Carcass - Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious (1991) Reviews
Necroticism is simply put, one of the greatest albums in death metal history. Carcass had already made heads turn (and stomachs) with their earlier influential grindcore releases, but second album Symphonies of Sickness contained a less chaotic, more death metal structured approach that hinted at what was to come. Everything on this album is perfect in my opinion and I wouldn't change a thing. Michael Amott and Bill Steer on guitar is a match made in heaven. The riffs on every track are pure death metal gold with melodic, brutal and grinding sections all over the place. The leads are first class and extremely memorable which is rarer and rarer these days. Drummer Ken Owen is just as significant to this album though. His blast beats are fantastic as are his use of double bass kicking. And then there's the dual pronged attack of vocalists Steer and Jeff Walker, one with a guttural, vomitus growl, the other with a raspier decipherable approach. The atmosphere is high throughout due to the music, lyrical content, imagery and sound recordings between tracks all thematically (i.e. forensic gore) synchronised.
It's the type of album where it seems stupid to pick highlights as every track is great, but then Incarnated Solvent Abuse (one of my very favourite tracks of any genre or band) and Corporal Jigsore Quandary stand out for me. Carcass have been hugely influential for literally hundreds of bands (i.e. Aborted, Impaled etc) over the years, but I have to say it's a case of forever imitated, never bettered. Necroticism has stood the test of time and stands head and shoulders above all the gore themed death metal bands that have worshipped them ever since its release. Essential for anyone into extreme metal and with the new dual disc digipak containing the Tools of the Trade EP and a 30-minute documentary, there's never been a better time to be shredded by Carcass!
For context: despite not being a massive fan of death metal for the longest time and getting into the genre fairly late in the day, there is a small number of bands that I do have some history with, Carcass being one of them, Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower being the others. This is mainly due to all three being championed by the much-missed John Peel on his late night radio shows and the fact that they were from my neck of the woods, as I am from a shithole roughly at the midpoint between Merseyside and The Midlands and so they did get some promotion in local specialist record shops. This exposure was mainly focussed on their early grindcore material as by the time of Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious' release, I was on my self-imposed hiatus from the metal scene.
Anyway, personal history aside, Carcass' sophomore and predecessor to Necroticism, Symphonies of Sickness, saw Carcass evolve from the brutal grindcore of the debut in a more conventional death metal direction. Necroticism itself continues this evolution, further moving the band's sound away from their grindcore roots and introducing much more by way of melody into their writing with the grind elements being merely vestigial by this point. I am probably in the minority here, but I actually think that SoS marks the sweet spot between the grind and Death metal elements of Carcass' sound. That does not in any way mean I don't like Necroticism, quite the contrary in fact but, for me, SoS is the high water mark for Carcass, at least from a personal preference point-of-view. That said, there is loads to enjoy here, with memorable riffs thrown out like confetti, Bill Steer's growls competing with Jeff Walker's shrieks for vocal supremacy, a thunderous rhythm section and viscerally aggressive guitar solos.
The tracks on Necroticism are, in the main, even longer than those on Symphonies and, in addition to the increasing emphasis on melody there is also a more noticeable technicality about the songwriting. Necroticism also marks Michael Amott's recorded debut with the band and the interplay between him and Steer, particularly the solos, marks a major evolution for Carcass' sound with a more Maiden-esque approach, similar in effect to that of James Murphy's contributions with Death on Spiritual Healing. The emphasis on the solos is such that each even has a name: opener Inpropagation (a song about using cremated human remains as fertiliser), for example, has solos named "dust in the mausoleum", "compost humous horticulture" and "humanure". Elsewhere there are solos named "a heaving organic puzzle", "viscous residue snorting" and "administration of toxic compounds", continuing the gore-laden verbosity of their track and album naming convention.
The production is excellent and lies at the perfect point between the roughness of the earlier work and the slickness of their later releases, providing a thick and meaty quality to the riffing that still allows a flowing clarity to the leads during the solos and enables the rhythm section to be clearly discerned rather than them sinking into the mire of a muddier production. Drummer Ken Owen must receive kudos for turning in an understated, yet absolutely integral performance that lays a particularly solid foundation upon which the sterling guitar work could be built. The forensic gore aesthetic was something of a feature for the band and set them apart, seeming even more disturbing than the slasher gore of other early DM outfits like Cannibal Corpse, due to it's feet being placed more in the real world than the movie world and this provided inspiration to any number of later gorehounds. The samples that introduce a number of the tracks are suitably unpleasant and, I suppose, in a way they force us to face up to a certain distasteful aspect of life that most normal-minded people don't really dwell on much.
