Carcass, the Liverpool death metallers, have blamed grunge music for their decision to split up.
"Basically, grunge killed us stone dead," says bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker. "Because that music was so popular when we signed to Columbia Records in 1994, the label had no idea how to market a band like us."
The upshot is that, whilst Columbia paid for the band to record their latest album, they ended up dropping Carcass before it could be released.
"It's a second rock and roll swindle," laughs Walker. "We got the money from them, but they didn't get an album. In the end, they let us walk away from our contract last December."
Carcass have returned to their original label, Earache, who released the album, fittingly called Swansong, on June 10. But the album won't be backed up by any live shows as Carcass have now officially called it a day. Walker is working on a new project called Black Star, which also features Carcass colleagues Ken Owen (drums) and Carlo Regadas (guitar), plus former Cathedral guitarist Mark Griffin.