Under The Scalpel Blade: Dissecting Carcass’ Legacy
Very few bands are able to claim they started or created a genre in music. Bands like Death & Possessed have been cited as the originators of death metal. Venom and Bathory for black metal, and Napalm Death for grindcore. But there is only a couple that started two. One of those bands is the famous UK act Carcass. Formed in 1986 by bassist and lead vocalist Jeff Walker, guitarist Bill Steer and drummer Ken Owen, these three men would not only create a band that would be as heavy and brutal in nature, but unknowingly would shape the sound of extreme metal to come with future releases. Inspiring multiple genres, countless “copycats” and music that would inspire countless musicians to pick up an instrument and create their own heavy, bombastic and aggressive sound.
Carcass released their debut album Reek of Putrefaction in 1988. Upon release, the graphic album artwork gave the listener a very brash and traumatizing idea of what the album was going to be. The album itself is a blueprint for the subgenre of grindcore that Carcass would be cited as creating, goregrind. Featuring a collage of autopsy photographs that were collected from medical journals. It gave the album a horrifying, serial killer-esque vibe that the music could only match. Heavily distorted vocals, violently absurd and macabre lyrics, and heavy songs with short run times. Though the album did reach mild success at the time of release, reaching number six on the UK Indie Chart and BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel declaring it his favorite album of 1988, the band was not a fan of the production quality. Steer would go on to say that the studio engineer for the album “ruined” the record, mainly pointing to the sound of the drum tracks. And due to limited time to properly mix the album, the band had to release the album as it is to meet the label’s deadline. He also said that the band lacked focus due to their young age as both a band and adults. Mainly just focusing on playing fast and heavy. Which the band delivers on songs like “Regurgitation of Giblets”, “Pyosisified (Rotten To The Gore)” and “Vomited Anal Tract”.
Taking what the band learned from the mixing and production of their debut, the band would hit the studio the following year to work on their follow-up album. Released in 1989, Symphonies of Sickness showed the band’s production quality dramatically improve thanks to working with Colin Richardson (Napalm Death, Gorguts). Symphonies also showed a shift in the band’s sound. Though keeping the grindcore roots of the debut, the album incorporated more death metal influences and sound. Showing that influence in the shorter track listing, but longer more complex song structures. Songs like “Ruptured in Purulence” add that grimy, gritty and chugging death metal slam tone that acts like Suffocation were making popular at the time. While songs like “Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment” continue that heavy, sludgy death metal guitar tone and keeping some of the aggressive double bass from their grindcore sound. Upon release, the album received huge praise from critics and fans. Showing the band maturing and evolving their sound to a more polished, yet ugly sound. It would also become a cornerstone of the deathgrind genre that would grow in popularity with acts like Misery Index, Cattle Decapitation and Exhumed.
Following the success and praise of their second album, Carcass would follow that album in 1991 with Necroticism - Descanting The Insalubrious. It would be the first album recorded as a four-piece, as Michael Amott would join the band on guitar. This release would feature potentially the band’s most well-known song “Corporal Jigsore Quandary”. Necroticism continued the further evolving sound from the previous album’s death metal tones. Incorporating more technical death metal influences on this album, from acts like Atheist, Gorguts and Pestilence. Those influences can be heard on “Symposium of Sickness” & “Incarnated Solvent Abuse”. Abandoning their grindcore origins to officially become a death metal act. Upon release, it again gained praise from critics and fans. Many were saying that this was the sound the band was trying to get to through their previous two records.
The band’s breakthrough album would come in 1993 with Heartwork. Again, the band evolved their sound even further. As the band this go-around focused their sound into what would become melodic death metal and later the subgenre of metalcore. With this album and At The Gates’ Slaughter of The Soul being considered the defining records of the genre. From the album’s title track, “Carnal Forge” and “This Mortal Coil”, the band truly delivered the chaotic and heavy sound of death metal with some elements of classic metal. An example of this is the riff for “This Mortal Coil”. Though heavy with Walker’s gravely growls, the guitar riff is almost Maiden-esque in it’s gallop and intricacy leading into the solo. To this day, the record still holds up as a phenomenal record and shows how far ahead the band were at the time. Almost becoming trendsetters with how impactful they were to heavy metal and the formation of some of the genres they had made in their wake so far.
