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.

Carcass Week: Heartwork

Sorry for the delay, I was really busy yesterday jumping on trampolines to post this.


Alright guys, almost done. We'll take a little walk through Carcass' second last album, Heartwork. This album is my favorite of all their releases, and I hold it as one of my favorite metal albums of all time. So without further ado, let's crack open this masterpiece and take a look inside.

Leave it to H.R. Giger to make even the peace symbol creepy as fuck.

Heartwork is the classic case of:

1. Band has previously released br00tal material.
2. Band releases new record exploring softer sounds and new territory.
3. Butthurt fans galore.

Now, when I say "softer sounds", I'm talking about death metal. I know, I know, death metal isn't soft music. I said it was softer. Because everything is softer than goregrind. Well, maybe guttural slamming prono-deathgrind or Merzbow are harsher, but still. Death metal is lower on the heaviness scale than grind.

Heartwork carries onward with the same lineup as Necroticism. Jeff Walker on bass and vocals, Bill Steer and Michael Amott on guitars and Ken Owen on drums. For me, this is the winning lineup, each member putting in the perfect mix of aggression, melody, and interesting songwriting. Steer steps down from the position of backing vocalist and leaves Walker to growl and howl his way through the album alone. This isn't a bad thing at all, because Walker has developed his vocals into fearsome and blood curdling screams.

There are harmonized guitars and beautiful leads all over the place, and the riffs just blow you away with their originality and power. I still haven't heard anything like the instantly recognizable intro riff to to title track, and the opening of "Carnal Forge" is one of my favorite riffs ever. Carcass is practically grind-free on Heartwork, and are starting to step out of the gore theme too. Not entirely, mind you, because there are still some grindy passages here and a couple of songs about dismemberment, disembowelment and disfiguration, but not enough for the album to be considered goregrind let alone plain old grindcore.

What I love most about Heartwork is how catchy it is. Not only is the music great old school melodic death metal (melo-death), but the album is filled to the brim with memorable guitar passages and vocals. When I say old school, I mean "this album pioneered the genre" old school (for those keeping track, that makes Carcass the gorefathers of grindcore and one of the originators of melo-death. Pretty impressive track record, right?). Although you can't pull any sort of melody out of Walker's growls, they still seem to stick in your mind like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth.

Honestly, there isn't really any major flaw I can point out in Heartwork. It's not too long. It's not too short. Every song is at worst enjoyable, and at best an instant classic. The production is clear and keeps everything even in the mix. Although I hold this album in the highest regard, and it stands today as one of my favorites (it makes surprisingly good music to iron your shirts to), it still seems like there's just something missing. I don't know what it is, though. There's something missing that's keeping Heartwork in my top 20, but not in my top 10.

On a Playlist With: At The Gates, Carnage, (old) Cannibal Corpse

Overall Score


4.5

Evile singer/ guitarist said everything there is to say about Heartwork. He called it "just one of the best albums ever".

Unfortunately, there's no Carcass Drinking Game for Heartwork, and there won't be one for Swansong either. If that makes you a sad panda, just break out Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness again.

That's all for now, folks! Next up for Carcass Week we've got the final installment: Swansong!

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.

Carcass Week: Symphonies of Sickness

We're back for the second day of Carcass Week! Yesterday we looked at Reek of Putrefaction, and today we'll be looking at Carcass' sophomore album, Symphonies of Sickness.

Symphonies takes massive steps forwards from where Reek left off, mainly in the production aspect, but musically it's still a big honkin' slice of goregrind. I went over what goregrind is exactly yesterday, so I won't cover it again here. Let's dive straight into the album!

Again, the censored version. Again, the uncensored is both  gross and NSFW. Here it is.

This review will be pretty short, because as far as the music is concerned, it's pretty similar in flavour and texture as Reek. It's frantic, brutal grind with absolutely addictive riffing courtesy or Bill Steer. Steer handles the lead work yet again, and his playing has evolved since the last album, as he delivers aggressive but melodic solos and passages over the rest of the chaos. It's another step closer to his legendary style of guitar playing that is shown on my favorite Carcass record, Heartwork. Also, keep in mind, those of you who haven't brushed up on your heavy metal history, that Michael Amott (of Arch Enemy fame) had not yet joined the band.

Everything else is an evolved version of Reek here, too. The drums are more tasteful, and the blast beats are actually in time(!), while Steer's vocals sound gurglier than ever and Walker's rasp is more focused and powerful. Songwriting is much better this time around as well, showing us that the boys know when to let loose with everything they've got and when to slow down and breathe.

The biggest difference between Symphonies and Reek, as I mentioned, are the production values. Like, holy shit. They're still not fantastic, mind you, but the album actually sounds like it was recorded in 1989 and not the stone age. The mixing is much better too drums are pushed higher in the mix, giving them the attention they deserve, and similar to their first album, the bass is turned up high, just the way I like it. This time around, everything fits together well and nothing gets drowned out or overpowered by anything else.

