Blackstar

Having expected Blackstar to have some semblance of Carcass, from which of the band members came, I was initially shocked and disappointed to hear the opening guitar riff. This stuff is anything but death metal. The thing is, this stuff is catchy! More of a NWOBHM/80's guitar rock sound, the songs are crafted with the hook in mind, and some of them do indeed succeed. Also left behind with Carcass are Walker's trademark vocals. Granted, this change was not completely out of the blue, as Swansong was not entirely the definitive Carcass album by any stretch of the imagination. I can only imagine that the idea was to leave behind Carcass completely, and form a band with no ties and in that regard, this record is a complete success. Unfortunately, name recognition does play a major role in record buying, and fans looking to this as the next Carcass album will be let down. On it's own merits, Barbed Wire Soul is a strong rock metal album, with riffs that will haunt you for days, even if the album is a little hard to take seriously at times (most notably the saxophone on songs 4 and 8). Kudos though to Peaceville for continuing to put out eclectic metal!.

6 out of 10