Carcass unsure if guitarist Ben Ash will be on album no.7

Carcass man Bill Steer says “it’s not clear” if guitarist Ben Ash will appear on the band’s seventh studio album.

Ash joined the band following the release of 2013’s Surgical Steel. And while praising Ash’s work with the group over the past three years, Steer says he’s not keen on “bringing in influences that are not within the scope of the band.”

When asked by Dead Rhetoric whether Ash would contribute to a possible seventh album by Carcass, Steer says: “At this stage, it’s not clear whether he will actually be on the record, in all honesty. What he does live works in that environment. Recording is putting everything under a microscope.

“If somebody’s bringing in influences that are not within the scope of the band, it’s going to be problematic.

“Ben’s a killer guy and he works hard on his playing, but some of his favourite stuff is not our favourite stuff. If some of those things bled into our music, it would really dilute it, to be honest with you.”

Steer continues: “It remains to be seen, but I’m just saying we wouldn’t just make another album. We want everything to be as good as it can be.

“You could have the best guitarist on Earth. I’m sure if Steve Vai played on it, that would excite a lot of people, but it would dilute it. It wouldn’t work with our stuff.”

Steer says he booked studio time last year to begin work on the Surgical Steel follow-up – but things didn’t pan out the way he initially thought.

He says: “I booked rehearsals with drummer Dan Wilding at the start of 2015 to begin work on the new album. How wrong was I?”

Steer adds: “We don’t tend to talk about things until it’s necessary. I think he was perplexed we had started writing. It was too early in his mind. We had a few tunes and we put them on the back-burner and we’ll get back to it next year.”

Earlier this year, Carcass leader Jeff Walker broke two bones in his foot prior to a show in Seattle when they were on tour with Slayer and Testament.

Despite the setback, he took to the stage for their final two appearances.

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