Carcass are arguably one of the most influential bands in metal. Formed in 1985 in Liverpool, it is a nice little irony that another very influential band – the Beatles – came from the band’s hometown. I ran this past vocalist Jeff Walker when I talked to him recently, and he laughed heartily.

“Well, none of us were born there,” he said, “but we are the band that’s had the biggest influence on music since the Beatles, but it’s completely meaningless there! Nobody knows who we are in Liverpool.”

Carcass has only recently started touring in earnest. When I spoke to Walker he was in the USA, and the band had only just really geared up for doing shows every other night, rather than just the festivals they’d been doing on and off in Europe.

Ever since the boys have gotten back together, people have been asking Carcass whether or not they are going to do the long-term run with their re-formation. Are they going to start writing again, and does the project have any longevity? Walker was pessimistic on that count, and a little bit dumbfounded by the media’s continual scrutiny of the issue.

“Uh, yeah, well, we re-formed to play festivals in Europe. We’re in America now, and we’re playing every other night; we don’t want to consider ourselves as being ‘on tour’. It’s just a series of sporadic events and lots of places. People keep asking us whether we’re back together, but our back-catalogue is 130 songs,” he reminded me. “We’ll write if we feel inspired but we’re not seriously sitting down to do it.”

The shows around the world have been a bit surprising to Walker, because in some places – notably Mexico – Carcass shows were sold out. Having said that, he acknowledged that Carcass isn’t Metallica. “We’re not gonna fill stadiums!” he laughed. “But I’m pretty sure that L.A. tonight is sold out, and New York as well. In the bigger places we do well.”

Given that Carcass have been so influential, for fans as well as bands – think of all those girls you know who would have killed to have ‘Carcass hair’ – and given younger kids’ penchant for the old masters, I wonder out loud to Walker whether he thinks that they are actively creating new fans during their tours.

“Maybe. You know, me and Michael were talking before that we were thinking that the shows would be populated by fat, balding, middle-aged guys like us! But I think there’s a renaissance happening. Young kids are rediscovering music from years ago. I think it’s because so much music is lame these days, so they’re going into the past, to when music wasn’t so lame. But yeah, we are seeing fresh faces at the shows.”

Of all the Carcass albums that are out there, Heartwork was the one that hit the floor, in terms of fan response. People either loved or hated Heartwork. I ran the problem of the album past Walker, and he told me that it was just the ‘whiny bitches’ who complained about it.

“Well, it did and it didn’t [hit the mark]. With each album we’re like a snake: we shed skin with each release. People who liked the first album didn’t like the second; people who liked the second album didn’t like the third; people who liked the third album didn’t like the fourth. It wasn’t a flop or a disaster, it was just whiny bitches complaining about it,” Walker stated bluntly. “Each album sounds different. People who like symphonies won’t like Heartwork: there’s an album for everyone. It wasn’t deliberate; we’ve just got a bit of imagination.

“Our first album was pretty noisy and disgusting,” Walker conceded, calming down. “We just grew up in public. We just did what we did, and we can’t understand why other bands don’t do different things instead of ending up with the same album over and over. Though one thing we never did was a synthesiser album. Maybe we should do that for our next one?”

Unlike many bands, Carcass hadn’t really considered their Australian shows. Rather than gush about how it’ll be brilliant, Walker was far more hard-headed and realistic about the upcoming Aussie tour than many other bands are.

“We haven’t really considered it. No disrespect, but we’ll deal with it when we come to it. We kind of see Australians as second-hand Americans. Nah,” he conceded. “I don’t wanna give you some bullshit. By the time we get there we’re gonna have fun. It’s just not very lucrative for us. I mean, the reality of it is that we’re not doing it to line our bank balances. It’s a lot of hard work for what it is, but honestly, it’s just on the way to Japan.”

Before Walker had to head off to his next media appointment, he told me that people shouldn’t expect anything from the upcoming Carcass shows. That way, he said, “you won’t be disappointed”. However, he did apologise to the younger punters out there that might have been looking forward to the gigs. “I hope people come to the show, and I’m really sorry the shows aren’t all ages, but it’s beyond our control.”