Rumor: CARCASS Putting Finishing Touches On First Studio Album In 17 Years

Reactivated British extreme metal legends CARCASS are rumored to be putting the finishing touches on their first studio album in 17 years with acclaimed producer Colin Richardson (FEAR FACTORY, MACHINE HEAD, NAPALM DEATH, SLIPKNOT, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE). The band has yet to secure a label home for the effort, which is expected in early 2013.

Guitarist Michael Amott and drummer Daniel Erlandsson, who have been touring with CARCASS since the band's reunion was announced in 2007, are no longer involved with the group due to scheduling conflicts with their main band, ARCH ENEMY. Guitarist Bill Steer and bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker are rumored to have been joined in the studio for the new CD recording sessions by drummer Matthias Voigt of German death metal and hardcore fusionists HEAVEN SHALL BURN.

CARCASS is in the process of booking a number of live shows for 2013, including appearances at next year's Maryland Deathfest and Chile's Metal Fest.

In a May 2012 interview with Metal Forces, Amott said about CARCASS' future plans, "I'm not working with CARCASS at the moment. From what I hear they're working on something new, but it's not with me. I'm not included in it. I don't know. I don't comment. [laughs] I don't really know what they're working on, so it's not really for me to say, but whatever it is I wish them well, of course. I had a great time doing the reunion shows; we played a lot of shows in 2008, 2009, 2010, and I had a fantastic time at those shows. I'm a very busy guy as well, so I could see why I wouldn't be included. I've pretty much got a full-time thing going on with ARCH ENEMY, and I'm with SPIRITUAL BEGGARS on top of that. It's very difficult for me to fit in a third band with touring and everything."

CARCASS' last album, 1996's "Swansong", was re-released in July 2008 via Earache Records. The reissue came fully remastered on a DualDisc (combined CD and DVD) in a deluxe digipak with extra artwork and a free sticker sheet featuring exclusive CARCASS designs, and included part 5 of a mini-documentary series entitled "The Pathologist's Report" as bonus video material, plus an exclusive bonus track, "Deathrider Da". The documentary consisted of interviews, filmed in London and Liverpool at the end of 2007, featuring the members of CARCASS — drummer Ken Owen (who is not involved in the band's current reunion because he suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage in February 1999 and has had some rather serious health problems since then),Steer, Walker and Amott — who met up for the first time in ten years and were filmed discussing in-depth the story behind the band's development from their gore-soaked grind beginnings to the more refined, melodic moments of their later output.