Last fall, Michael Amott, guitarist for Swedish melodic death-metallers Arch Enemy, confirmed in an interview with Metal File that Carcass, the legendary British grindcore band he played in during the early '90s, would be re-forming for a spate of live gigs. But while the band has booked a ton of festival appearances overseas, Carcass have yet to announce a single U.S. date.
The File spoke to Arch Enemy frontwoman Angela Gossow (and Ammott's fiancee) last week, just before the band played the final date on the sold-out Tyranny and Bloodshred Tour, with support acts Dark Tranquillity, Divine Heresy and Firewind. Gossow told us that while nothing has been made official, "there is something in the works for the States."
According to Gossow, Carcass have been approached about a possible U.S. headlining run, but the right offer hasn't come to the table yet. "There's obviously huge interest in a Carcass tour," she said. "I'm sure you guys will get it, but nothing has been confirmed or anything."
Gossow and Amott have been engaged "forever," but she says they haven't "found the time to get married yet." If the tour does come to fruition, Gossow said her fiance's life is going to get more hectic than it already is. The guitarist will be pulling double duty with both Arch Enemy and Carcass, because, at the moment, both bands have impossibly full plates.
Arch Enemy, who continue to tour in support of last year's Rise of the Tyrant, have already started working on material for the follow-up, Gossow said. And just six months ago, they hit the studio to re-record some of the band's earliest material.
"We started re-recording the old stuff because, for most people, Arch Enemy started to exist with [2001's] Wages of Sin, because the band got big after I joined," she explained. "Obviously, the band released three albums before that (1996's Black Earth, 1998's Stigmata and 1999's Burning Bridges), and we've been trying on and off to play old songs live. Most of the time, we just get this stare from the crowd, and people think it's a new song or a demo. A lot of young kids haven't heard these tracks, so we just figured we'd re-record them, give them new exposure, and it's going to give us the chance to play them live.
"These songs are 10 years old at this point, and it's going to sound killer," she continued. "Razor-sharp sound — and we'll up the production. The songs will have a little bit of a twist to them; they're going to sound new, even though they're old."
Arch Enemy plan to issue the re-recorded cuts in early 2009, after the release of their forthcoming live DVD, which was shot in Japan in March at a sold-out gig before an audience of 2,500. The footage was captured with 10 cameras, and the DVD will feature tons of backstage footage and interviews, Gossow said.
"We had the Fuji [Pacific] crew doing this, because the boss of Fuji is a huge fan," she said, with a laugh. "Basically, they did it for free, and brought in a crane. You'd never know this guy would like our band, but there are a lot of metal fans out there, and you would never know it, because they look so official, and they're wearing suits. But we're like a metal factory, at the moment. It's so great, because we actually have the motivation and we're just really hungry right now."
The rest of the week's metal news:
The growing beef between Disturbed and the Dillinger Escape Plan got even more interesting this week. It all started when DEP guitarist Ben Weinman claimed in an interview that he'd watched Disturbed practice all their onstage moves during a sound check. Guitarist Dan Donegan fired back, claiming DEP had no idea what it takes to put on as massive a show as Disturbed put on, dismissing the remarks as jealousy. Dillinger fired back on June 2 in a post on their MySpace page, saying Donegan has "little-peen complex" and slamming the band for "sucking." Disturbed frontman David Draiman later said in a radio interview that he respects Dillinger, but that he doesn't "understand what the hell they think they saw with us. ...This is what the big boys do who play stadium shows — they want to worry about how the lights look that they spend so much money on." ...
DragonForce have dubbed their forthcoming LP, which hits stores August 26, Ultra Beatdown. The disc will feature eight tracks, including "The Fire Still Burns," "Heartbreak Armageddon" and "The Warrior Inside." ...
What has drummer David Silveria been up to since taking a "hiatus" from Korn? Starting a new band, that's what. A MySpace page for Satellite Syndrome popped up earlier this week — and has since been pulled down — which stated the band should be releasing its debut album early next year. The group is currently in the studio, recording material for that effort. ...
French progressive-extreme metallers Gojira will issue The Way of All Flesh on October 14. The LP is in the process of being tracked in Los Angeles with producer and ex-Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader. ...
Eerik Purdon has parted ways with Omnium Gatherum. It isn't the first time the bassist has split, and the band still isn't sure why he bolted. "We ain't got a clue really what the hell happened here," the band said in a statement. Omnium are currently on the hunt for a replacement. The band's forthcoming album, The Redshift, will feature 11 tracks, including "Chameleon Skin," "Shapes and Shades," and "Song for December." ...
Walls of Jericho have set The American Dream as the title of their new album, which lands in stores this summer. In other album news, Motörhead will release their next record, Motörize, before the end of the year. ...
Arsis have parted ways with drummer Darren Cesca, and they've already replaced him with Alex Tomlin. Cesca's departure, the band claimed, was due to "differences in personalities and an overall difference in direction."
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