Carcass - Exeter Review

With the exception of a trip to Birmingham to catch Sweden's At the Gates back in 2014, I cannot recall ever going out of my way to see a true death metal band live. I have seen a handful over the years at various iterations of Bloodstock Open Air but, as death metal is not exactly a favourite genre of mine, rarely have I made the effort to see a death metal band at their own show. As I have mentioned in recent years on this blog, though, I have been making more of an effort with extreme metal in general of late. Whilst I certainly would not call myself a convert to death metal, I can certainly appreciate many of the genre's big hitters - and one band that I have been enjoying slowly getting into over the past few years is the UK's own Carcass. Formed in Liverpool back in 1985, the band have been hugely important to the development of extreme metal over the years - releasing seminal albums in the grindcore, death metal, melodic death metal, and death 'n' roll genres before calling it a day in 1996. The band have been a going concern again since 2007, initially just as a live act, with two genre-melding albums following in 2013 and 2021 - and over the past couple of years the band seem to have been busier than ever. When they first reformed they generally stuck to playing festivals and doing the odd headline show, but recently they have been touring quite heavily. I saw the band live for the first time last year, as they joined Arch Enemy and Behemoth for a lengthy European tour. This tour got Carcass playing in front of some big crowds - and at the London show which I attended they certainly went down very well. I imagine that this reception was common throughout the tour, and it perhaps spurred the band on to do some shows of their own. With 2021's Torn Arteries still relatively fresh, the band undertook a decent-sized US tour earlier this year - and a few months ago announced their first UK headline tour since the 1990s. Having enjoyed the band with Arch Enemy, I was keen to see Carcass again - and when I saw that they had booked a show at the Phoenix in Exeter I knew that I had to make an effort. Exeter is only an hour or so away from where I live, so the mid-week date did not matter. Exeter gigs are usually attended with friends or family, but there was no-one I could persuade to come and see Carcass with me - so I headed up to Exeter yesterday afternoon after work and as one of the city's Premier Inns had been pretty cheap when I booked the ticket I had decided to stay overnight to avoid rushing back to the station to catch a late-night train. This proved to be a good decision, as the show was a hot and sweaty one - so it was good to get back to bed pretty quickly and not have to wait it out on the train. Having come from work, there was not a lot of time to kill once getting to Exeter - so after a brief stop in the Premier Inn I headed into the city centre for a meal at the nearby Wetherspoons before heading up to the venue. The Phoenix is a venue which I have been to many times, but it is not generally a place played by metal bands. Perhaps the Phoenix should try and encourage more metal bands down, though, as the show sold out a couple of days beforehand - as many of the other dates on the tour had. The place was packed as a result, and ensured that there was a great atmosphere from the off.

Before Carcass took to the stage, though, the crowd had two support acts to enjoy. Up first, and new to me, were Conjurer - a British metal band who are hard to categorise. I was familiar with the band in name-only, so was interested to see what they were about - but after seeing them I am not sure what to make of the four-piece. Conjurer can certainly be described as extreme metal, with a sludgy/death metal sound dominating, but there were moments of the set which moved into a more avant-garde/jazzy territory - whilst there were also occasional moments of 1970s-esque progressive rock. The vocals throughout were shared between Dan Nightingale (vocals/guitar) and Brady Deeprose (vocals/guitar) -who mixed death growls and black metal shrieks during the band's chaotic songs. The songs were generally on the faster side, but there were also some extremely doomy sections which saw the bass of Conor Marshall (whom I was familiar with via Sylosis) taking on more prominence. Without knowing much about the band, though, I found Conjurer's songs hard to follow. There were moments of musical brilliance, especially when the band leaned in a more progressive direction, but there were also sections which left me somewhat cold. The band's set was certainly memorable, though, and they garnered a strong reaction throughout. There were lots of Conjurer shirts being worn throughout the crowd - so the large Exeter Phoenix audience had clearly made the effort to get to the venue early to check Conjurer out. One particularly memorable section saw Nightingale growling without his microphone whilst the band toned it down and went in a slightly more experimental direction. The crowd certainly enjoyed that, and the warmth for them certainly increased as their set progressed. I am sure that the band made themselves some new fans with their set - and they are clearly a band out there doing something different and interesting. Whether what Conjurer do is for me or not remains to be seen, but it is always good to catch a band live who seem to be pretty original.

