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“Snort the corpse…Get high on
the rot.”
Carcass - “Reek of Putrefaction”
That Carcass owe their existence to Billy Connolly and
Rory Gallagher is not as absurd a notion as it seems!
For Carcass had a wicked sense of humour which has sadly
been overlooked by the bulk of the bands they inspired.
The young (and later to be Napalm Death, Carcass,
Firebird and Gentleman’s Pistols’ guitarist) Bill Steer
witnessed Rory Gallagher performing on a Billy Connolly
TV special. Listening to the Firebird records Bill was
to record many years later it’s clear this influence
stayed with him. Later, through Tommy Vance’s Friday
Rock Show he got into Motorhead, Angel Witch, Venom and
Iron Maiden. From there it was but a short step to the
nascent rise of thrash metal with Slayer, Metallica et
al. (You cannot underestimate how fantastic and
important a DJ Tommy Vance was).
Carcass was initially started by Bill and drummer Ken
Owen, who were friends since their school days. Then
Jeff Walker joined, and he brought with him a lot of
animals rights ideas (much the same as Lee Dorrian would
do in Napalm Death, something Lee still laudably sticks
with to this day).
This led to one of the first ironies of Carcass, while
people were busy being outraged at their covers, the
music was being produced by vegans and/or vegetarians!
In 1987, Carcass recorded their demo debut, the
pleasingly titled Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment.
Interestingly this featured a vocalist named Sanjiv. |
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By the time Carcass came to
record their Earache debut Reek of Putrefaction, Sanjiv
was gone. The band apparently were not happy with its
sound, yet this has since become very influential in its
own right. With lyrics and titles taken straight out of
medical reference books, this was something really
original. Carcass found metal very misogynistic at the
time, so this was as much a reaction to that as anything
else. It had a kind of-‘look at this, this is real
horror’ vibe.
It’s worth noting, that the great John Peel was a
champion of Carcass and grind in general (he had played
Napalm Death at the Brit Awards, which had the pleasing
side effect of upsetting pop muppet Rick Astley). Peel
gave Carcass some serious airplay, gave them a couple of
Peel Sessions and voted Reek of Putrefaction as his
album of the year in The Observer. |
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The following year’s Symphonies
of Sickness, added melodies and an improved sound, and
again was highly influential, perhaps more so on the
death metal than grind metal scene.
It’s also important to realise how close the connections
were between several bands on the scene in this period.
Bill played with Napalm Death until the release of their
Mentally Murdered EP (Both he and Lee would depart
following its release. Bill would concentrate on Carcass
and Lee would form Cathedral, one of England’s finest
metal bands ever). While Jeff’s band Electro Hippies
released their debut on Peaceville, before he too opted
to concentrate on Carcass full time. |
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1991’s Necroticism: Descanting
the Insalubrious saw Carcass become a four-piece with
the addition of Michael Amott from Carnage (later
Spiritual Beggars and Arch Enemy), this showed a
gigantic leap forward in terms of songwriting and
musicianship
Carcass would next release an EP called Tools of the
Trade, this was part of a series of releases to promote
the Gods of Grind tour (there were also EPs from
Cathedral, Emtombed and Confessor. Cathedral’s Soul
Sacrifice EP remains a firm favourite with me to this
day) |
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1994’s Heartwork, with it’s HR
Giger cover, largely abandoned any elements of grindcore,
giving it a very fresh sound. It showed a great deal of
progression and groove (what they termed Rot and Roll,
it’s interesting to note that at this time both Entombed
and Cathedral were also making huge leaps forward in
their sound).
A now quite rare EP (also called Heartwork) followed.
Amott quit the band, his place being taken on a
temporary basis by Mike Hickey (ex -Venom). Amott
professed at the time not to be happy with the sound of
Heartwork, which is staggering when you think of how
much Arch Enemy’s sound owes to this album |
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Then, sadly, it all went pear
shaped, Carcass released their final studio album
Swansong in 1996. It was aptly named. Once again the
band had progressed, but not enough for Columbia Records
who wanted Jeff Walker to take singing lessons.
A great shame, and Carcass were always ahead of their
time and never really reaped the benefits of the extreme
metal scene they had helped create.
It’s always hard when you work with your friends, and
that coupled with Columbia’s pressure didn’t help.
Carcass were never going to deliver the death metal
equivalent of Metallica’s Black Album! Had Carcass taken
a break for a couple of years, I think they’d still be a
recording band today.
Post Carcass, a bombshell was delivered when Ken was
taken to hospital with an aneurysm. Something he
survived but was unable to play drums on the Carcass
reformation dates (laudably, even though Ken was unable
to play, the band insured he got a fair share of any
money Carcass earned)
As to where matters stand with Carcass now is anybodies
guess. With the understandable exception of Ken, all the
others are still involved in music to varying degrees.
But with album sales at an all-time low, I imagine that
Carcass in the foreseeable future will be limited to
festivals appearance to audiences more than happy to see
their reunited heroes. |
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