On a Playlist With: General Surgery, Exhumed, Haemorrhage

Overall Score

3.5

As far as old school goregrind and grindcore are concerned, Symphonies of Sickness is an enduring classic and deserves respect. I've gotten more into grind after listening to this year's new Napalm Death album, so I can definitely appreciate Reek and Symphonies much more now than when I first heard them. However, my ears still aren't 100% grind proof, and after every time I go through this album I've got to switch to something a little easier on the ears. 

For anyone who is into grind and hasn't yet listened to this (for whatever reason), you should give Symphonies of Sickness a listen. If you're not into grind, you probably won't like this album overall, but it'll probably have its moments for you. Symphonies is the last true grind release by the mighty Carcass, but it serves as a perfect template for their next album to expand upon. More on that tomorrow.

Carcass: Purulent Bile Excrement and Consumption 2: Consume Harder


That's Carcass: The Drinking Game 2: Drink Harder, for the normal people out there. The game works as so.

1. Load up Symphonies of Sickness 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 "Cadaveric Incubator Of Endo-parasites". Red are words I don't know, and Yellow are lines I think are disgusting.


"Cadaveric Incubator Of Endo-parasites"

The inset of rigor mortis, ulcerous corruption and decay

Saponified fats lather as soap as you slowly eat yourself away...

Organs savaged by rotten enzymes, rennin and rancorous cysts

A festering abcess immersed in ravenous autolysis...

Breaking down of dead tissue fuels methane gases

A smouldering human compost-heap of self-digested haemorrhage...

Emulsifying carnage, your purpulent torso is mummified

A mortified, marbled feast for drooling parasites...

Your lungs consumed in gore, slime and worm encrusted

Brittle tests eroded in hot, corrosive succus

Adhering to the bone, tissue necrosis a maggot feast

A cadaveric crematorium, gaseous spumescence leaks..

Your rump sustaining hostile organisms

Mould, eggs and larvae

Peptonized spleen, liver and kidneys

A wasting, degenerate slime

Septicaemic mutation

Of rancid meat and writhing life

Psychedelic, pustular platter of gunge

Come and take a bite...

Dormant fungoid growths

On the smarting human host

Come bathe, cleanse and wash

With livor mortis and dry rot......

Lice and ticks...

Flesh matted with hatching spawn

Endo-parasites incubate in the warmth

Mortician's implements to tap and bleed

The swarming insects' seed......

Lice and ticks...

expel bloody sick...

Leathery skin bubbles as blue-bottles hatch

Maggot infestation turns the rotting corpse black...

Slushy bowels move as our friends squirm

Flatulent belches - dry, festered and warm...

Total Drinks: 16

Things are a little heavier here with the ridiculous and potentially made up words. There are 10 tracks (16 with the bonus tracks included), which means 160 to 256 drinks. If you play through Carcass' first two albums, I guarantee you won't be waking up the next day. But you're all mature adults (that's why you're reading a blog post about drinking games for extreme metal albums), so I trust you all to drink responsibly and not die from alcohol poisoning.

That's all for now, folks. Tomorrow: Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious!*

*Totally typed that out from memory. Boo yeah.

Carcass Week: Reek of Putrefaction

Welcome to the first day of Carcass Week, where I'm going to be going through and reviewing all of the almighty Carcass' studio albums! First up, their debut: Reek of Putrefaction!

This is the censored artwork. The uncensored is gross. It's also NSFW. You've been warned.  It's here.

Reek of Putrefaction is considered one of the first goregrind albums out there, having been released in 1988. For anyone who is confused by the term goregrind, it's a variation of grindcore. Musically, grindcore and goregrind can be very similar, but it's in the themes and lyrical content where they stand apart. Whereas traditional grindcore dealt with political and social themes of oppression, government control, and anarchy (among others), goregrind covers lovely topics like disembowelment, cannibalism, and necrophilia (among others). For anyone familiar with old school death metal (a la Cannibal Corpse and friends), these themes of grisly, brutal death and dismemberment shouldn't come as a surprise. What Carcass did was look at the groundwork laid out by all these death metal bands and though "let's make these guys' lyrics sound like whatever you would call Sesame Street".

Hard as fuck is what I'd call 'em.

Let's look at a small excerpt from Cannibal Corpse's classic: "Hammer Smashed Face".

The sledge my tool to torture

As it pounds down on your forehead

Eyes bulging from their sockets

With every swing of my mallet

So yeah. Smashing faces. With a hammer. That's pretty fucking brutal, right? It's cute you think that. Let's take a snippet of one of Reek of Putrefaction's songs. I'll choose one of my favorites, "Vomited Anal Tract". You can already tell how this is going to go.

Liquidized esophagus mixes with bloodied excretion

As you pathetically gasp for breath 

The stench of hot feces scorch your nose 

As you violently vomit to death

Yup. Barfing up your butt. Like, puking so hard you pull your body practically inside out. I'll give you a second for the shock of disgust to wear off.

