Carcass Week: Swansong

Finally. The last entry of Carcass Week. I just got a double LP of Childish Gambino's Camp in the mail yesterday (as well as a Grab Bag from Century Media Records, but more on that later) and I've been dying to listen to it. I know that if I did, my Carcass binge would be over faster than you could say "genital grinder", so I opted to wait until this post was up before cracking it open. Now that I've reminded myself of my new record, I've been eyeing it nonstop. This is going to be a quick review because a) there's not too much to say about Swansong and b) I reeeeeeeeaaaaaaally want to listen to Camp.

Review time now.

If it weren't for the band name on here, I would think this was a 60 psychedelic rock album.

There are a couple interesting things to note about Swansong. First, guitarist/ famed redhead Michael Amott is not featured on this release. By the time this album had come out, Michael had teamed up with his brother Chris to form Arch Enemy. Guitarist Carlo Regadas (yeah, I have no clue who he is either) took Amott's place. The second thing to note about this release is the genre. Following suit from their previous effort, Heartwork, Swansong is built upon a melo-death template. What genre is Swansong? It's popularly called death 'n' roll, and it's a mixture of elements from death metal and old 70s and 80s hard rock. This leads to a much more accessible sound, while still retaining overall heaviness. If you're someone who isn't a huge fan of death metal, you might be inclined to enjoy Swansong more than other releases in the genre.

Much like Heartwork, Swansong is built upon wicked sweet riffs and catchy as hell songs. Hell, I don't think I'll ever forget the riffs from "Black Star", or "Keep on Rotting in the Free World". Everything comes together into one big, groovy clusterfuck of headbangability that is rivaled by few other albums. Another way Carcass moved away from their goregrind roots (doesn't that seem like so long ago?) is in lyrical content. Again, taking a cue from Heartwork, lyrics deal even less with gore and violence and lean more towards societal outlooks and personal struggles. Also, similar to Heartwork, with Carcass' shift to death 'n' roll territory, lots of fans who were butthurt about the last album got even more butthurt because Carcass decided to move further away from goregrind. Boo-hoo. Cry me a river of blood and bile.

Much like Heartwork, there's not much I can criticize Swansong for. Much like it's predecessor, this album falls in my top 20, but doesn't quite make the cut to top 10 status.

On a Playlist With: (new) Entombed, Gorefest, Dissection (Reinkaos)

Overall Score


4.5

Swansong is a great final album for Carcass. Except, it's maybe not the final album. It's the perfect evolutionary step after Heartwork, and still leaves room for expansion, because guess what: Bill Steer has hinted at a new album! I know, that link is three years old now, but maybe Carcass are going to pull a Necrophagist and tease our metal-boners for 7 fucking years before maybe potentially possibly entering the studio. Anyways, with the entire (current) discography in mind, its really cool to see the bloodstained, kicking and screaming child that made Reek of Putrefaction evolve and progress into the suave, calm, cool, and collected adult that put out Swansong. They grow up so fast, don't they?

That's all for now, folks! I'll probably make a post about my CM Grab Bag this weekend, but for now, metal can go fuck itself. I'm going to go spend my weekend outside making bonfires and catching fireflies at Camp Gambino.