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Blackstar: Barbed wire soul
15/11/10 || revenant
When we recently put together the Top Ten Albums to end a career list, I got around to thinking: what if that wasn’t the last record that band made? What would their next album have sounded like? Would it have been as awesome?
Coming in at number ten on the list was Carcass with their “Swansong” album. As I noted at the time, the Carcass sound had evolved significantly over their five albums to finish as a band writing simple songs with rock styled riffs with a lot of hook. The result being one catchy fucken album.
But what if they had continued? Where would the Carcass sound go next? The answer comes in the form of Blackstar, and boy, trust me when I say thank god/satan/whoever they stopped recording as Carcass: what an embarrassment it would have been to call this a Carcass album.
Blackstar is essentially the same band that played on the last Carcass album minus Bill Steer. The sound presented on the first (and only) Blackstar album is very much a continuation of “Swansong”, with songs developed around catchy guitar riffs. The music has a very distinctive 70s rock flavour, though the band certainly can’t deny their roots and there is the odd metal touch throughout (those these are few). Generally though, the music sounds like the bastard child of Motörhead and the southern USA rock scene.
Starting with the positives, there are some genuinely great rocking riffs here that have some hook. In particular I like “Rock n’ roll circus”. There are also some great guitar solos on display (though not as good as the classic solos of “Heartwork”), which is something I always enjoy. That’s, erm, it as far as positives go.
Which leaves us with the negatives (hold on tight, it’s a rough ride from here on in). Now I must say I always enjoyed Jeff Walker’s growls for Carcass. Unfortunately here he has changed his style from his classic growls to a more yelled snarl, and the result is fucking terrible. There is not enough power and range in his voice, nor does it have the character to pull this album off. This sort of music needs to be fronted well for it to work, and in many ways the Walker’s performance really kills any enthusiasm I might have had for this album.
Yes, enthusiasm I might have had. I did note above that there are some genuinely great rocking riffs. Some. Not all, only some. And that is the other core problem with this album: there really isn’t much good material here. With “Swansong” you got a dozen great songs with only a couple of filler tracks. Here you get a couple of pretty good songs (if you can get past the vocals) and a lot of filler.
I also mentioned some great guitar solos above. On the opposite side of the scale are the saxophone solos and use of cowbells. Yes, really. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for experimentation, be it in music or be it in the bedroom, but there has to be a point where someone says “you know, this really isn’t such a good idea after all”. Saxophone solos, cow bells and golden showers are that point, and someone should have said stop before this music was pissed all over.
Finally, there’s the song titles. I don’t even want to talk about how bad these are, just scroll down and see for yourself.
If this had been the next Carcass album after “Swansong” it would have definitely been their last, and there would be no way it would have made our list. This album would have been an embarrassment to the Carcass legacy, and thankfully is not included in their discography. The Carcass boys excelled at everything they did, and Blackstar is a blemish on their careers. History will show that Blackstar only recorded one album, and for good reason. For Carcass fans, and fans of great music in general, this is a band best left forgotten, and now that I have briefly revived the memory, you may proceed to do so.
- Information
- Released: 1997
- Label: Peaceville
- Website: http://www.blackmetal.com/~mega/BS/
- Band
- Jeff Walker: vocals, bass
- Mark Griffiths: guitars
- Carlo Regedas: guitars
- Ken Owen: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Game Over
- 02. Smile
- 03. Sound Of Silence
- 04. Rock ‘N’ Roll Circus
- 05. New Song
- 06. Give Up The Ghost
- 07. Revolution Of The Heart
- 08. Waste Of Space
- 09. Deep Wound
- 10. Better The Devil
- 11. Instrumental
