Carcass
By: David E. Gehlke
 Since their untimely demise in 1996, the Carcass name has only grown in stature, reaching definite legendary status with a handful of genre defining albums. Both Necrotisim: Descanting The Insalubrious and Heartwork are required listening for any extreme music fan, setting the stage for both the UK death metal scene and the melodic death metal explosion. Many will site the band's final album, Swansong as being an uninspired piece of work, but many listens will reveal a focused melodic attack that only hinted at what guitarist/founder/primary songwriter Bill Steer was headed. Sensing there was no longer anything left to achieve, Carcass split in early 1996, preserving a musical legacy that remains untouched.
Lost among the appreciation for Carcass' past work, was the dead-serious topic of drummer Ken Owen's health. In February of 1999, Owen suffered a near fatal brain hemorrhage, leaving him in a coma for over 10 months. Choosing to keep his illness out of the limelight in order to preserve the musical legacy of Carcass only hints at what kind a person Ken Owen is. After maintaining a code of silence for nearly 5 years, Owen has emerged to talk about the career retrospective, Choice Cuts, his health, and all matters Carcass related.
Blistering.com: First off, how is your health?
Ken Owen: It's getting better and better everyday.
Blistering.com: Are you able to maintain some sense of normalcy now?
Ken Owen: Definitely yeah, I play drums in a band, with some Roland V Drums so I don't annoy the neighbors (laughs).
Blistering.com: Many people were unaware as to happened to you, was there a real effort not to make a big fuss out of what happened to you?
Ken Owen: I think it bummed out everyone, no one wanted to discuss it.
Blistering.com: There was never an official statement in regards to this, so did you feel by keeping this low-key it helped take the focus away from you and leave it on the band?
Ken Owen: Exactly right, the last thing we wanted was the focus to be on my health and we kinda fell apart before this, so we felt we should just leave it at this.
Blistering.com: Can you explain the process of choosing songs for Choice Cuts?
Ken Owen: Each of the songs are picked based on what the band wanted, with the help of Earache. Once we decided we were going to release one of these compilations, we figured it would be hard to please everybody. I think it covers every era of the band pretty well.
Blistering.com: Were you at all taken aback by the quality of your catalog?
Ken Owen: It still inspires me today that we released 5 or 6 pretty good albums with some good tunes from what I remember.
Blistering.com: What do you think of all the bands that are directly influenced by you? Do you see it as plagiarism or as a tribute?
Ken Owen: We take all of these bands as a very serious compliment when these bands come out that are heavy and fast. I don’t think we've seen these bands as stealing our stuff, really.
Blistering.com: Around the time of Swansong, did you find it hard to listen to songs of off Reek… and Symphonies…?
Ken Owen: Absolutely right….
Blistering.com: Did you ever ask yourself, what were you thinking?
Ken Owen: Especially on my end, some of that old stuff was really brutal and fast.
Blistering.com: Does Choice Cuts put the final nail in the Carcass coffin?
Ken Owen: We already have the songs, plus I don't think we have any more unreleased tracks. I'd love to say yes that there are extra songs, but we've pretty much scraped the barrel with this one (laughs).
Blistering.com: Does the reunion idea seem at all worthwhile or interesting at this point?
Ken Owen: It would really satisfy me to play with the other guys again, I think that would really put the nail in the coffin, but I don't think it's going to happen. Bill is involved with his other bands and Jeff (Walker, bass/vocals) is busy as well, but I've got to focus on getting better.
Blistering.com: So no dollar amount could reunite Carcass?
Ken Owen: No, money was never of interest with this band….
Blistering.com: Michael Amott quit because he was disinterested with the whole melodic death metal style you were playing, do you find it hard to swallow that he's doing the same thing with Arch Enemy?
Ken Owen: No, to be honest I always got along well with Mike Amott and I respect everything he brought to the band and he was a magnificent guitar player. His guitar playing really matched with Bill's quite well, and he was always looking for a second guitar player, and Mike was up to playing with Bill, so it worked out.
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