Biography
Carcass are a British band formed by Napalm Death guitarist Bill Steer together with drummer Ken Owen in 1985. They are based in Liverpool. In 1987, bassist and vocalist Jeff Walker, formerly of the Electro Hippies, joined them, who grew up in the North East of England. Carcass have been a very influential band within the grindcore and death metal scenes. They disbanded in 1995, but will reunite in 2008.
Carcass's first album, Reek of Putrefaction, bore similarities to Steer's work with Napalm Death, but despite its primitive production (something the band was very displeased with) it became a favourite of Radio 1 legend John Peel.
Due to his interest they were asked to participate in their first 'Peel
Sessions' in 1989 where they debuted new material for the second album.
During this time between Reek of Putrefaction and the second
album, drummer Ken Owen progressed from a single to double bass drum
kit, allowing double bass beats to enter into the song writing process.
This is stated by Walker to be one of the reasons why guitarist Bill
Steer took Carcass more seriously and left Napalm Death.
Symphonies of Sickness,
the second album, along with much improved production (courtesy of
Colin Richardson), featured longer songs with more slow passages and
guitar solos. The second half of the tour in support of 'Symphonies'
saw the addition of second lead guitarist Michael Amott,
whose previous work included 'Carnage'. Amott was to become a permanent
member, playing on the second 'Peel Session' and contributing material
towards their third album.
Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious showed even more intricate composition, this time with a full-fledged transition into death metal,
and further improved production with a slight bias towards Walker's
vocals compared to Steer's. Despite the addition of Amott to the ranks,
Steer still handled all rhythm guitar duties, despite the album
credits, with Amott only contributing leads. Carcass again supported
the album with heavy touring, and were part of the Earache 'Gods of
Grind' tour with Cathedral, Entombed and Confessor in both Europe and
the US.
The Tools of the Trade
EP was released in 1992 to coincide with the 'Gods of Grind' tour. It
featured a Necroticism track ("Incarnated Solvent Abuse"), a new track
'Tools of the Trade', a re-recording of 'Rotten to the Gore' from the
first album and a re-recording of 'Hepatic Tissue Fermentation' from
the 'Pathological' compilation. Although it is hinted that the 3 bonus
cuts were recordered at the same time as 'Necroticism', they show a
dryer production/mix to the aforementioned album.
Toward the later part of the tour in support of Necroticism in early
1993, they debuted songs ready for their fourth album which they had
demoed around the same time. The 'Heartwork demo' featured Walkers
vocals exclusively, although during the tour Steer did sing "Welcome"
during the first verse of "Buried Dreams". This tour would be the only
time Amott played Heartwork songs live.
Heartwork,
released later in the year in 1993 was considered a radical change by
many fans, eliminated Steer's deeper vocals and the clinically gory
lyrics. Again, Steer handled all rhythm guitar duties to help gain
consistency between the many layered guitars that built Carcass' best
production to date. Song structures, whilst still containing musically
complex parts, were simpler, in some cases using the Verse / chorus /
verse formula.
After the release of Heartwork, Carcass received a worldwide deal with Columbia Records,
who hoped for a commercial success, even suggesting that Jeff Walker
learn how to sing. Fan reaction was split between the charge that
Carcass were no longer playing death metal at all and appreciation of
the technical accomplishment the album shows. In fact, today some
credit Carcass with being a very early founding influence for not just
one, but two genres of metal - grindcore (or, more specifically, goregrind), and the modern melodic death metal sound. Michael Amott left the band right after Heartwork was recorded and was for a while replaced by Mike Hickey who was later replaced by Carlo Regadas.
During the summer of 1994 Walker remixed the track 'Inside Out' for
a Die Krupps remix album, although the version stayed fairly true to
the original with the exception of Owens drum samples from Heartwork
replacing the Die Krupps original, and additional mixing from Walker
and Colin Richardson at Parr Street studios (where Heartwork was
recorded).
Carcass now set about writing songs for their major label debut.
During the December 1994 UK tour Carcass showcased two songs from their
current writing sessions - "Edge of Darkness" and "Firmhand", both
showing a more straight forward song writing approach than on previous
efforts. Around this time, 'Edge of Darkness' was recorded for the BBC
Radio 1 Rock Show sessions - a session which could be found on later
compilation albums.
By late 1994 17 songs were ready and the band set about using their
$200,000 advance to record the album, again with Colin Richardson, at
Rockfield studios in Monmouth, South Wales in early 1995. During the 6
week recording schedule the record label began to withdraw support,
stating that They (Carcass) were not ready to record and needed to
write more songs. This advice was ignored, as was the suggestion to
have Terry Date (Pantera, Prong etc) 'remix' the album, and the band
continued. At the time, Jeff Walker stated in an interview with the
UK's Metal Hammer Magazine that the album was taking more of a classic
rock approach, with drums, bass and twin guitars a la Thin Lizzy in
comparison to earlier 'multi-layered guitar' productions. This has
since been put down to Bill Steers unwillingness to perform the time
consuming guitar layering (as once again Steer handled all rhythm
guitar) through losing interest in the metal genre.
