Carcass will release their new album Torn Arteries on August 7. While we haven't heard any new music from the band yet, guitarist Bill Steer tells Heavy that the album's title pays homage to ex-drummer Ken Owen and his fictitious band of the same name.
"He had a fictitious band called Torn Arteries and he recorded everything himself in his bedroom — guitar and he'd actually bang on boxes and kind of scream into the mic. And the whole thing was so distorted, it kind of sounded super heavy, even though essentially you were listening to a guy with a Spanish guitar and a couple of boxes. I think Jeff appreciates the connection to the past and the fact that it was another Ken Owen classic. So that was his choice, really, and it stuck."
Steer also said that the album title is a tribute Owen and his ongoing recovery. Owen left the band in 1996 and suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1999.
"I can't remember when this came up, but we were doing some press conference at a festival, and I think we all kind of agreed that even though Ken isn't playing in the band as such right now, he's kind of involved in everything we do, stylistically, because when he was so unique — when he was playing drums, his approach was just totally different. Also, the riffs he came up with, they were just really far out there. They were loads of fun to learn. I still think, as a guitar player, some of the stuff was very unorthodox and it was quite a challenge. That kind of influence still runs through what we do today. Just as a friendship thing, we're all still in touch regularly, and it's just been great to see Ken's life stabilizing. Basically, he has a good standard of living and he's a happy guy."
Stay tuned for new Carcass hopefully soon. Torn Arteries will be Carcass' first new album since their 2013 comeback record Surgical Steel and the follow-up B-sides EP Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel in 2014.
In the meantime, stream Carcass' new standalone song "Under the Scalpel Blade."
