CARCASS's BILL STEER Finds It 'Comical' That THE USED Is About To Release An Album Called 'Heartwork'

Bill Steer of CARCASS, whose 1993 album "Heartwork" is considered a landmark album in the melodic death metal genre, was asked during a recent interview with the "Everblack" podcast if he is aware that THE USED about to release a new LP by the same name. He responded (hear audio below): "I did hear about it. I think it's just funny. I don't know much about that band, and clearly they don't know much about us. I certainly don't feel angry — I don't think any of us would. That's comical. We can't copyright that phrase or those words, so they're welcome to it."

As previously reported, CARCASS has set "Torn Arteries" as the title of its new album, due on August 7 via Nuclear Blast. According to 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."