Metal Wani editor in chief Owais “Vitek” Nabi recently conducted an interview with CARCASS and GENTLEMANS PISTOLS guitairst Bill Steer. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.
Asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for CARCASS’s follow-up to 2013’s “Surgical Steel”, Steer said: “It really hasn’t been possible to work on much. We’ve been just out playing all year. In January, Daniel [Wilding], the drummer, and myself, we got together and we started working on some tunes. And it’s sounding very good. But then we suddenly [started getting] back out there, [playing] festivals [and doing] little tours. You really need a decent chunk of time to focus on music, which hopefully will come up… yeah, maybe over Christmas, New Year period.”
Even though a new CARCASS album is probably at least a year away from seeing the light of day, Steer said that he definitely wants to make a worthy follow-up to “Surgical Steel”. “I would like to. I think everyone involved would like to,” he said. “But it’s not something we’d rush into, because we were very fortunate we had good will towards this previous record. I mean, I think it was deserved, ‘cause it’s a strong album, but it’s still surprising how many people got behind it. I actually expected more criticism than we had. So I think now, with that level of expectation, you can’t just come back with something of the same standard. It needs to be a little more special. We need to have something else to offer. And so we can’t really repeat the same trick, I guess, if you know what I mean.”
He continued: “But I like a challenge. I think Jeff [Walker, bass/vocals] does too. I don’t think we would attempt something if we didn’t think it was gonna be worthwhile. I just say, it will take time. It’s something we couldn’t take lightly. You don’t wanna trash the band to make a CD and throw out a really weak album.”
“Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel”, a collection of previously unreleased and hard-to-find tracks from CARCASS, sold around 1,840 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 27 on the Billboard Hard Rock chart. All the songs on the EP were recorded during the “Surgical Steel” sessions, which was produced by Colin Richardson (NAPALM DEATH, BOLT THROWER, GOREFEST, CANNIBAL CORPSE, SINISTER, RODRIGO Y GABRIELA) and mixed/mastered by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, ACCEPT, EXODUS, TESTAMENT).
“Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel” was made available on physical and digital formats via Nuclear Blast.
“Surgical Steel” sold around 8,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 41 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released on September 16, 2013 in the U.K., September 13, 2013 in the rest of Europe and September 17, 2013 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records.
Source: Blabbermouth