Up next were the American gothic rock band Unto Others who, like Carcass, were also part of last year's Arch Enemy tour. Despite their short set and poor live sound mix I had enjoyed Unto Others' set last year, so was looking forward to seeing them again properly - and again I enjoyed what the four-piece had to offer. I do not think that Unto Others can be called particularly original, but there are so few bands out there currently writing retro-sounding gothic rock with a metallic twist that the band do sound quite fresh. They look like a product of the late 1980s or the early 1990s, with frontman Gabriel Franco looking a bit like Blackie Lawless from the early 1990s - but behind the big hair and flowing outfits lie a number of strong songs. Mixing chiming clean guitar melodies with crunchy riffs, Unto Others certainly have a core sound - and much of the set stuck to it. Franco and Brandon Hill (bass guitar/vocals) harmonised well with each other throughout to create some melodic vocal hooks, whilst Sebastian Silva (guitar/vocals) often prowled the stage throwing old-school shapes - all whilst contributing a number of shredded guitar solos. Many of the band's songs were pretty memorable from the off, with tracks like Nightfall and When Will Gods Work Be Done in particular standing out, but I imagine that Unto Others are the sort of band that can really get under the skin after repeated listens. The vocal melodies tend to be of that sultry kind commonly found in gothic music which become irresistible after a while, and it is fair to say that Unto Others have totally nailed that sound - despite it all being rather retro in tone. The band put on a strong set filled with classic rock strut, so it was a shame then that the crowd was noticeably smaller than it had been Conjurer. Plenty of people still watched Unto Others' set, but quite a few seemed to sit it out. Unto Others definitely seemed like the odd band out, but they have generated quite a bit of buzz in recent years - so it was a shame to see the crowd thin out. Clearly they were too lightweight for some concertgoers, but I and the others who made the effort certainly enjoyed what we saw - and Unto Others enjoyed a strong reception throughout.

The changeovers during the night were pretty quick, so it was only around 20 minutes or so following Unto Others' set that the lights went down and Carcass hit the stage. By this point the room was absolutely rammed, and it was easily the fullest that I have ever seen the Phoenix. I was stood near the back, and it was actually hard to see the stage at times - but the atmosphere throughout the night was excellent, with everyone there enjoying catching one of the UK's most legendary extreme metal acts live. The set was relentless, too, with the band rarely stopping for breath. They put a number of younger bands to shame really, and many of the songs played were extremely fast - with a few more groove-based tracks breaking up the pace occasionally. The live mix was also pretty good. Sometimes Jeff Walker's (vocals/bass guitar) voice was a bit low in the mix, but generally the band sounded massive - and were extremely tight as they peeled off riff after riff. The grooving Buried Dreams got the set off to a fine start, but generally the show was characterised by pace. It was also a career-spanning effort, with most of the band's albums represented. Newer numbers like Kelly's Meat Emporium sat nicely side-by-side with older grind-based tracks like Incarnated Solvent Abuse - whilst cuts like This Mortal Coil showcased guitar players Bill Steer and James Blackford. Carcass have always included a lot of guitar solos in their songs, and Steer in particular really shone. He cut a mean presence throughout the night, and his many shredded solos were generally very melodic. Despite Steer being one of the band's founders, Blackford as a newer recruit still had opportunities to shine. He had plenty of solos throughout the night, too, and the guitarists traded leads back and forth with aplomb - particularly during the newer songs and those cuts from 1993's Heartwork. Death Certificate was once such example, and it was also one of the songs which the band introduced by play some riffs from another track - with a snippet of Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody opening it up. Highlights of the set included the classic rock strut of Keep on Rotting in the Free World and the excellent newer cut The Scythe's Remorseless Swing - which has one of the hookiest and grooviest refrains in the band's whole catalogue. It did not matter what the band chose to play, as the crowd lapped it all up - and by the time that the set-closing rendition of Heartwork rolled around Carcass had conquered Exeter. A three-song encore followed, with a couple of older cuts and one newer song sating the crowd. Walker and Steer traded vocals like they used to in the old days throughout Exhume to Consume and the rollocking Tools of the Trade, before the hookier 316L Grade Surgical Steel brought the band's 80 or so minutes on stage to a close. The setlist was:

Buried Dreams

Kelly's Meat Emporium

Incarnated Solvent Abuse

Under the Scalpel Blade

This Mortal Coil

Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody/Death Certificate

Dance of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No. 1 in B)

Black Star/Keep on Rotting in the Free World

The Scythe's Remorseless Swing

Corporal Jigsore Quandary

Ruptured in Purulence/Heartwork

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Exhume to Consume

Tools of the Trade

316L Grade Surgical Steel

Given that I was pretty much out of my comfort zone throughout Carcass' set, I had a great time with the veteran band. They put on a fierce show filled with classic death metal anthems, and the capacity crowd enjoyed every minute of it. The atmosphere was electric throughout, and everyone was certainly a sweaty mess by the time things came to an end. It was all very much worth the effort, though, and my night in Exeter was an excellent one.