Live-Metal.Net - Features: Carcass

By JEFF MAKI

Tools of the Trade
For any normal person, a carcass is a dead animal in the road or what's left after your Thanksgiving Day dinner. But for any metal fan who was alive and breathing in the 1990s, Carcass is perhaps one of the most innovative and influential bands. Lead by the shrieking vocals of Jeff Walker, shredding guitars courtesy of Bill Steer (former Napalm Death) and Michael Amott, and the blasting rhythm of drummer Ken Owen, Carcass invented and defined two genres of metal that still have relevance today.

Starting out in the mid-'80s in Liverpool, England, the band admittedly used medical dictionaries when composing lyrics for their music, which came to be known as "goregrind." Goregrind was derived from grindcore, a subgenre of metal featuring down-tuned guitars, blast beats and growling or high-pitched vocals. Think Napalm Death. Lyrics like “Intenacious, intersecting/Reaving fats from corporal griskin/Culled ... for sodden gelatine brayed/Skeletal groats triturated, desinentl/Exsiccated, sere glutenate brewed/For frivolous solvent abuse ...” were impossible to understand even without the medical terminology but were a perfect fit for Carcass' grind. Early albums such as Symphonies of Sickness contained song titles like“Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment” and “Cadaveric Incubator of Endoparasites.” The song titles and music were downright disgusting, hence the "goregrind" label.

Heartwork
The band developed a cult following in the late '80s and early '90s, before expanding its sound with the monumental release Heartwork in 1993. Carcass created one of the first--if not the original--melodic death metal album. Heartwork gained worldwide recognition, so much so that I remember reading a short review of the album in my local newspaper when I was about 17 years old. This was certainly not the norm for this local paper, and I have no idea how they obtained the album. This and other metal publications prompted me to buy the album, and it is now one of my all-time favorites. Walker sounds possessed, but the songs have more structure and hints of melody. It is a mixture of speed, thrash and death metal with blistering, memorable guitar riffs and solos. Songs like “No Love Lost” and the title track became metal anthems for years to come. In recent years, many of the new American heavy metal bands cite Heartwork, At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul and early In Flames albums as major influences. Also of note is the memorable album cover by H.R. Giger.

Swansong
At this point, I had become a big fan of Carcass. I remember well the build-up to and announcement that the band was breaking up prior to the release of 1996's Swansong (appropriately titled, I suppose). While the album was looked at as somewhat of a disappointment at the time, it also can be considered a classic now. The band further experimented with accessibility, perhaps due to being signed by Columbia Records. It was reported that the record company even tried to convince Walker to sing. What were they thinking? There is no “real” singing here, but the material borders more on thrash than goregrind or melodic death. Nevertheless, the dark humor and crushing riffs of songs like “Keep on Rotting in the Free World” and “R**k the Vote” were a hit with most fans even though the band had opted for a simpler approach. The album even reached number 46 on the Billboard Heatseakers chart.

Keep On Rotting in the Free World
And, thus, the story of Carcass ended. It may not sound like much, but a list of the bands Carcass has influenced would be endless. Several compilation albums have been released, and the band is still widely popular among metal fans more than a decade after their breakup. Wake Up and Smell the ... Carcass, featuring unreleased tracks and alternate versions of songs, was released in 1996. Choice Cuts is the “greatest hits” album, spanning their entire career with 21 songs including the Peel Sessions EP. Their entire Carcass catalog is available on Earache Records. Members of Carcass are still active in other projects, most notably Michael Amott, guitarist for Swedish metal band Arch Enemy. Arch Enemy features vocalist Angela Gassow, who sounds deadlier than most men in the genre. Her vocals are not that different from Walker's. The band has released six full-length albums, played Ozzfest and toured the globe. When Live-Metal.net asked Amott last year if he would be open to a Carcass reunion, he replied, “I would do a Carcass reunion if it was done right and if it was done for maybe a tour only. It would have to be soon before everybody dies.” (READ INTERVIEW HERE) Walker also has discussed this in the press and seems open to the matter. After keeping a low profile for several years, Walk resurfaced in 2006 with an interesting solo album, Welcome to Carcass Cuntry, which featured humorous covers of country and rock songs with a metal twist. He also is playing bass for the extreme metal supergroup Brujeria and has made many guest appearances on various metal albums. As for Steer, he has faded into obscurity, playing '70s-inspired rock with a band called Firebird.

Fans seem to be longing for a Carcass reunion. I would love to see it, even if just for a tour. But if the book is indeed closed on Carcass, they have left a legacy of extreme metal, laying the groundwork for much of the face of metal today.

No Love Lost
Interesting (or maybe disturbing) facts:

Carcass was once mentioned on an episode of Friends titled, "The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress." The character Phoebe is interested in getting a heavy metal band to play a wedding and Carcass' name is brought up.

Bill Steer and Jeff Walker appeared in the Red Dwarf (British science fiction comedy) episode "Timeslides", playing members of Dave Lister's band, Smeg and the Heads.

Jeff Walker's solo album, Welcome to Carcass Cuntry features covers of Johnny Cash's "When the Man Comes Around" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams among others. Appearing as guests on the album are David and Vincent Cavanagh (ANATHEMA), Ville Valo (H.I.M.), Gas (H.I.M.), Billy Gould (FAITH NO MORE), Esa Holopainen (AMORPHIS), Tomi Koivusaari (AMORPHIS), Nicke Anderson (THE HELLACOPTERS), Shane Embury (NAPALM DEATH), Nick Holmes (PARADISE LOST), and Walker’s ex-CARCASS bandmates Ken Owen and Bill Steer.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Compilation albums

Videos (Click to watch)

DVD