Metal Hammer Carcass review

from Metal Hammer, 1989

Symphonies of Sickness review by James Sherry

The gods of grunge are back, with a second L.P. that just vomits all over their first effort (which is still a classic in its own right, the first L.P. with no production at all, quite an accomplishment!). This is just the sickest, wickedest L.P. to ever try and ??? the pressing ???, let alone be released! Ten tracks of the noisiest, O.T.T. music you'll ever witness, with vocals that just defy all descriptions and adjectives. The lyrics - my god, the lyrics, get a load of this! "Squeeze out the pus, perforate the rash / Munch the mouldy scaps, lick the septic gash" from the track Crepitating Bowel Erosion and "Excrete and disgorge the festering pus as your skin erupts with corrosive decay" from Ruptured in Purulence eeeerm - sick, sick, sick!

Yes indeed, guitarist Bill Steer made a wise move getting out of Napalm Death (just maybe to keep his street cred!) and putting all his energy into Carcass. This is the ultimate death album (in death metal as this goes far beyond Metal). Death, death and more death all the way. Ignore everything else, this is the album to shock. It won't be long before Carcass are on the front page of the Sun with a headline looking something like "Shock and Horror as drug crazed, sex??? Carcass munch on Human beings in the middle of Marks and Spencers!" This is the L.P. to shore up a decade. A sick album, by a sick bunch of degenerates, for a sick society. One for your collection, even if you hate this kind of stuff. A definite landmark in music!


??? indicate portions of my copy I couldn't make out...