May 2025 Feature Release - The Horde Edition

My turn to nominate this month and I have gone back to my youth, to the album that first saw me discover the band Carcass.  Their 1993 release, Heartwork saw a more melodic approach to their sound which put a few fans off.  I had never heard anything by the band before this and so I was always able to listen to it and rate it for its own merits as a standalone record. Whilst not flawless it stil lholds a special place in my memories of my metal development.

Feel free to pass comment in this thread or write a review even.

https://metal.academy/releases/781

Not a band I would explore more of due to their earlier goregrind material, but I can understand this album being a melodeath classic. Here's my review summary:

Heartwork is probably the album where Carcass was the most dedicated. They began demoing this album as early as during their tour for the less melodic Necroticism, even playing their new songs on tour. Much of the recording time was wasted finding the right guitar tone and the right ideas from their producer Colin Richardson. Things were going down to Hell for the people working on the album. With all that trouble going on, Carcass was still determined to get things right in order to reach higher lengths. In the end, they've made an offering that the world would recognize as a game-changing classic to this day! I would never disagree with this album's melodic death metal legend status, but to be honest, it's not the most melodic melodeath album I've heard. The Maiden-like melodic harmonies are what really make the genre, but that's a small step Carcass was missing here. The melodic harmonies in this album is mostly in just passages and solos, the latter not sounding as perfect as in Gothenburg bands. Mike Amott played them a tad better in Arch Enemy that would've crystallized Bill Steer's standard riffing and groove. Still it's quite an impressive achievement of a lifetime for this band. Where there any other bands before Carcass and the Gothenburg crew that started adding melody to an extreme genre with extreme lyrics? I think not! However, At the Gates would make an album two years later that would inspire melodic metalcore bands to rise. In the meantime, enjoy the original melodeath work!

4.5/5

"Heartwork" has overtaken "Symphonies of Sickness" for my second favourite Carcass album in recent years to be honest. I saw them on the tour for it & they absolutely slayed which took some of the pain of missing the support slot away temporarily.

4/5

I have always loved the early works of Carcass, with Symphonies of Sickness being my favourite, sitting as it does in a sweet spot between the grind of the debut and the more conventional death metal approach of Necroticism. However, I have never been much of a fan of Heartwork. In truth I have only heard it a couple of times and not in a while, so I am going to go into it once more with a clean slate.

Well, initial (new) impressions are that Heartwork is more brutal than I remember it being. Sure, Carcass introduced more melody into their death metal, but whereas previously that had overshadowed the album for me, it is now abundantly clear that the melodic aspect is relative and Carcass being Carcass this still has the ability to give you a damn good beating round the head, albeit in a more refined and elegant manner!

One big change on Heartwork is that vocal duties are solely performed by Jeff Walker. Although this gives the album a greater consistency of sound, I actually miss the three vocalists approach, it providing some interesting contrasts. I guess that as the songs themselves varied more here than previously the band felt the use of several different vocal styles may become a bit too much. The songwriting has obviously become a bit more refined, but guitarists Steer and Amott can still summon powerful riffs, even without the blastbeats and searing tempos of yesteryear. The soloing is one of the areas where Heartwork really grabs my attention with both guitarists absolutely nailing it and shredding the hell out of it, sounding more like Tipton and Downing or Smith and Murray than King and Hanneman. Ken Owen is on fine form behind the kit and without having to provide a constant stream of blastbeats he is allowed to exhibit a more creative approach to his timekeeping duties. That Heartwork sounds so tightly performed whilst being more open and expansive than previous Carcass releases is testament to the development of the band and their technical expertise.

In summary, I have got to admit to having been wrong about Heartwork all these years. OK, so Symphonies of Sickness still tops my list of Carcass releases, but this is an accomplished piece of work indeed and is heading towards becoming one of my favourite melodic death metal releases. That an album can still sound so damn heavy and brutal whilst also being melodic and refined is a brilliant musical trick and a fantastic indictment of all four members' musical abilities. I have rarely been happier to say "I was wrong".

4/5 (up from 3/5)