After months of speculation, Carcass vocalist and bassist Jeff Walker has finally confirmed that with the release of their latest album, Swansong, the band are to finally call it a day.
"I am currently working in a new band called Black Star with Ken (Owen, drums) and Carlo (Regadas, guitar) and Mark 'Griff' Griffiths, the original Cathedral guitarist," Walker told Hammer. "Without Bill in the band it would just be cabaret to continue."
Steer announced his decision to quit at the tail end of last year, whilst the band were still in the throes of attempting to get out of their record contract with Columbia.
"We finished the album ages ago but had to sit around whilst we tried to sort everything out and we finally got free from Columbia and got the rights to Swansong in December, but a few months before that I had a feeling Bill wanted out," Walker says. "So Swansong will be the last Carcass album."
"I've always had a streak of antagonism in me," states Walker. "I wanted to get a kind of almost classic rock feel, with that Thin Lizzy style of twin guitars sound. That's more of the direction that Black Star will take, away from the old, more death metal sound we had with our earliest albums."
Swansong is released on June 3 through Earache Records. Black Star have currently recorded enough for their debut album and are currently negotiating with record companies.