Due to continuing record company problems with Columbia/Sony causing
the album to be delayed from late Summer 1995 to June 1996, in which
time Carcass moved back to the Earache Record label and broke up before
even releasing Swansong.
The move back to Earache was dubbed by Walker as "the second great rock
and roll swindle" (Kerrang - June 96) as they had effectively been paid
twice for the same album.
Swansong, which featured 12 of the 17 tracks put to tape during the
recording sessions, drew some criticism from fans for its melodic riffs
which in some ways bordered on late 1980s thrash. This last official album also incorporated more melodic elements (Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody, R$ck the Vote) and some doom metal elements (Don't Believe a Word) which almost completed the Carcass circle of being one of the most inventive metal bands.
The album only featured 12 of the 17 songs recorded in the Swansong
sessions (or 13 on the original brain shaped edition with the bonus
disc). Kerrang reported in June 1995 that prior to Swansongs release,
Carcass would be releasing an EP featuring 2 tracks from what would be
Swansong and 3 songs from the sessions that would not make the final
LP. However, this Ep was never released, most likely due to the lack of
record company support for newly recorded material.
Walker has since stated in interviews that all 17 songs should have
been included in a double album, and that some songs omitted from
Swansong were actually stronger than some of Swansongs actual content.
During the Swansong recording sessions, Carcass were asked to remix
a Björk track - 'Isobel'. This wasn't a remix as such but more of a
re-recording with only Björk 's vocals remaining. All rhythm guitars
were handled by Steer, and the track saw light of day in March 1996 on
Björk 's 'Hyberballad' single.
Carcass also remixed (i.e. re-recorded but kept the vocals of)
Killing Jokes 'Democracy', although this time Carlo performed all
guitar duties as it is thought Steer had quit the band by early 1996.
The Carcass 'Rooster' Mix was made available on the Killing Joke
'Democracy', and if it were not for the vocals, would not be out of
place on Swansong.
Around the time of Swansong's release, Carcass informed the press
that Carcass were to call it a day without even a farewell tour, but
most fans had guessed this may be the case via the album title.
The album sold well, staying near the top of the 'Indie Rock Chart'
in the UK for several months above bands such as Placebo (before
Placebo exploded in late '96) despite having no touring support from
the band. It is rumoured that the band were offered several lucrative
tours in 1995, such as supporting Iron Maiden on their "X-Factour 95"
which had the album been released as expected in '95 could have
improved the bands sales and longevity.
A posthumous compilation, Wake up and Smell the... Carcass
was released in October 1996 to collect together Carcass' rarer
material. This included the 5 Swansong session songs that did not make
the final Swansong album, 4 tracks from the 1994 Radio 1 Rock Show
session, the 2 Heartwork EP tracks, the Non album tracks from 'Tools of
the Trade' EP, and finally tracks from the Pathological and
Grindcrusher compilations respectively. Although the CD received mixed
reviews, to the Carcass fan it contained true gems such as "Edge of
Darkness" and "Blood Spattered Banner".
An accompanying video was released a few weeks after the 'Wake Up'
CD with little knowledge from the band or their management (Point Blank
Management). The video, later released on DVD, featured 5 of the bands
promo videos, a show from the Grindcrusher '89 tour (as a 3 piece) and
a show from the 92 Gods of Grind tour. Sound on the two live shows is
poor, particularly the latter which Walker has described as 'unmixed'.
Ken, Jeff and Carlo continued with the Blackstar project accompanied with former Cathedral
bassist Mark Griffiths, using the second Swansong advance (from
Earache) to fund the recording. Blackstar (Later Blackstar Rising) went
defunct after Ken suffered from a severe brain haemorrhage. Michael Amott went on to found hard rocking combo Spiritual Beggars and Arch Enemy, a successful Swedish death metal band. In the biggest musical departure, Bill Steer reappeared in Firebird, a Claptonesque guitar-rock trio.
In June 2006, in an interview
with Walker, he discussed the possibility of reforming Carcass, but it
is unlikely that Owen will participate as he cannot replicate his
former drumming proficiency due to his health problems.
In September 2007 it has been confirmed by Michael Amott that he had been rehearsing with Bill Steer, Jeff Walker and Daniel Erlandsson
(replacing Ken Owen, who is incapable of playing a full set with
Carcass due to health reasons) in secret to rehearse old Carcass songs
for a possible reunion tour. The original plans were to play at several
festivals during the summer, but they couldn't meet the deadlines.
On 5 October 2007, Carcass were confirmed to play at German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air and Finland's Tuska Open Air Metal Festival.
by Wikipedia
Download the Complete Discography with torrent "here"
