helterskelter.ca

CARCASS
1988 - Reek Of Putrefaction.
1989 - Symphonies Of Sickness.
1991 - Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious.
1993 - Heartwork.
1996 - Swansong.
more CARCASS.
way more Helter Skelter.

August 13, 1988 - 2023: 35 years of: Reek Of Putrefaction.

They reek of putrefaction.

England again. In the midst of mid 80s hardcorepunk, some crusties decided to make a bloody mess. The fastest music on Earth, mixed with the most elaborate medical lyric-set on Earth ...this still warm cadaver has a name: CARCASS.

Barely audible, the ultra grind blasts on "Regurgitation Of Giblets", Carbonized Eyesockets" and the adorable "Vomited Anal Tract". Skin tissues are ripped to shred on "Burnt To A Crisp" and "Pyosisified (Rotten To The Core)", while "Microwaved Uterogestation" takes another twisted look at this stinky mess.

As you may have noticed, the overkill is real, deadly real. Not a single chance is left behind to use the shock-value to spew this metal-trash ...a "Malignant Defecation" anyone ?

The death-certificate is signed by these British butchers:
- Ken Owen / drums and vocals
- Jeff Walker / bass and vocals
- Bill Steer / guitars and vocals

Featuring temporary NAPALM DEATH hippie-man Bill Steer, this unit would not only create horrific death and horrific grind, but push the limits of bad taste to the test. Banned everywhere, the LP artwork shows remains of autopsies and morgue leftovers, all packaged in a lovely manner.

22 tracks in 30 minutes: goregrind is hatched from this decaying mush.

DIY grind, guts and a morbid massacre, CARCASS would very soon become one the top key-players in this explosive 1988-92 deathmetal / grindcore scene. More scalpel slicin', pus drenchin' and cranium splittin' shall openly rot on 1989's trendsetting Symphonies Of Sickness LP.

*
Reek Of Putrefaction = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBRJY63z9dY&list=PLkROH3Eqs0T9nC-KiNKUuvc9j03paMCYF
Live in the UK in 1988
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbKx3f2wecA
Documentary: Part I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-enFT6j08vA

December 2, 1989 - 2024: 35 years of: Symphonies Of Sickness.

Enter the mortuary.

Liverpool's meat grinders are opened for business ...and business is good. Deranged and barely out of the garage, the CARCASS slaughterer now exhibit brutally, with some hints of finesse.

Decaying and grinding, they now fully "Reek Of Putrefaction" ...a brutal blast with a even brutaler stench. Riff-raffing along, we now dig deep into "Exhume To Consume" ...a fuming larva-plagued feast. The cool drum-intro beat of "Ruptured In Purulence" rapidly erupts into a vomit-stew, as the coda outro-riff of "Empathological Necroticism" elevates the groove into a mosh-jam.

Paramount deathgrind explodes on "Cadaveric Incubator Of Endoparasites", while the stomach-burns of "Crepitating Bowel Erosion" displays, again, both Walker and Steer's vocal fist-fight.

Raw and un-cooked.

From bloody body-parts to lumps of meat, the CARCASS evolution is getting its full load of proteins. Indecent and obscene, the UK offices of Earache Records were even raided by the morality. After a warning from local Law Enforcement, a revised censored artwork was later issued.

Forever changing their symphony and unique signature sickness, CARCASS would now change the entire deathmetal genre. From trio to quartet and leapfrogging over the competition, no one could've envisioned 1991's perfect posh melodic / grind hybrid of Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious CD.

*
Symphonies Of Sickness = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp7QjFRlreQ&list=OLAK5uy_nQWL1ZMqIdek2y-Mf5ZwD22kUShGLYi5M
The Peel Sessions = full EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohqfD04UjAM
Live in Nottingham in 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNz6XDcXjqA
Hard N Heavy Grindcore VHS
https://youtu.be/RBCj4Jv1B7E?t=4694

October 30, 1991 - 2021: 30 years of: Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious.

A swarming vulgar mass of infected virulency.