Overall, this is an important record in the evolution of a branch of death metal from it's earliest grindcore roots towards a more universally acceptable sound, whilst still retaining a brutally uncompromising aesthetic that was sufficient to prevent the band "selling-out" to mainstream acceptance.
The ultimate bridge between the filthy goregrind of Symphonies of Sickness and the razor-sharp Melodic Death Metal of Heartwork, 1991 landmark Necroticism is an unparalleled album in these genres, melding Carcass' two sides with bloody aptitude and surgical precision.
Jeff Walker's raspy punctured-lung growls, mortician's vocabulary, and disturbing spoken-word intros maintain the familiar air of demented bloodlust and organic decay from previous records, though there is also significant and noticeable evolution in the band's due to Bill Steer's increasing sophistication as a guitarist and songwriter. While not all the way over the fence into Melodic Death Metal yet, there is undeniably a potent infusion of dynamics and melody - lifeblood into the old Carcass skeleton - primarily in the the guitar work.
This is still a Death/Grind album at its beating heart, but medical signs of the coming transformation are already plainly visible. Just look at the opening track "Inpropagation". It has Carcass' frantic grindy sections and grisly subject matter ("Deteriorated flesh used as top-soil, to replenish and nourish seed"), but the song is multidimensional in a way Carcass had not previously been, with brief slower phrases and melodic guitar leads spliced in to increase the impact of the heavier riffs when they re-enter ("I PROPAGATE, DUST IN THE GRATE!").
This combination works to devastating effect throughout the album. For example, the incredible guitar soloing at the beginning of "Pedigree Butchery" and the end of "Symposium of Sickness" is extremely melodic, played with a level of feel and sensibility that feels more characteristic of progressive or neo-classical metal than Deathgrind. But these moments never overstay their welcome. You never forget on this album that you are still listening to Carcass, the legendary Gore/Deathgrind innovators. Michael Amott and Bill Steer rattle off sickeningly heavy riffs one after the other, just as fast as Jeff Walker can rattle off esoteric medical terminology. Some riffs mid-paced and churning, others nimble and punchy - often in quick succession. Some of them are really unique-sounding, like string-bending ones at the end of "Forensic Clinicism" (you'll know which one I mean as soon as you hear it). Some of them even make the listener think of sounds the narrating mortician's tools might make as he mechanically dismembers his corpses ("Carneous Cacophony").
All in all, if you could only listen to one Carcass album, it should be Necroticism, as it effortlessly captures the best of both worlds of their earlier and later periods. It's just the total package for people who want Metal that has 1) brutal heaviness, 2) excellent musicianship and melodic composition, and 3) a unique atmosphere or feeling. It is rare to find albums that have all three of these qualities. The ones that do, like this album, earn classic status in the genre.
Top 3 Songs: "Inpropagation", "Symposium of Sickness", "Incarnated Solvent Abuse"
This was a massive album for me. I bought it on the day of release (after being a big fan of “Symphonies Of Sickness”) & was blown away by their new sound. At the time I leaned further in a death metal direction than a grindcore one so I was delighted at the increased focus on the cleaner deathier side of their sound whilst still retaining small elements of their grind roots. There’s also a much stronger focus on melody which they would obviously push a lot further on subsequent releases.
Jeff Walker’s vocals are a real highlight for me as I hadn’t heard anyone sound quite like him at the time. The raspy but intelligible approach really appealed to me & when combined with Bill Steer’s deeper vocals & a gore-soaked lyric sheet it made for an impressive combination. I think they got the balance just right with the perfect amount of brutality & just the right amount of melody. The guitar solos were another highlight as they’re all so melodic & memorable which contrasts beautifully with the down-tuned extremity of the riffs.
The production was good for the time but probably seems a bit soft by today’s standards. I’ve always found the addition of the surgical intros to add to the nasty atmosphere the band creates. A simply perfect death metal album in my opinion.