It’s not everyday that you see a band held in high regard for immolating a sound so perfectly. General Surgery has been hailed the ultimate Carcass clone for sometime now and that’s really all I see going for them. The fact that people seem content with this bands worship is fine by me, but it sure won’t keep my attention for long.
The medical/gore/grind/death metal thing is what it is. If that’s your cup of tea then General Surgery’s Corpus In Extremis is probably going to make you wet your pants with bloody cream pies. This record is brutal as it gets, complete with lyrical concepts of hellish and grotesque operations gone array. The band has even covered their bodies in fake blood to make your listening experience more enjoyable. How ingenious of them.
Obviously, I could care less about this record. However, General Surgery are not the only band on the planet doing this thing, and no matter how uninspiring this may be to me, it is one of the better examples of the new era Symphonies of Sickness. Once again, if shit splattered gore grind is your thing then look no further.
New vocalist Erik Sahlstrom creates some disgusting gutturals with over dubbed layers happening from time to time to create terminal brutality. “Necronomics,” wastes no time blasting complete savagery clocking in less than fifty seconds. Groove is firmly in place throughout Corpus In Extremis and careens closely to Swedish roots of Entombed and Dismember.
Blast beats are done tastefully and placed where they need to be, allowing plenty of time for songs to be catchy at points. For this style of music, Corpus In Extremis displays some good song structures and will get the job done whether the song is thirty six seconds or five minutes. Solos are done in the shred as many notes as possible style and whammy bars drop bombs from time to time. Fun stuff for a high octane experience.
So, General Surgery succeed with Corpus In Extremis in creating something truly unoriginal yet affective for its purpose. For those looking for the uttermost gruesome music and could care less about originality, this thing is for you.
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you like the new Mastodon, don’t you?
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 13:39Yep.
on Jul 14th, 2009 at 05:11To me Heartwork is where Carcass really became a killer band. How come there aren’t a million bands out there trying to clone that sound?
I can’t be alone in this, sure I like the early Carcass stuff too, but to me it isn’t anywhere near as good.
I just don’t see myself enjoying a half hour of a band (General Surgery) trying to be another band(Carcass) before they became great.
on Jul 14th, 2009 at 12:39Heartwork?
How can you claim that Heartwork was better than Symphonies or Necrotism and call yourself a metal fan?
It’s equivalent to stating that the black album is better than Master of Puppets.
on Jul 14th, 2009 at 19:19I would agree that Master is far superior to the Black album.
However nothing Metallica has done is better than Heartwork in my opinion.
I know some people don’t agree, and think that Carcass jumped the shark after “Necroticism” or maybe the Tools of the Trade ep, but I personally liked the clarity and precision of the songs on Heartwork.
on Jul 15th, 2009 at 13:18I don’t think it’s fair to compare Heartwork to Metallica’s black album. There’s a reason Carcass played a shitload of Heartwork songs on their recent reunion tour; they are all good. The bulk of the setlist was from the two Amott-era albums, and no hardcore Carcass fans complained. Even Bill Steer says Heartwork is his favorite Carcass album. It’s not as good as Necroticism, but it’s close.
on Jul 15th, 2009 at 14:07