After the initial vomiting of 1988's Reek Of Putrefaction and 89's decaying Symphonies Of Sickness, THE CARCASS were now changing the tides, while still wearing their blood-splattered morgue-apron.

Keeping on rotting, round Three shall be a major step-up in the creative department and a major step-up in the deathmetal genre altogether. Enter Swedish guitar-wizz Michael Amott for extra tissue laceration.

The heart is still beating on "Inpropagation", a strong punch to the face, built on chord progressions, coagulated melodies and slick Bill Steer and Mike Amott Shrapnel-like leads. The killings goes on with the crowd-favorite "Corporal Jigsore Quandary", where the rocknroll vibe quickly sets-in. Intros after intros, we've got a good pulse here. Grind and growth is present on both "Symposium Of Sickness" and the closer, the center-piece of the record, the 7:11sec riff-raff internal bleeding of: "Forensic Clinicism / The Sanguine Article".

Keep your surgical-gloves on, the corpse is still warm. A bloody blast, the burned to a crisp videotrack "Incarnated Solvent Abuse" might not be a single per say according to industry-standards, but it did found some MTV airplay and press-coverage for it's edgy artistic esthetics.

1991's deathmetal tidalwave was the ultimate extreme-metal takeover. Sorry thrashers, thanks for the last decade, but were are now Kings of the moshpit. Even so that major-labels Sony Music came knocking on the door in 1992 for proper US-licensing. Hard to picture a label-roster that includes Michael Jackson, NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK, Carlos Santana and ...CARCASS ! All of this rocknroll-madness while Seattle was changing the face of music-itself, what a great time to be alive.

Witnessing this dissection in concert in 1992, along other Earache oddities BRUTAL TRUTH, CATHEDRAL and NAPALM DEATH, this bloke can tell ya that the meat was definitely on the hook.

Round Four would bloom into a full death-n-roll adventure, the maniacal melodies of the modern trendsetter of 1993's Heartwork CD ...the genesis of a new softer-extreme: melodic deathmetal.

Pretty, euphonic, perfect ...yet still repulsive.

*
Incarnated Solvent Abuse = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfjYYh2AWrs
Corporal Jigsore Quandary = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTPOtkoP93U
Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of85SdcJDuo&list=PLiLDkNTiyE1zOtu2P96JmSh6zpD1EMSsg
Interview with MTV in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_338hPe58gk
Live in the UK in 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s189ykQ3Ruw
Documentary: Part III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LztlhMpaos
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSmFT3RprVk

October 18, 1993 - 2023: 30 years of: Heartwork.

Deathgrind's Black Album ?

The bloody apron came back from the cleaners ...and was put away in storage. The bloody artwork came back from the designer ...and now sports a clean H.R. Giger Peace Sign montage. The bloody demos came back from the pre-prod sessions ...and a vast amount of melodies and power-chords are on tape.

Now signed to Columbia Records for North America, was CARCASS a priority in the tiny heavymetal-department at Sony Music ? ...the underground didn't seem to care.

Let's rot !

The death-tone swallows the scene, as "Buried Dreams" slides in. A massive bottom-end attack, built on rock / metal architectures. The faster "Carnal Forge" and the sick "Arbeit Macht Fleisch" provides solid right-hand riffing above a deathgrind foundation. Could this morgue-metal meal be the next media-mainstream juggernaut ?

The strong title-track "Heartwork", with it's blasting-crescendo sets this band a leap-ahead the competition, especially where Steer + Amott trade leads like their British predecessors in JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN. These lovely butchers do still rips through the skin on "Doctrinal Expletives" and the über incision of "Death Certificate" ...a sicknening work of art.

The fast grinding of "This Mortal Coil" gets an unexpected rocknroll twist in the main-riff, while the mid-paced controlled carnage of "Embodiment" and "No Love Lost" did even receive an MTV-video, as an intended single-track.

The perfect mix: pure putrid powerful pin-point pristine precision !

With the early 90s came a new race, for better sonic-production. From Painkiller, to Vulgar Display Of Power, to eventually Burn My Eyes and Demanufacture CDs ...this race for bigger guitars was the corner-stone of the decade. Heartwork's fat-tone, courtesy of Peavey 5150s ...Heartwork's multi-track production, courtesy of Colin Richardson ...heavymetal-deathvolution, courtesy of CARCASS.