Carcass’ fifth album Swansong was released in 1995. With the band delivering a more tongue-in-cheek mindset with the album’s song titles, the band also altered their sound again to another genre that was beginning to rise at that time, death ‘n’ roll. A sound that took the trademarks of traditional heavy metal, but infused death metal growls and double bass. Made popular by acts like Entombed. The album would also feature new guitarist Carlo Regadas, who replaced Amott who left after the recording of Heartwork. Songs on the album were heavy and catchy (“Keep On Rotting in The Free World”), brutal and thrash-inspired, but stuck to the genre’s metal origins (“Tomorrow Belongs To Nobody”). The album would be bittersweet for fans of the band as the band told the press that they would be breaking up without a farewell tour. The band would form new projects following the demise of the band. Owen, Walker, and Regadas formed the band Blackstar, releasing one album with 1998’s Barbed Wire Soul. Walker would release a country metal album in 2006 called Welcome to Carcass Cuntry. The album featured country metal covers of country songs. The album featured guest spots from Ville Valo of H.I.M., Billy Gould of Faith No More and Danny Cavanagh of Anathema. Steer formed the rock band Firebird, releasing their self-titled debut in 2000. Former member Michael Amott would go on to form the popular melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Sadly, Owen would suffer a severe cerebral hemorrhage in 1999. After being in hospital in a coma for ten months, it would affect his ability to play drums. Thankfully, he did recover and is playing drums, but not to the same level as his time with Carcass.
In 2007 Steer, Walker, and Amott reformed the project to perform at that year’s Wacken Open Air and Finland’s Tuska Open Air. Upon the popular response to the band reuniting, the band would hit the studio and record their sixth album, 2013’s Surgical Steel. Their first album on their new label home Nuclear Blast, it wasn’t a true reunion album. Amott would not rejoin the band following the tour and did not appear on the album. Dan Wilding would replace Owen as their drummer since Owen was not able to play the band’s music anymore. Though Owen would provide backing vocals on the album. With the debut single “Captive Bolt Pistol”, the band continued their melodic death metal sound from Heartwork, but the album contained more elements of thrash metal on some somgs (“Thrasher’s Abattoir” is a great example). Showing the band’s continuous evolution to become heavier and faster, while also delivering the same defining sound that Carcass developed. Many sites like MetalSucks & Decibel Magazine put Surgical Steel on their best of 2013 lists.
Carcass planned to release a new album in 2020, but due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide quarantine, the band would release the EP Despicable in 2020 to ease feral fans wanting a new album. Finally, after an eight year gap in albums AND a worldwide pandemic, the band released their seventh album Torn Arteries in 2021. As a three-piece, the album had moments of the band’s melodic death metal prowess, like the album’s title track. They experimented with their death ‘n’ roll era with "Dance of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No. 1 in B)". Even going back to their grindcore roots with “Under The Scalpel Blade”. Like Surgical Steel, Torn Arteries was a critical and fan favorite. Fans and critics loved the album paying homage to the band’s history with many tracks matching or mimicking different eras of the band. Appearing on top of many best of 2021 lists from Metal Hammer, Rolling Stone and Decibel. As of March 2024, Steer said in an appearance on the Everblack podcast that a follow-up album isn’t planned currently:
"Not at the moment. I mean, as far as the eye can see, we've just got tours, dates, festivals," said Steer. "That would pretty much take us up towards the end of the year. And then beyond that, yeah, this is something that would just have to be kind of, in some way, discussed between the various band members, because we had a similar situation after we released Surgical Steel.
"We got deep into touring, and after a couple of years, I think one or two of us thought, 'Well, maybe now we should start gradually working on some new material,' but then you discover not everybody's on the same page. So you go back and do another year or two of touring, and then before you know it, half a decade's gone. So I'm kind of hoping we don't mimic that situation too closely, because five years is a hell of a lot of time [between albums]. But, yeah, we've got to be at a point where everyone wants to record. So, if and when that time comes around, great. But it doesn't feel like it's particularly close right now."
As mentioned earlier in this piece, Carcass are the torchbearers and founders of the genre known as goregrind. With the band’s debut Reek of Putrefaction, that sound would become the inspiration for many of the bands in the genre. Sometimes sounding so close to Carcass, they even are given the nickname “Carcass clones”. Some acts like General Surgery, The County Medical Examiners, Regurgitate and Haemorrhage match the sound and intensity of Reek. Some bands would even push more of a slam-based death metal sound while adding overtly pitch-shifted vocals to the point of illegibility. These acts include Amoebic Dysentery, Rompeprop, and Impetigo.
Almost forty years later, Carcass left a crater with the band’s influence in extreme metal. Not only creating solid, heavy and a diverse discography, the band would inspire and affect the scene by helping build countless popular genres that we hear today. From the goregrind muddiness sound of Reek, to the melodic death metal sound of Heartwork, the heavy metal & death groove of Swansong to a hybrid of everything on Torn Arteries. The band’s complex and ever-expanding musicianship not only shows the talent and creativity this band has, but the ability to inspire and shape the groundwork for many of today’s genres is quite impressive. No matter what era of the band, Carcass is a band that doesn’t let you down and will always keep you wanting more with each new release.