Ready to go? Cool. So now, we're all on the same page about what goregrind is. Let's get to the album.

Reek of Putrefaction, despite being Carcass' first album which pushed the boundaries as to how extreme music, lyrics, and cover art could go, is still seen by many metal fans as their worst album. I have to agree with them. Reek of Putrefaction is goddamn unlistenable.

Production is awful. I mean, I know it was 1988, but I can record Christian Bale's Batman tripping balls on acid and growling into a huge echoing cavern with an 8-track recorder from the 50s and it'll come out clearer and more coherent than this. Everything's got a grainy and raw sound, which, isn't always a good thing. Some bands take advantage of that style of production to drive home the gritty and dirty sound they're going for. That could've worked for Carcass if the level mixing and EQing wasn't awful as well. The bass is loud, which would be nice, but it isn't, because it sounds less like a bass and more like sloppy wet farts. The drums have no clarity, especially when blast beats are involved. When Carcass goes full throttle on Reek, they seem to collapse into a giant mushy ball of sound. It's something they probably realized after releasing the album, because of their 1989 followup, Symphonies of Sickness remedied all the flaws of Reek, but I'll get to that tomorrow.

If you're able to listen past the sloppy production and shitty mixing, Reek of Putrefaction is pretty darn good. There are some catchy riffs here and there, and the lead guitar work of Bill Steer is top notch, as always. After hearing Carcass' later releases like Heartwork and Swansong, I can hear the same style of lead guitar playing, albeit much more viscous on this album. It's kind of cool to listen through a discography and see how band members' playing styles evolve over time.

Bill Steer (left) and Jeff Walker (right). Their faces are about as disgusting as their music.

Something else I've always loved about old school Carcass is the dual vocal attack of Jeff Walker and Bill Steer. Steer handles some brutal, nauseating gurgles and low growls, while Walker screams and shrieks like a madman over top. Oh, grindcore. <3

Bomb-Ass Tracks


Maggot Colony, Vomited Anal Tract, and Splattered Cavities: What can I say. They're all pieces of dirty, filthy goregrind.

On a Playlist With: Exhumed, General Surgery, Haemorrhage

Overall Score

2.0

For the modern day Carcass fan, Reek of Putrefaction is more of a you-might-as-well-have-it-in-your-collection piece. There are some diehards out there who swear by it as the end-all of goregrind, but really, let's not kid ourselves. Reek is just the appetizer in this carnal feast. It's not enough to fill you up, but it'll whet your blade and make you want to carve into their next albums with full force.

Carcass: Purulent Bile Excrement and Consumption


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

1. Load up Reek of Putrefaction 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 we've already looked at. Red are words I don't know, and Yellow are lines I think are disgusting.

"Vomited Anal Tract"

Oral eruption
Rectal extroversion...

Your vagus implodes, as nausea strikes
Savaging your body in terminal retch
Violent spasms and decaying enzymes
Engulf your throat as you belch

Intestinal disturbance, your ileum turns inside-out
Your duodenum is thrust up towards your mouth
Your pancreas excretes stale septic pus
Your whole digestive system is now a sticky mush
Rectal vomit in your thorax
Retch your anal tract

Liquidized esophagus mixes with bloodied excretion
As you pathetically gasp for breath
The stench of hot feces scorch your nose
As you violently vomit to death

Your intestines are rising, up towards your throat
Stale bile escaping through your bloodied nose
Your colon digested into acidic slush
Your tongue gargling on your dislocated anus


Total drinks: 13.

This one was pretty tame. There are 22 tracks on Reek of Putrefaction. Assuming 13 drinks per song, that's 286 drinks. Have fun. Tomorrow: Symphonies of Sickness!

That's all for now, folks. And remember: Don't drink and dismember!*

*I'm totally coining that phrase. Go me.

Carcass Week: Introduction

I recently rediscovered my undying love for the band Carcass. I've decided to express my infinite devotion to the fathers of goregrind and the pioneers of melodic death metal by reviewing all five of their studio albums. Starting next week, it'll be all Carcass, all the time (for me, anyways).

Starting next Monday, we'll go through one album per day, which makes the schedule:

Monday: Reek of Putrefaction
Tuesday: Symphonies of Sickness
Wednesday: Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious
Thursday: Heartwork
Friday: Swansong


I'm also going to include my Carcass Drinking Game (not tested, yet) for you and your friends play, and then I'll give you guys the weekend so you can spend 48 hours straight blasting Carcass and drinking to it. It only makes sense.

So get pumped! (CarcassBroTip: Start getting pumped by making your own jigsaw puzzle!) Starting Monday we'll dawn our surgical scrubs, rev up our chainsaws, and go diving into the viscera splattered world of Carcass!

Story of my life, bro.

That's all for now, folks. Keep on rotting in the free world!