Carcass
July 23, 2016
The Observatory- Santa Ana, CA
The masked malefactors of Creepsylvania Ghoul are a thrash metal band that deliver a disgusting and bloody live show. Many fans in attendance were excited to see this macabre band and the venue was packed by the time Ghoul came out. Ghoul is known for their use of people props as well as squirting blood (red food coloring), other fluids, and unknown substances into the audience to put on a show similar to that of Gwar. The band members themselves wear sacks over their heads to hide their identities with only slits in the mouth and a single hole to see out of one eye. Ghoul came out and started with Ghoulunatics from their upcoming fifth album Dungeon Bastards which releases on July 29th. With their music being thrash metal, the fans felt the rage and proceeded to start a mosh pit. A paperboy with a huge penis came out and had the penis ripped out of him and so the blood splatter starts as the paperboy started squirting blood from his groin into the audience. This was just the start of the massacre. During the performance of Brain Jerk, a character that goes by the name of Baron Samedi came out with a baby doll, filled it with a vial of blood, decapitated the baby, and squirted the liquid from the baby’s neck into the crowd. The crowd seemed to enjoy getting fluids all over them. The performances of Word Is Law and Off With Their Heads saw soldiers come out and squirt water at the audience like Nerf guns. Bassist Cremator spoke to the audience on how he’s tired of seeing political bullshit on his Facebook and how he’d rather be playing Pokemon Go. Guitarist Digestor replied to Cremator’s comment by saying he’d rather…Shred the Dead! And so the show continued with mayhem happening from every angle of the show. The final song was As Your Casket Closes and it featured a deformed human coming out in a robotic suit similar to that of Sigourney Weaver in the Sci-Fi action horror film, Aliens. The humanoid would walk around on stage and battle with the band members. Ghoul finished up their show and left the stage to make room for the headliners of the night.
Carcass are a legendary British extreme/death metal band. They helped pioneer the metal genres we now know as grindcore and melodic death metal. The band initially disbanded in 1995 before being reformed in 2007 without original drummer Ken Owen for several reunion shows. Carcass released their sixth album Surgical Steel on September 2013, their first album since 1996. 
Carcass came out to a packed venue and started the show with Unfit For Human Consumption. The crowd had been waiting for this moment and wasted no time in continuing the mosh pit that had been going on throughout the night. The next song played was Buried Dreams from their highly acclaimed Heartwork album. Carcass never showed signs of slowing down as frontman Jeff Walker belted out his death metal growls that made the band famous. Other songs on the setlist included: Incarnated Solvent Abuse, The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills, and Captive Bolt Pistol. Walker took a quick break to talk to the crowd and mentioned how he didn’t see anyone smiling and how that’s a good thing because death metal is serious business and how you don’t see him smiling. He responded to his own comment by throwing the audience a big smile. Being on a time limit, Carcass fit more songs into their setlist by playing half of two songs and combining them into one. So the second half of their setlist consisted of song combinations like Reek of Putrefaction/Exhume to Consume and Edge of Darkness/This Mortal Coil. Walker was nice enough that he brought up a fan on stage to help him sing Keep on Rotting in the Free World. All the fan had to do was sing the chorus, “keep on rotting, keep on hoping” and Walker would take care of the rest of the lyrics. The show was coming near the end and so Carcass played part of Ruptured in Purulence before cutting into their most famous song, Heartwork. Fans went crazy for this song and delivered a huge mosh pit as well as crowd surfers made an appearance as they had been making regular appearances. Carcass finished their show and left the crowd feeling very satisfied. The band left the stage, but the overhead music started playing I Love Men by Cinema and the mosh pit turned into a party as fans put their hands in the air to the rhythm of the music and kept the show going on their own. This whole tour also featuring Night Demon and Crowbar is an amazing experience and fans of metal music should definitely attend this. The tour is still early into the dates so if they come near you, be sure to check it out!
Review by: Misael Ruiz
Carcass
Ghoul
