CARCASS

One of the most influential and internationally celebrated metal pioneers is Carcass, formed in Liverpool in 1985. With core members Bill Steer (guitar), Jeff Walker (vocals and bass) and drummer Ken Owen at the helm, the band provided the musical and thematic blueprint for a combination of melodic death metal and grindcore in the 80s. This new metal genre is also affectionately called ‘hardgore’ or ‘splatter death metal’, referring to the unsavory album covers, repulsive song titles (‘Genital Grinder’, ‘Microwaved Uterogestation’, ‘Necro-Cannibal Bloodfeast’ and the great ‘Keep On Rotting In The Free World’) and morbid lyrics, which are somewhere between a medical manual on horrible diseases and an autopsy report. Debut album ‘Reek of Putrefaction’ from 1988 sets the tone with 22 venomous (but unfortunately not very well produced) tracks with an average length of one and a half minutes. With the albums that follow – especially ‘Symphonies of Sickness’ (1989) and ‘Heartwork’ (1993) – the band grows to become a leader in the death and grind genre. After the aptly titled album ‘Swansong’ from 1996, Carcass bury themselves to resurrect the metal carcass from the dead eleven years later, after which two new albums are released, namely ‘Surgical Steel’ (2013) and ‘Torn Arteries’ (2021).