STREAMING: Evocation “Corporal Jigsore Quandary”

The stars have aligned. The planets in strange conjunction. The winds of time are flowing in reverse. What would the odds be that Swedish death metallers Evocation—long ago resurrected by revenge—are releasing a covers EP, Excised and Anatomised, a mere month before reanimated death metal lords Carcass are set to release the follow-up to Swansong, while a rejuvenated At The Gates prepare for yet another reunion tour, just after Napalm Death stormed the pearly gates of the United States on the second iteration of the Decibel Magazine Tour, which justly came after album-dormant Bolt Thrower went through Fatland on their first-ever headlining tour, meanwhile Edge of Sanity sits in eternity aching for either A) a reunion announcement without Dan Swanö or B) Dan Swanö announcing Crimson III? We have no idea, actually.
Needless to say, the coattails of death metal are being ridden unbeknownst by Evocation on Excised and Anatomised, where the Swedes go through ripping renditions of “You Suffer,” “…For Victory,” “Terminal Spirit Disease,” and “Enigma.” Oh, and they not-so-coyly render “Corporal Jigsore Quandary” cool, which if you click the Soundcloud link below, crank up your crappy laptop speakers to 666 (cliche, right?!), and worship the gods of old you’ll concur. Is it as good as the original? That’s for you to decide, but the featured photo (see above) is from 1992 at Gothenburg’s famous Valvet club. So, we’re kind of melding two old things in with the new to drive home a point. Evocation is releasing Excised and Anatomised on vinyl only (digital can fuck off).

“The Carcass track was probably the most demanding track to cover on the EP,” says guitarist and overall good dude Marko Palmen on covering the Carcass classic(k). “The first guitar solo ‘Human Jigsaw’ (originally recorded by Bill Steer) on the track landed on my table to perform on the EP. I’m normally a rhythm guitar player but once in a while I also make a solo. But this solo was really over-the-top when it comes to complexity for me. I had to bring home the guitar from the rehearsal room and more or less practice the solo for two months before nailing it in the studio. In the end it was definitely worth it, now I can tell my children in about 10 years that ‘Listen kids, Dad did the solo on this track!’ And to be honest I believe we will be awarded with a Grammy nomination for that performance. [Laughs] Otherwise, the Carcass track was also a challenge in many other ways. First of all the arrangements for almost everything on the track are atonal and don’t follow any logical structure. That makes of course the work covering the track so much more difficult. And then the lyrics are more or less like reading from an autopsy protocol with words that one has never encountered before and that makes the lyrical work quite challenging as well. But in the end when we nailed the track we all were very pleased with the result. I think we all felt quite bonded to the track and loved the way it turned out. Overall it was a great experience doing some cover tunes. One gets a unique view into the mind of another creative artist and that will probably leave lasting impressions with us for our future musical career.”

** Evocation’s Excised and Anatomised is out August 20th on Century Media Records. Pre-orders are available HERE. If you’re not interested in that perhaps we can interest you in an eBay search on ultra-boring UK death metallers Decomposed, which would be HERE.