Back in the notorious nineties hard rock was largely constituted by world weary young men from the American Pacific region whose outlook on the world was only remotely more becoming than their sweat soaked cardigans.

Back then Carcass from Liverpool still kept the banner flying for true Heavy Metal with some succes. There weren’t many of them in those days. Due to not least the meisterwerk "Heartwork" from 1993, Carcass’ mission was accomplished.

If thus inclined you could quite rightly claim that Carcass were almost alone in keeping the genre alive back then and beyond. While these guys’ masterful mix of extreme metal, perception of harmonics and epic eminence a’la Iron Maiden created the concrete foundation for latter day heavy metal heroes such as In Flames, Arch Enemy and Dark Tranquility.

In other words: Carcass were among the very finest back then and you’d better believe that 21 years after the shell shock that was "Heartwork" , they still are.

The band proved it amply at Roskilde with one mighty hit to the blubbery blancmange which otherwise constituted the festival’s metal bookings this year.

Now, why the fuck we had to wait three full days (till Sunday at 2 pm.) until we got a credible thrashing metal wise you’ll have to ask a better man than I. However, Carcass swept the dirty ground at the festival with all the competition before you could roar "woaaarrrghhh!" (as one does).

This was one classy Carcass march from a brillant band with a rare understanding of the powerful combination that is classic metal riffs, sky striving guitar harmonies and – as pertains many middle sections – quite the rock’n’roll swing.

"Get with it now! Or would you rather retreat to your tents and listen to your R’n’b compilations," bassist and bandleader Jeff Walker smiled during one of many John Cleese inspired raps.

"I do know you’d rather listen to dance music. However, we HAVE to play for an hour and fifteen minutes otherwise they’ll reduce our fee. So please fucking stay!"

No, the irony of this ROCK festival being sadly under supplied with exactly rock music wasn’t lost on Walker.

Who amusingly went on:

"Get your shit together. There’s fuck all happening between us and Stevie Wonder!" (Wonder headlined the festival six hours later, ed.).

Walkers´ wry English humour was most welcome in a genre that sees way too many contributors communicate on a level which only serves to prove that  it’ll take some years yet before Mensa comes calling with a complimentary membership.

Jeff Walker, drummer Daniel Wilding and the sublime guitar team of Bill Steer og Ben Ash's comeback album from last year is called  "Surgical Steel". A very apt title because that is exactly what Carcass is: Music forged in steel and played with the precision of a master surgeon.

75 minutes of pure metal relief after the battalion of useless acts that had preceded Carcass on this festival.

You could both see and indeed HEAR it when Carcass closed the party with the master class in melody, metal and dynamics that is the title track from the aforementioned "Heartwork".

Come back soon guys. This was one of the concerts of the year as far as I’m concerned.