Many of the early Earache albums have recently been repackaged, for a special supersavers series overseas. (The rights to the recording, artwork, and layout belong exclusively to Earache; Relativity has only the rights to distribute Earache albums in the US).
In 1990 or 1991, a government censorship group broke into the Earache offices and removed certain items deemed obscene, including Carcass CDs and the original artwork, which may not have been returned to Earache. Germany has also had problems, as death metal albums are put under a magnifying glass to determine if they contain obscene content. As such, less "offensive" cover art may have been released so as to avoid possible problems with a black market for the uncensored covers.
Carcass doesn't have a lot of say in such matters, as the record company has decision-making power. All of the above may have contributed to the repackaging.
[This article plagiarised from one posted by Martin J. Lawson in alt.rock-n-roll.metal.death...]