Carcass Week: Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious

Everyone has had those awkward teenage years between being a kid and being an adult. You knew who you were as a kid, and things were simple. As an adult, you've (hopefully) found out what you want to be and have made efforts to move towards that goal. It's those teenage years where you've got one foot rooted in still being a kid and the other in trying to be an adult. This leads to clumsy, awkward encounters with girls (or boys), embarrassing situations where you've got to explain to your mom why the house is trashed after your party (it was so rad) which you weren't allowed to have but you and your friends did anyways so you could impress your popular girl (or boy) love interest and now you're going to get in soooooooooo much trouble, and other classic 90s teenager sitcom staples to happen.

Above: World's biggest Carcass fans.

Carcass' third album, Necroticism: Decanting the Insolubles is the main character of that classic 90s teenager sitcom.

Above: Malcom? Shut up. The analogy almost made sense.

Not fully a grind album (the kid) and not quite the melodic death metal album that Heartwork is (the adult), Necoticism: Desecrating the Interspaceous is an interesting piece of music. Lots of people think this album is some of Carcass' best work, but I'm not totally convinced that it is. It's thrown away a lot of the sheer aggression and visceral qualities of Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness for more of a death metal-esque sounding style. Some of Carcass' old grind habits stay strong here, with Bill Steer still performing those uber-low vocals underneath Jeff Walker's growls. Walker's vocals seem to move more towards a traditional old school death metal sound as well. There are still some parts where the drums grind pretty well, but a lot of the time they pound with more refined, sophisticated beats and rhythms.

I think a major shift in Carcass' sound was with the addition of secondary guitarist Michael Amott. Amott is a very melodic lead player, and I think pairing him up with Steer pushed Steer to work even more on the melodic aspect of his playing as well. This dynamic duo pump out some really sweet riffs on Necroticism: Descreting the Indigenous. The opening riff to "Corporal Jigsore Quandary" is one of my all-time favorite headbangable riffs. It's just so fucking catchy.

Like I said before, Necroticism: Descrambling the Inslabafabulous isn't quite grind and isn't quite melodic death metal. I think the reason most people really like this album is because it offers some highlights of grind, without making it too harsh on the ears and deterring them from listening to it. They see it as grindy melodic death metal. I see it as melodic grindcore, and I can't have that. I like my grindcore to have absolutely no sense of melody or dynamics (read: Pig Destroyer). I think melo-death should be classy and awe inspiring (read: Dark Tranquility), while grind should be like a crazy homeless man screaming with blast beats overtop (read: Pig Destroyer).

That's just me being a bit of an elitist fuck though, so whatever.

On a Playlist With: (old) Cannibal Corpse, Bloodbath, Exhumed

Overall Score


3.0

I may have bashed the whole "not quite grind, not quite melo-death" thing a little too much, but I still think the album suffered a bit from this crossover. The mix evens out to some pretty above average death metal. The riffs are great, the vocals are brutal and the production isn't too shabby either. If there's one thing I have to credit Necroticism: Derpherping the Inherpderpulous with, it's that without this awkward teenager of an album, Carcass wouldn't grow up to be the adult who puts together the masterpiece known as Heartwork. But we'll chit chat about that tomorrow.


Carcass: Purulent Bile Excrement and Consumption 3: Return of the Excrement!


That's Carcass: The Drinking Game 3: Drink with a Vengeance, for the normal people out there. The game works as so.

1. Load up Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious on to your CD player/ record player/ iTunes/ whatever.
2. Print out copies of the lyrics to all the songs for everyone playing.
3. Pour yourself a nice tall glass of your favorite drink.
4. Press play and get blooddrunk.

As the songs play through, have everyone follow through the lyrics. Drink every time:

• There's a word you don't know the definition of.
• You think "ew", "gross", "disgusting" or any similar words after reading a disturbing line. If you notice one of your friends isn't drinking to this, that probably means they're a serial killer. I'm just sayin'.

That's it. Let's take a sample game through the song "Corporal Jigsore Quandary". Red are words I don't know, and Yellow are lines I think are disgusting.

"Corporal Jigsore Quandary"

Excised and anatomised, deviscerated disarray
The torso diverged with pride
Deftly amputated, evulsed limbs now defunct
The trunk imbrued, tatty stumps used as lugs
For a chondrin puzzle so quaint
Head and body decollate
A heaving mass so quiescent...

Scattered and scrambled, your teasement grows
A bloody caricature to make whole
A squirming grisly jigsaw, detrital fragments fit so snug
That missing piece will leave you stumped
Totally desassembled, nicely sliced and diced
A cold mannequin once resembled
Real cranium teaser, carved from flesh and bone
So mystifying...

Battered and diffused, with placating blows
A human jigsaw to make whole
A sequacious pattern which once fitted so snug
Joining together each dubious lump
Ravaged disassembly, neatly cubed and diced
A cold mannequin reassembled
Astute brain teaser, incorporate flesh and bone
So mortifying...

An incessant game - methodically made
With each cumulative piecing - of commensated meat...

Bi-manual reconstruction, eldritch problem complete
A convented effigy
A pathological toy, each chunk rigorously
Inter mortis locking, as you pathogenically rot
Such a perplexing task
To fit the remains in the casket
Uliginous mess so quiescent...

An incessant game - methodically made
With each cumulative piece - of commensated meat...

Total Drinks: 12

So, here there aren't any lines I found ridiculously disgusting (maybe Reek and Symphonies jaded me to some of this), but there are a hell of a lot of words I don't know. I think some of them aren't even real words. I'm not going to look them up, because that means opening a dictionary and learning things. I cram information into my brain for 8 out of the 12 months already. Don't make me do it during my time off, too. There are 8 tracks (11 with the bonus tracks), which leads to between 96 and 132 drinks. A good cool down after Reek and Symphonies.

That's all for now, folks! Tomorrow, I'm getting some Heartwork done.