Carcass - Brujeria - Rotten Sound
Jan 16th 2025
LKA Longhorn, Stuttgart
Review By:
Stefan Raspl
I was a bit surprised when I noticed that CARCASS was back in the area
again. But being one of my absolutely favorite bands, this was a
“must”. Plus BRUJERIA promised to be an entertaining live act, too, so
I didn't think twice. And, damn, it's almost a decade since last time I
saw them?!? The 1,500 capacity venue was not sold out, but very well
filled, so there seemed to be quite a few folks who felt likewise!
The Finnish band ROTTEN SOUND were first to hit the stage. Their sound
wasn't rotten so much, rather muddy, but still workable. Their material
was sound-wise reminiscent of SYMPHONIES-era CARCASS, but lacking
lacking variety: Most songs were too similar, alternating always
between the same tempos, and lacking structure. Looking at their
discography, they rarely write songs that exceed 2 minutes. I get it,
that's their concept, and you can't expect a classic verse-chorus song
structure in 60 seconds. But when you're not familiar with their
material, the lack of comprehensible song structures combined with
ever-same 3 different tempos, their set was hard to leave anything
memorable. What DID work was their slower parts, which were too rarely
sprinkled in. Still: They got some good crowd reponse. Oh, and their
bass player was quite engaged.
Next up BRUJERIA. Crystal clear sound! You could easily make out all
instruments, all the drum parts - that's how it should be! The drummer
had some interesting antics, moving his upper body a lot in a rather
weird pattern while playing - fun to watch. As was the vocalist,
who did a really good job at crowd control, coming off quite
sympathetic. To me, the highlight of their set was CONSEJOS NARCOS,
although the sing-along part didn't work out. Might be due to the
vocalist's
too complicated introduction of the “Si!" - “No!” parts, or the crowd
just wasn't too knowledgable of the material (though it appeared to
be)....not sure. Also, the vocalist asked for some weed for their
drummer when
introducing the song. Which wasn't really ”gangsta" (or rather
“bandid”?!), considering weed was legalized in Germany last year. And
though he was passed some, he didn't dare to light it: Those smoking
restrictions are no joke, not even for bandits, haha!
I assumed this would conclude the set, but to my surprise, they did two
more - which fell a bit flat, so their arc of suspense suffered a bit.
But they had great riffs, especially in their older material, which
sounded absolutely menacing with their clear sound. The vocalist pulled
out a
machete at one point, fidgeting around with it on stage....I hope it
had a dull blade: Call me old, but I would have been at least a bit
concerned was I standing front row.
Still, all in all they definitely delivered, and I would absolutely
recommend to go see their show when they are in your area!
Time for the headliner, CARCASS: Of course, they had the by far biggest
production (although not quite as big as last time, if I remember
correctly), and they also turned up the volume two more notches. Which
made the sound start off a bit messy. It improved later on, but
especially the kick drums were drowned out most of the time, which was
a bit of a bummer. Maybe they just drove the PA a bit too hard, but I
started to wonder if less might have been more volume-wise. However:
Lots of pressure, especially behind their drums. They played tight af -
surgical precision, you could probably press diamongs between Bill
Steer and James Blackford, their new 2nd guitar player. I'll say that
they never sounded better than with James, who also nailed all of
Michael Amott's solos. Very, very well done, and I greatly appreciate
the effort to take the time to learn (and reproduce!) the solos note
for note! Watching Bill Steer rocking out never gets old. Jeff had his
head shaved - we're getting a bit old, mate?! :O Good show, but my only
gripe is the set list: Little variety in the selection, heavy focus on
Heartwork (half the album!), but mostly lacking any deep cuts. THIS
MORTAL COIL might qualify, and I believe they haven't played NO LOVE
LOST in a while, but that's about it. They tease a couple of SWANSONG
songs, just to settle on KEEP ON ROTTING IN THE FREE WORLD - why not
dare to play something like R**K THE VOTE instead? Similar with their
other albums: NECROTICISM gets covered with CORPORAL JIGSORE QUANDARY
and INCARNATED SOLVENT ABUSE as usual, and similar for REEK and
SYMPHONIES. Also, they didn't play a lot of recent material, which
surprised me: 2 off TORN ARTERIES, only one off SURGICAL STEEL.
Still: Being the headliner, crowd response was, of course, good, but
appeared to get more and more excited as the set progressed. Don't get
me wrong: It was a great gig, and a stellar performance. But I feel
they improve from “great” to “total awesomeness” if they would add more
deep cuts to their set: They have a superb catalog with plenty to
discover!
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