CARCASS: Australian Tour Canceled

British extreme metal pioneers CARCASS have been forced to cancel their previously tour of Australia in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The promoter of the tour, Soundworks Touring, has issued the following statement regarding the matter: "Due to the very unfortunate circumstances surrounding the Download Festival cancellation and now the newly enforced government regulations, Soundworks Touring regrets to inform the public that all appearances on the scheduled CARCASS Australian tour have been cancelled.

"This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, but one we now have no choice in.

"Ticket purchasers will receive a refund via point of purchase. We urge everyone to please be patient during the refund process. We sincerely apologise for all disappointment and inconvenience caused by these decisions made.

"We are 100% committed to rescheduling a headlining CARCASS tour to a later time frame when world health concerns settle."

Canceled tour dates:

March 20 - Melbourne, Download Festival
March 21 - Sydney, Download Festival
March 24 - Hobart, Altar
March 25 - Brisbane, The Triffid
March 26 - Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory
March 28 - Perth, Slayfest

CARCASS has set "Torn Arteries" as the title of its new album, due on August 7 via Nuclear Blast. According to guitarist Bill Steer, the name of the new CARCASS LP stems from a demo tape that the band's founding drummer Ken Owen recorded when he was still a teenager. "He had a fictitious band called TORN ARTERIES and he recorded everything himself in his bedroom — guitar, and he'd actually bang on boxes and kind of scream into the mic," Bill explained to Australia's Heavy. "And the whole thing was so distorted, it kind of sounded super heavy, even though essentially you were listening to a guy with a Spanish guitar and a couple of boxes. I think Jeff [Walker, CARCASS bassist/vocalist] appreciates the connection to the past and the fact that it was another Ken Owen classic. So that was his choice, really, and it stuck."

Steer went on to say that the "Torn Arteries" title is an homage of sorts to Owen, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1999 and hasn't actively played with CARCASS for more than two decades.

"I can't remember when this came up, but we were doing some press conference at a festival, and I think we all kind of agreed that even though Ken isn't playing in the band as such right now, he's kind of involved in everything we do, stylistically, because when he was so unique — when he was playing drums, his approach was just totally different," Steer said. "Also, the riffs he came up with, they were just really far out there. They were loads of fun to learn. I still think, as a guitar player, some of the stuff was very unorthodox and it was quite a challenge. That kind of influence still runs through what we do today. Just as a friendship thing, we're all still in touch regularly, and it's just been great to see Ken's life stabilizing. Basically, he has a good standard of living and he's a happy guy."