Saturday, June 20, 2009

Carcass - Heartwork (1993)


Lineup:
  • Bill Steer
  • Michael Amott
  • Jeff Walker
  • Ken Owen
Track Listing:
  1. Buried Dreams
  2. Carnal Forge
  3. No Love Lost
  4. Heartwork
  5. Embodiment
  6. This Mortal Coil
  7. Arbeit Macht Fleisch
  8. Blind Bleeding The Blind
  9. Doctrinal Expletives
  10. Death Certificate
Certainly one of the most under rated death metal bands to come out of Britain, carcass 5th studio release was the highlight of its career. The true innovators of the gore-grind genre, death metal purists may argue that their mucus & bile infested previous releases like 1988's Reek of putrefaction or 1989's Symphonies of sickness dont really get the credit they deserve. & yes thats a fact. not only were those 2 albums immensely pivotal to the whole gore infested grind scene, they were also pretty funny in a weird Dexter Morgan kinda way.

Coming to Heartwork, this album is one of the greatest releases to come out of the mid 90's when the whole grunge scene literally killed heavy metal. The complex riffing of Bill and Michael , the vocal snarls of Jeff & the tight drumming of Ken gave plenty of hope to metal heads around the world who were getting distracted with the whole Seattle scene.

the first 5 songs are just bone crushing heavy! the solos are fantastic, melodious at times & seem to make a loud statement that even gore grind bands can play cool solos. If one has to listen to their previous albums, which sounded like the background score for ultra low B grade horror movies (which in this case is a good thing), heartwork was like a big budget blockbuster.

the production was and still is one of the best in a death metal album. Michael Ammot who later formed the immensely popular Arch Enemy is in top form & could even put the other pompous metal shredders to shame. even though the tempo in the entire album is fast, what really gets ones attention is the groovy crunches of the guitar riffs that keep playing in the head even after the song is long over. Note the ultra heavy chuggs of 'No love lost'.

"Buried Dreams", "Carnal Forge", "Heartwork" are just timeless classics and stuff no one thought Carcass could write considering its the same band which also came up with songs like 'Swarming Vulgar Mass Of Infected Virulency', 'Splattered Cavities', 'Genital Grinder', 'Regurgitation Of Giblets' and scores of other sickening names from their previous releases. Of couse its sad that there were not many takers to the medical humor of Jeff Walker so they decided to write their best material (medical errors and horrors aside ) and wrote , probably the best metal release of 1993.

If there ever was a 'progressive death metal album, Heartwork could be the one.

This is a must have album & no metal fans collection can ever be complete without this phlegm ,cough cough, i mean 'gem'

My rating
10/10

review by Pritham 'Metal farmer' D'Souza

No comments:

Post a Comment