Deathmetal perfection on a major-label ?

The tame sleeve-art, the tame rock-signatures ...a usual no-no in extreme-metal. Yet CARCASS's exponential trajectory was deathnroll-bound since the very first note of 1991's Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious CD. Always on top and always influential, CARCASS's imprint had already stained the underground, to up towards more headroom and more Eurometal finesse. By late-1993, their immense pedigree butchery was already unmatched and untouchable, true trailblazers in this new melodic-metal subculture of deathmetal. And just like label-mates and sick Swedish-metal stalwart ENTOMBED, the Columbia Records deal came and went. No Gold or Platinum awards for Great Britain's greats ...but the underground didn't seem to care.

Heartwork is deathmetal's artwork: one of the genre's most celebrated crowning achievement.

On tape Michael Amott is everywhere, yet he declined to tour, choosing to push his hippie aspiration in SPIRITUAL BEGGARS. Live, his guitar parts were handled by ex-CRONOS's Mike Hickey. The carneous cacoffiny would, again, polish their sound and add even more 60s rock-tricks for the rejected Columbia Records 1996 ill-fated posthumous Swansong CD.

*
Heartwork = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpbpOgUybBM
No Love Lost = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SioElynZx5s
Heartwork = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdFIcO3uvzs&list=OLAK5uy_lOrG-x-1vJMCiq9UFUNukZxxpQF3uxvbI
Interview in 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h43kPDcSqIY
Live in Berkeley in 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2ZK_v6TBgU
Documentary: Part IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hjqCYX5bvk
Parr Street Studio
https://maps.app.goo.gl/g3S7xmacDpBuJgTD6
Ola does Heartwork
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxUl9UJG00
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNW5_fvHr-8
some girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUbnmgz1ZCM
some band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssfVy3vVfRo

June 4, 1996 - 2021: 25 years of: Swansong.

Swansong ...or how to bend-over extrememetal.

Maniacal murder-melodies have been apart of CARCASS's DNA since the 1991 tour-de-force Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious CD. The following opus, 1993's trendsetting beastialy beautiful Heartwork CD is still today a reference in the genre and a turning point in the global deathmetal time-line.

Produced again by studio genius Colin Richardson, for Columbia Records, the vegan British gang was at the pole-position for extrememetal's dominance ...or where they ?

The agro-punches of the appropriately titled "Keep On Rotting In The Free World" kicks the rocknroll factor into full overdrive. Not deathmetal, but death-n-roll, a fine mix of aggressive downtuned guitar, raspy vocals and those beloved mid 60s acidrock overtones. Implausible, yet palpable. The party continues with the crunchy "Black Star", the vile "Don't Believe A Word" and the dark fist-pumping "Child's Play". This is the most commerciable, deathmetal ever was, or ever could be as more verse-chorus-verse addiction is present on the lovely track "Cross My Heart".

Massive changes in the rock-landscape in 1994-95 and major-label politics eventually got the best of them. Taped and ready to go, the album was shelved by some Sony execs, the band broke-up and eventually Earache Records acquired the rights and released it in June 1996.

"The second great rockandroll swindle." - Jeff Walker.

Ironically, the album's title would dictate the band's putrefying future ...that is until the boys gave in to fan-pressure and reunited for a since healthy and lucrative comeback in 2008. Wake up and smell the CARCASS: then, now and forever. CARCASS: one of extrememetal's finest body of work.

*
Keep On Rotting In The Free World = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMqTuMMtqIc
Swansong = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxZMMl29wqs&list=PLHTo__bpnlYWSB68rUeCzO9rIS2yE6MOu
Documentary: Part V
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWFUUqujDdQ

more CARCASS:

CARCASS
&

NAPALM DEATH
&

Death-Metal 1988-92
&

Death-Metal EU 1991
&

Campaign For Musical Destruction
&

SPIRITUAL BEGGARS
&

ARCH ENEMY