming along, dudes?) But it seems that in the past few years everyone who was barely anyone—from Cerebral Fix to Brutality to Resurrection—have, er, resurrected in a dubious attempt to recapture the gory glory and modest payday of the late ’80s/early ’90s death metal eruption.

Our own J. Bennett thoroughly examined this phenomenon with his excellent “Back From the Dead” piece [November ’06, #25] on the pros and cons of metal band reunions, concluding it’s often best to let sleeping corpses lie. Of course all of this talk of “legacy” and “integrity” flew out the fucking window the moment both Carcass and At the Gates—who have each been defunct for over a decade—announced in October that they’d be reforming to play some European summer festivals in 2008. Seriously, this is the kind of news that sends sweatpant boners rising from Tampa to Gothenburg. And yeah, my expectations were um, growing, too.

So why are these reunions so different? Well, beyond the simple satisfaction derived from showing a generation of kiddies raised on Darkest Hour and the Black Dahlia Murder how we old farts really do shit up in this bitch, there’s the obvious nostalgia factor. You know what that means, people: a spike in Choosing Death sales—woo-hoo! Also, I know for certain that Carcass frontman Jeff Walker has been growing his “just in case” hair since 2005. Although I’m having trouble convincing him to bring back the dreadlocks, so I encourage each of you to MySpace message him this demand. Plus, ATG vocalist Tomas Lindberg has personally assured me that “we will be good—promise.” The return of his matted ropes, however, is much less likely.

But whatever—I’m officially psyched.

Now, has anyone got Chris Reifert’s phone number?

 

Death Metal legends CARCASS have announced that they will reunite for Wacken Open Air festival next year, set to run from July 31st to August 2nd. Also on the bill will be KREATOR, IRON MAIDEN, CHILDREN OF BODOM, SONATA ARCTICA and AVANTASIA. Jeff Walker (Bass/vocals) commented:

“Well, they said it would never happen. In fact I said it would never happen. Then I noticed no one pays attention to what I say anyway and I sounded like an idiot…"

"Summer 2008 will be the twentieth anniversary since the release of CARCASS‘ first studio album. It will be fourteen years since we last played live. We’ve decided to exhume the old corpse next Summer at Wacken. The timing is purely coincidental - it’s been a long journey to get to this point where myself, Bill Steer and Mike Amott have enough common desire again to make it possible. We’re finally conceding to the demand that seems to be at an all time high and doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. Any past reasons we may have had for not wanting to do it, or thinking it was impossible, have simply dissipated in the face of overwhelming interest in us performing THOSE riffs for a generation of believers who never had the opportunity back in the day. We could say we’re doing it for ‘the kids’ - but fuck that ! We’re doing it ‘cos it will be fun again to play the classic CARCASS tunes !! Of course it would seem inappropriate for us to contemplate to do this without Ken Owen, but I assure you he’ll be there, and we’ll push some sticks in his hands and make him play, plus we’ll have a killer drummer to sit in and play HIS parts."

"Myself Jeff Walker on bass and vocals, ‘the semi-legendary’ Bill Steer and Mike Amott on lead guitar and Daniel Erlandsson, filling in for Ken on drums, look forwards to mutilating your hearing."

"And if we don’t do it? Who else will overshadow the LED ZEPPELIN reunion? Ha! Prepare to rot and roll.”

In a recent interview with MTV.com, Michael Amott stated about the possibility of CARCASS reunion, "It seems like it never goes away — like this ghost that's always hanging over me. It's nice. It's a pleasant ghost, because [CARCASS are] a band I'm proud of, because it was one of the better bands to come out of that style of music at that time. The band itself seems bigger now than when we packed it in [back in 1995]. I can't believe it."

"With [CARCASS], you have four people who have all moved on and do different things now," he said. "For the last few years, I've been quite open about [my desire to reunite CARCASS]. ... It's not a question of, 'Do I want to play this kind of music?,' because I still totally love metal. I would love to do it."

The ex-members of CARCASS hooked up in 2006 to rehearse (as first reported by BLABBERMOUTH.NET on September 18) for the first time in many years.

"We thought, 'Let's just try to get our schedules together, jam a little bit, and see if it's even feasible,' " Amott said. "The question always comes up in interviews, and we kind of all became intrigued ourselves, if it would actually work. So we met up, rehearsed for about a week, and by the end of the week, it sounded amazing."

He added, "The band wouldn't set out to write or record new material, because "the old stuff was just that good. It would just be a blast to go out and play those — dare I say it — classic tunes again, those riffs. It would be fun. Bill's guitar playing was amazing — he was one of my heroes before I joined the band. So yeah, I would love to do it again. I love that band, love the music. We'll see — maybe it would shut people up. Let's hope the CARCASS can come back."

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=82176