IS IT TOO SOON TO GET EXCITED ABOUT A CARCASS REUNION?

Here are some undeniable scientific facts: what goes up must come down, you should never cross the streams, and every band is going to reunite sooner or later (we’re looking at you, Faith No More). So this story should really come as no surprise: Blabbermouth reports that current Arch Enemy guitarist Mike Amott recently rehearsed with former Carcass bandmates Bill Steer and Jeff Walker with an eye towards doing a reunion, according to an interview with the Swedish magazine Close-Up. Amott claims that the band played their classic, penultimate release Heartwork in its entirety and even ran through some numbers from Swansong – an album Amott didn’t actually play on (no mention of Reek of Putrification, Symphonies of Sickness or Necrotism).

The original idea, Amott claims, was for the reunited grindcore/melodic death metal pioneers to do this past summer’s European festival circuit; but even though that (obviously) didn’t work out, Amott still holds out hope that the band will reunite somewhere down the road:

“I hope we can do some reunion shows at a later date… It would be a lot of fun and I’d love to play the songs live again. Unfortunately, it can’t happen until 18 months from now, at the earliest, because Arch Enemy has a totally full schedule. It’s different for the other guys who don’t work as actively on their music careers.”

Other interesting revelations from the interview are Amott’s claim that Jeff Walker has told him he thinks Arch Enemy suck, and the fact that original Carcass drummer Ken Owen, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1999, is still in no shape to play an entire gig – although Amott hopes he’d travel with the band and come out for a few songs every night (Arch Enemy drummer Daniel Erlandsson sat in for the rehearsals).

Of course, the whole “Carcass reunion can’t happen for at least 18 months” thing means that the earliest any of this would come to fruition is 2009, by which point Bush won’t be President any longer, MetalSucks will be the most popular metal site on the web, and Chinese Democracy will still be sitting on one of Axl’s shelves somewhere. Still, since Carcass are undoubtedly one of the most influential bands of their generation, this news is pretty exciting.

Even more exciting? Amott’s no-bullshit approach to the possibility of a new Carcass record: “To write something new seems unnecessary. People still only want to hear the old stuff.”

-AR