Carcass at the Gasometer was one of those shows I had been waiting on for years. The Liverpool crew have been one of the most important names in extreme metal since the late eighties, pioneers of goregrind who then rewrote the rulebook for melodic death metal, and somehow I had never managed to catch them live until this Kreator tour stop in Vienna. Long overdue does not quite cover it.
The set itself was a technical display of brutality from the first riff to the last. Bill Steer played like a guy who has spent the better part of forty years making the guitar do impossible things and still finds it fun, trading leads and harmonies with the kind of clarity most bands in this genre sacrifice for sheer volume. Jeff Walker fronted the band with his usual dry, razor-edged charisma, bass slung low, voice still one of the most recognisable snarls in extreme music.
