Carcass are a grindcore / death metal act based in Liverpool, England. They came to be in 1985 and disbanded decade later. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen.
Although widely regarded as pioneers of the grindcore genre, their early work was also tagged as "splatter death metal", "hardgore" and "goregrind" because of their gruesome album covers and lyrical content.
Early Days (1985-1989)
Carcass was formed by guitarist Bill Steer together with drummer Ken Owen in 1985 as Disattack. After releasing demo A Bomb Drops... in 1986, Paul (bassist) and Andrew Pek (vocalist) of Disattack left the band and was replaced by vocalist Sanjiv and bassist Jeff Walker, formerly bassist and vocalist of the Electro Hippies. About that same time Bill Steer joined Napalm Death (replacing Justin Broadrick) and recorded the second side of what became ND's first album, Scum (1987). Incidentally, Walker designed the cover art of that record.
The band had then changed its name to Carcass. In April 1987, they recorded Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment demo, the only Carcass recording featuring vocalist Sanjiv, who left shortly after. Walker and Steer shared vocal duties for debut album recording, which was done in only four days. Despite the primitive production values of Carcass's debut, Reek of Putrefaction - something the band was very displeased with - it became a favorite of Radio 1 legend John Peel. Due to his interest they were asked to participate in their first Peel Session in 1989 where they debuted new material for the second album. Peel Sessions was released as EP with funny band members' pseudonyms: K. Grumegargler, J. Offalmangler, W.G. Thorax Embalmer.
During this time between Reek of Putrefaction and the second album, drummer Ken Owen progressed from a single to double bass drum kit, allowing double bass beats to enter into the song writing process. This is stated by Walker to be one of the reasons why guitarist Bill Steer took Carcass more seriously and left Napalm Death.
Progress (1990-1993)
Symphonies of Sickness, the second album, along with much improved production (courtesy of Colin Richardson), featured more death metal structures, longer songs with more slow passages and guitar solos. The second half of the tour in support of 'Symphonies' saw the addition of second lead guitarist Michael Amott, whose previous work includedCarnage. Amott was to become a permanent member, playing on the second Peel Session and contributing material towards their third album.
Heartwork, released later in the year in 1993 was considered a radical change by many fans, eliminated Steer's deeper vocals and the clinically gory lyrics. Again, Steer handled all rhythm guitar duties to help gain consistency between the many layered guitars that built Carcass' best production to date. Song structures, whilst still containing musically complex parts, were simpler, in some cases using the verse/chorus/verse formula.
Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious showed even more intricate composition, this time with a full-fledged transition into death metal, and further improved production with a slight bias towards Walker's vocals compared to Steer's. Despite the addition of Amott to the ranks, Steer still handled all rhythm guitar duties, despite the album credits, with Amott only contributing leads. Carcass again supported the album with heavy touring, and were part of the Earache 'Gods of Grind' tour with Cathedral, Entombed and Confessor in both Europe and the US.
The Tools of the Trade EP was released in 1992 to coincide with the 'Gods of Grind' tour. It featured a Necroticism track ("Incarnated Solvent Abuse"), a new track "Tools of the Trade", a re-recording of "Rotten to the Gore" from the first album and a re-recording of "Hepatic Tissue Fermentation" from the Pathological compilation. Although it is hinted that the 3 bonus cuts were recorded at the same time as Necroticism, they show a dryer production/mix to the aforementioned album.
Columbia (1994)
After the release of Heartwork, Carcass received a worldwide deal with Columbia Records, who hoped for a commercial success, even suggesting that Jeff Walker learn how to sing. Fan reaction was split between the charge that Carcass were no longer playing death metal at all and appreciation of the technical accomplishment the album shows. In fact, today some credit Carcass with being a very early founding influence for not just one, but two genres of metal - grindcore (or, more specifically, goregrind), and the modern melodic death metal sound. Michael Amott left the band right after Heartworkwas recorded and was for a while replaced by Mike Hickey who was later replaced by Carlo Regadas.
During the summer of 1994 Walker remixed the track "Inside Out" for a Die Krupps remix album, although the version stayed fairly true to the original with the exception of Owen's drum samples from Heartworkreplacing the Die Krupps original, and additional mixing from Walker and Colin Richardson at Parr Street studios (where Heartwork was recorded).
Carcass now set about writing songs for their major label debut. During the December 1994 UK tour Carcass showcased two songs from their current writing sessions - "Edge of Darkness" and "Firmhand", both showing a more straight forward song writing approach than on previous efforts. Around this time, "Edge of Darkness" was recorded for the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show sessions - a session which could be found on later compilation albums.
