British extreme metal pioneers CARCASS, those lovable geezers who’ve been churning out the same old riffs since before your dad lost his hair, are hitting North America in September! 👴 Prepare for a sonic onslaught of… well, you know, Carcass. Support will be provided by a rotating cast of characters including BRUJERIA (because who doesn’t love a bit of faux-Mexican grindcore?), NECROT (more like Necro-😴), HEDONIST (probably just a bunch of dudes who like craft beer and vinyl), SPIRITWORLD (ghosts? demons? who cares!), NAILS (guaranteed to induce tinnitus), and MONGREL (because every tour needs a band nobody’s ever heard of).
Tour dates (because you asked for it):
With BRUJERIA and SPIRITWORLD (a real clash of titans, NOT!):
Sep. 16 – Birmingham, AL – Workplay (more like Work-PAY-to-see-this-lineup 🤣)
Sep. 17 – Asheville, NC – Eulogy (because your ears will be dead after this show 💀)
With BRUJERIA, NECROT and HEDONIST (the “we’re-trying-to-be-brutal-but-we’re-really-just-boring” package):
Sep. 19 – Rochester, NY – Anthology (of mediocrity 📚)
Sep. 20 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre (rising from the ashes of your wasted evening 🔥)
Sep. 22 – Columbus, OH – The King of Clubs (more like the Jack of Spades 🃏)
Sep. 23 – Grand Rapids, MI – Elevation (elevating your disappointment to new heights ⛰️)
Sep. 24 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue Theatre (dress code: black t-shirt and crippling existential dread 🖤)
Sep. 26 – Denver, CO – HQ (aka “Headquarters for Headaches” 🤕)
Sep. 27 – Fort Collins, CO – Aggie Theatre (where the only thing aggressive is the ticket price 😠)
Sep. 29 – Mesa, AZ Nile – Theater (hope you brought your mosquito repellent 🦟)
Sep. 30 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues (because nothing says “extreme metal” like a corporate venue 🏢)
With NAILS, BRUJERIA, NECROT and MONGREL (the “we-ran-out-of-ideas-for-support-bands” extravaganza):
Oct. 01 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern (where dreams go to die…slowly 💔)
CARCASS festival appearances (because apparently, they’re still a “draw”):
Sep. 18 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life (louder than your grandma’s dentures falling out 👵)
Oct. 02 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock (more like After-Nap 😴)
In a 2024 interview with Neuborn Open Air Festival (who?), CARCASS vocalist/bassist Jeff Walker and guitarist James “Nip” Blackford (the new guy, bless his heart) discussed the band’s “musical evolution” (air quotes VERY much intended). Walker said: “We did this, and then we grew up a bit, and then we did that, and we grew up a bit. And we keep growing up, and we keep… It’s not a deliberate, cynical maneuver. We just play the music we like… But it’s not like a cynical maneuver. You get better as a musician and you have different influences and you just try different things… Stylistically we’re all over the place. That’s the problem.” (Translation: “We have no idea what we’re doing, but we’re still getting paid for it.”)
Blackford, who replaced former CARCASS guitarist Tom Draper in 2021 (because apparently, guitarists are as disposable as diapers 🧷), chimed in: “I would say as a fan of CARCASS primarily — I’ve been a fan for most of my life, and now I get to play with the band — I think that’s a great thing about the band, that each album has been different. And it seems from the outside, that was where they were in that year, in that time, and then they evolved a bit and they got like that. You kind of see them maturing and growing up. And some bands do just do the same thing over and over again and that’s great. It really works well for some bands. In fact, who would want AC/DC to do something different?” (Translation: “I’m contractually obligated to say nice things about the band, even though I secretly wish they’d just play ‘Heartwork’ on repeat.”)
Added Jeff: “That’s also the handicap with CARCASS, ’cause someone that heard CARCASS in 1988 would think, ‘That’s shit.’ And they wouldn’t understand what we sound like now. And maybe if they heard us in 1990, they didn’t like what we were playing then. But we’ve moved on. And we get that; I understand that. We’ve been written off so many times. ‘That’s CARCASS. They sound noisy. They sound shit.’ But we’re all right, I think.” (Translation: “We’re aware that half our fanbase hates everything we’ve done since ‘Symphonies of Sickness,’ but we’re still cashing those royalty checks, so who cares? 🤑”)
CARCASS‘s latest album, “Torn Arteries”, was released in September 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records (because apparently, someone still believes in them). Drummer Daniel Wilding did session work in Sweden at Studio Gröndahl with David Castillo while guitars were recorded at The Stationhouse with James Atkinson in Leeds, England. Eventually needing some form of residential location to finalize vocals, bass, and other guitarwork, the band headed back to Studio Gröndahl in Sweden to continue work in a very relaxed atmosphere with Castillo. (Translation: “We spent a ton of money recording this album in various locations, hoping that SOMEWHERE along the line, we’d stumble upon a decent sound.”)
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
