Carcass takes its morbid imagery seriously. The British death metal band (from Liverpool) formed in 1985, broke up in 1995 and reunited in 2007.
The band’s 2013 record “Surgical Steel” has songs with titles like “Thrasher’s Abbatoir” and “A Congealed Clot of Blood.” Grisly open wounds, corpses and autopsy photos adorn their record covers. The music isn’t for the squeamish either, intestinal fortitude is required to endure the chromatic grind of the buzz-saw guitars, the demonic growl of the vocals and the dizzying double-kick battery.
A clinical obsession with the decomposition of flesh is sort of the band’s overarching aesthetic principle. The tissue-slashing riffage is mostly divorced from vocal melodicism, since the singing is closer to howling. Carcass toured with Slayer earlier this year, which gives you a sense of how esteemed the band is in the metal pantheon.
Carcass performs at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven, on Friday, Aug. 5, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 to $25. toadsplace.com, 203-624-8623.