Demise (1995-2006)
By late 1994 17 songs were ready and the band set about using their $200,000 advance to record the album, again with Colin Richardson, at Rockfield studios in Monmouth, South Wales in early 1995. During the 6 week recording schedule the record label began to withdraw support, stating that They (Carcass) were not ready to record and needed to write more songs. This advice was ignored, as was the suggestion to have Terry Date (Pantera, Prong etc) 'remix' the album, and the band continued. At the time, Jeff Walker stated in an interview with the UK's Metal Hammer Magazine that the album was taking more of a classic rock approach, with drums, bass and twin guitars a la Thin Lizzy in comparison to earlier 'multi-layered guitar' productions. This has since been put down to Bill Steer's unwillingness to perform the time consuming guitar layering (as once again Steer handled all rhythm guitar) through losing interest in the metal genre.
Due to continuing record company problems with Columbia/Sony causing the album to be delayed from late Summer 1995 to June 1996, in which time Carcass moved back to the Earache Records label and broke up before even releasing Swansong. The move back to Earache was dubbed by Walker as "the second great rock and roll swindle" (Kerrang! - June 96) as they had effectively been paid twice for the same album.
Swansong, which featured twelve of the seventeen tracks put to tape during the recording sessions, drew some criticism from fans for its melodic riffs which in some ways bordered on late 1980s thrash. This last official album also incorporated more melodic elements ("Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody", "R**k the Vote") and some doom metal elements ("Don't Believe a Word").
The album only featured twelve of the seventeen songs recorded in the Swansong sessions (or thirteen on the original brain shaped edition with the bonus disc). Kerrang! reported in June 1995 that prior to Swansong's release, Carcass would be releasing an EP featuring two tracks from what would be Swansong and three songs from the sessions that would not make the final LP. However, this EP was never released, most likely due to the lack of record company support for newly recorded material.
Walker has since stated in interviews that all seventeen songs should have been included in a double album, and that some songs omitted from Swansong were actually stronger than some of Swansong's actual content.
Members:
- Bill Steer - vocals, guitars (1985–1995; 2007–present)
- Jeffrey Walker - vocals, bass guitar (1987–1995; 2007–present)
- Michael Amott - guitars (1990–1993; 2007–present)
- Daniel Erlandsson - drums (2007–present)
Former members:
- Ken Owen - drums, vocals (1985–1995)
- Mike Hickey - guitars (on tour 1993–1995)
- Carlo Regadas - guitars (1995)
- Sanjiv - vocals (1985–1987)
Heartwork is an album by Carcass, released through Earache Records in 1993. The album was recorded at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool between May 18 and June 21,1993.
The sculpture depicted in the cover art, "Life Support 1993", was designed by H.R. Giger, and is in fact an update of a sculpture he created in the late 1960s. The video for the song "Heartwork" features a real-life interpretation of the sculpture, including a human welded as a part of it. The album is back in print for the first time in years following the June 2, 2008 Dualdisc reissue.
Michael Amott left the band after the recording of the album before founding Spiritual Beggars, and was temporarily replaced by Mike Hickey. In The Pathologist's Report,Bill Steer says Heartwork is his favourite Carcass album.
Tracklisting:
- "Buried Dreams" (Steer/Walker) - 3:58
- "Carnal Forge" (Steer/Amott/Walker) - 3:54
- "No Love Lost" (Steer/Walker) - 3:22
- "Heartwork" (Steer/Amott/Walker) - 4:33
- "Embodiment" (Amott/Steer/Walker) - 5:36
- "This Mortal Coil" (Steer/Amott/Walker) - 3:49
- "Arbeit Macht Fleisch" (Steer/Walker) - 4:21
- "Blind Bleeding the Blind" (Steer/Walker) - 4:57
- "Doctrinal Expletives" (Steer/Amott/Walker) - 3:39
- "Death Certificate" (Amott/Steer/Walker) - 3:38
- "This Is Your Life" (bonus track) - 4:12
- Jeff Walker - Bass Guitar, Vocals
- Michael Amott - Lead Guitar
- Bill Steer - Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar
- Ken Owen - drums
Other personnel:
- Keith Andrews - Engineer
- Dave Buchanan - Assistant Engineer
- Colin Richardson - Producer
- Andrea Wright - Assistant Engineer
- H. R. Giger - Cover Art
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