Post by thesoundmonitor on Jan 6, 2004 22:58:11 GMT -5
CARCASS
Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
(Earache) MOSH42
Considered by many as the best death metal album, this Colin Richardson-produced 1991 release was - and still is - a masterpiece on numerous levels. The bastard son of Naplam Death Carcass used Necroticism to signal a departure from their grind roots, without lessening the flesh-feast from previous works. Though whereas earlier albums (Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness) were in essence walls of noise with gore-soaked lyrics and imagery, Necroticism cages the extremities and tames them into a cohesive and better-organised cacophony.
Whilst it would be a stretch of the imagination to call Necroticism technical, it is no less ultra-creative in the piecing together of riffs and movements. Indeed, it is rare that any one riff is played exactly the same way twice, capturing the listeners’ attention by variety alone.
Despite being undoubtedly a death metal act at this point in their career, the use of the obligatory blast-beat is limited and restrained, while the inclusion of the typically metal guitar solo also went against trends of the time.
Perhaps the prime argument for labeling the album as the genres finest is found within the timeless quality of the whole. 13 years after it’s release the musicality has not become tired or boring despite numerous upstarts cloning the Britons to no end. Melodic in it’s extremity, and extreme in it’s melodicism, Necroticism is as fresh today as it was in its genre-defining heyday.
Vocally Jeff Walker leads the charge with Bill Steer following closely behind, melding the guttural noises with 50% vomiting sickness, 50% tortured illness. Walker’s morbid obsessions are explored in a quasi-medical framework – hence the album’s title and many of the track titles. The apparent high intelligence of the lyrics fooled many into believing that the bands’ members were actually medical students. However close inspection of the lyrics squashed such a rumour as many words and phrases – though technical – were either the result of morbid word-play or were just plain gibberish. A fine example can be found in ‘Incarnated Solvent Abuse’: “Intenacious, intersecting / Reaving fats from corporal griskin / Culled… for sodden gelatine brayed / Skeletal groats triturated, desinently / Exsiccated, sere glutenate brewed / For frivolous solvent abuse.” The between song samples of medical lectures, along with the imagery in the artwork only added to the legend.
‘Incarnated Solvent Abuse’ also produced what is arguably the most progressive rock of Carcass riffs– a characteristic that would feature heavily on later albums as the band sought rockier paths redefining their self-defined genre. Later termed Rot n’ Roll the style is equal parts Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Megadeth, complete with early-nineties anti-rock star attitudes and punk ethics.
This rock approach is also hinted at on ‘Corporeal Jigsore Quandry’ with its traditional rock structures wrapped in an abusive death metal attack of meandering riffs and menacing vocals. The style would be further explored post-Carcass as members went on to form (amongst others) Spiritual Beggars and Blackstar Rising and Arch Enemy.
Not ones to rest on their morals, ‘Pedigree Butchery’ detailed the post-mortem of an infant canine despite the bands vocal animal rights stand: the word-play was horrific in all it’s gory. Whilst ‘Carneous Cacoffiny’ aligned the playing of music with unrelated forensic science: “Striking up my discordant underture / A carnal cacophony perversely penned / Transposed… and decomposed / On strings fashioned from human twine / Lovingly wound and fretted upon my bow / Garishly incarcerated… the dead resonate / In a final death-throe.”<br>
Death metal in the true sense of the word, Necroticism leads the listener through an array of perverted and sickening concepts in an extremely creative and appealing manner. Using death as the canvass sanitizes the process, befitting it for human consumption (poor choice of words I know…), while the use of traditional metal in a death metal context allows for wider consumption, and ongoing appeal.
The following and final two full-lengths for Carcass (Heartwork and Swansong) also capture that timeless quality and may indeed warrant retrospective reviews of their own. But if investigating the band for the first time, Necroticism is the rarely disputed best starting point.
By Warren Wheeler
Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
(Earache) MOSH42
Considered by many as the best death metal album, this Colin Richardson-produced 1991 release was - and still is - a masterpiece on numerous levels. The bastard son of Naplam Death Carcass used Necroticism to signal a departure from their grind roots, without lessening the flesh-feast from previous works. Though whereas earlier albums (Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness) were in essence walls of noise with gore-soaked lyrics and imagery, Necroticism cages the extremities and tames them into a cohesive and better-organised cacophony.
Whilst it would be a stretch of the imagination to call Necroticism technical, it is no less ultra-creative in the piecing together of riffs and movements. Indeed, it is rare that any one riff is played exactly the same way twice, capturing the listeners’ attention by variety alone.
Despite being undoubtedly a death metal act at this point in their career, the use of the obligatory blast-beat is limited and restrained, while the inclusion of the typically metal guitar solo also went against trends of the time.
Perhaps the prime argument for labeling the album as the genres finest is found within the timeless quality of the whole. 13 years after it’s release the musicality has not become tired or boring despite numerous upstarts cloning the Britons to no end. Melodic in it’s extremity, and extreme in it’s melodicism, Necroticism is as fresh today as it was in its genre-defining heyday.
Vocally Jeff Walker leads the charge with Bill Steer following closely behind, melding the guttural noises with 50% vomiting sickness, 50% tortured illness. Walker’s morbid obsessions are explored in a quasi-medical framework – hence the album’s title and many of the track titles. The apparent high intelligence of the lyrics fooled many into believing that the bands’ members were actually medical students. However close inspection of the lyrics squashed such a rumour as many words and phrases – though technical – were either the result of morbid word-play or were just plain gibberish. A fine example can be found in ‘Incarnated Solvent Abuse’: “Intenacious, intersecting / Reaving fats from corporal griskin / Culled… for sodden gelatine brayed / Skeletal groats triturated, desinently / Exsiccated, sere glutenate brewed / For frivolous solvent abuse.” The between song samples of medical lectures, along with the imagery in the artwork only added to the legend.
‘Incarnated Solvent Abuse’ also produced what is arguably the most progressive rock of Carcass riffs– a characteristic that would feature heavily on later albums as the band sought rockier paths redefining their self-defined genre. Later termed Rot n’ Roll the style is equal parts Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Megadeth, complete with early-nineties anti-rock star attitudes and punk ethics.
This rock approach is also hinted at on ‘Corporeal Jigsore Quandry’ with its traditional rock structures wrapped in an abusive death metal attack of meandering riffs and menacing vocals. The style would be further explored post-Carcass as members went on to form (amongst others) Spiritual Beggars and Blackstar Rising and Arch Enemy.
Not ones to rest on their morals, ‘Pedigree Butchery’ detailed the post-mortem of an infant canine despite the bands vocal animal rights stand: the word-play was horrific in all it’s gory. Whilst ‘Carneous Cacoffiny’ aligned the playing of music with unrelated forensic science: “Striking up my discordant underture / A carnal cacophony perversely penned / Transposed… and decomposed / On strings fashioned from human twine / Lovingly wound and fretted upon my bow / Garishly incarcerated… the dead resonate / In a final death-throe.”<br>
Death metal in the true sense of the word, Necroticism leads the listener through an array of perverted and sickening concepts in an extremely creative and appealing manner. Using death as the canvass sanitizes the process, befitting it for human consumption (poor choice of words I know…), while the use of traditional metal in a death metal context allows for wider consumption, and ongoing appeal.
The following and final two full-lengths for Carcass (Heartwork and Swansong) also capture that timeless quality and may indeed warrant retrospective reviews of their own. But if investigating the band for the first time, Necroticism is the rarely disputed best starting point.
By Warren Wheeler