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Carcass: Wake up and smell the... carcass

02/04/10 || InquisitorGeneralis

GD note: To see what kind of proof-reading we have to do here at GD with some of our writers we will now, for once, leave this review completely unedited. The typos come in numbers – all the guidelines/spellchecking programs in the world obviously won’t help to prevent this from happening. On top of that the MySpace link in the info section is not as it’s supposed to be. Small things perhaps, but after having to go thru 50 million of them they are not so small anymore.

Maybe the best way to teach people how to proof-read themselves before posting a review is to let the world see how much they suck without having someone correct all the errors. Hopefully that will help them to get a grip and start giving a fuck about proofing and using the guidelines. Then again – probably not… We wish you all the luck in the world, you’ll need it to get thru this piece. Last off, this isn’t even close to being the worst example of how it can look, but to use one of those disasters would be too much for mankind to deal with.

Ok, I’ll admit I’ve broken a few of society’s “rules” in my twenty-nine years of ridiculous existence: illegal drugs have found their way into my system on a regular basis for going on a decade and a half now, I’ve told a little white lie or two to help out with the taxman in April, and I have committed the unspeakable crime of downloading music. See, a year ago I downloaded me some Carcass seeing as though the only disc I could buy at my local (shitty) record store was “Heartwork”. My roommate actually did the downloading so when the feds come a’knockin his dumbass will take the fall. Old IG is a certified puppet master!

Anyway, my human refridgerator of a roomie managed to snag a ton of fucken Carcass including some bootlets and unreleased shit. Being the douche I am I did not really get too deep into that stuff, I gave my attention to the big three combo of “Necroticism”, “Heartwork”, and “Swansong”. While letting iTunes genius away Coroner’s “The lethargic age” I stumbled upon an extremely cool sounding but noticably different version of the classic “No love lost”. Further research revealed that I in fact had a previously unnoticed Carcass compliation in my library and it required further attention.

“Wake up and smell the… carcass” is a hodgepodge of material that includes songs that did not make it on to “Swansong”, some live “Heartwork”-era material done during a BBC session, the “Tools of the Trade” EP, the “Heartwork” EP, and some shit on previous grind compilations. Whew, that’s a mouthful. The “Swansong” material is pretty fucken enjoyable…if you liked “Swansong” that is. The tracks have a slower pace and are riff-heavy. “Blood splattered banner” and “Edge of darkness” are the best of that bunch and probebly should have made the cut. Think “Room 101” and “Tomorrow belongs to nobody”: these five tracks all have a vibe similar to those two swansongs: good riffs, a slower pace, and more simplified song structures. If you liked “Swansong” (like me) than you will enjoy the first five tracks. If not, go fuck yourself.

The live in-studio “Heartwork” material is pretty damn cool, with the previously mentioned “No love lost” really standing out due to the cool bass and drum intro. The vocals though are a bit weak but the band tears up “Buried dreams” and “Rot and roll” quite well. There is not need for two “Rot and roll“s though. “This is your life” is arguably my favorite Carcass song though so I will never complain when it makes an appearence. That makes up the “Heartwork EP” section.

The second, grindy half of “Wake up and smell the…carcass” will surely please the old-school fans, allthough I am sure some will complain about the lack of “Necroticism” material. Fuck me though, I actually enjoy “Hepatic tissue fermentation II” and “Tools of the trade” though so I guess maybe I’m coming around to teh grind… maybe. “Genital grinder” is the still best song name this side of “Tampon lollipops”. Don’t expect any Kill the Client or Fuck… I’m Dead reviews from me though anytime soon.

This is a pretty cool compilation but definitely not an absolute, must-own piece of Carcass flesh. I believe there are only 10,000 copies of this baby floating around so it may be tough to find at the local music store. However, if you love the Carcass you may want to look online and see if you can buy this baby digitally… unlike yours truly. Thank god I write under a pen name so Interpol can not track me down.

Oh, and the cover is JFK’s autopsy photo. According to the world’s finest news source, The Onion, Kennedy was…

slain by the CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, and Freemasons

… and he was…

shot 129 times from 43 different angles

And you thought Oliver Stone had it all figured out didn’t you?

7,5

Information
Released: 1996
Label: Earache
Website: www.myspace.com/carcass
Band
Ken Owen: drums
Bill Steer: guitar, vocals
Jeff Walker: bass, vocals
Mike Amott: guitars on tracks 10-17
Carlo Regadas: guitar on tracks 1-9

Tracklist
01. Edge of Darkness
02. Emotional Flatline
03. Ever Increasing Circles
04. Blood Spattered Banner
05. I Told You So (Corporate Rock Really Does Suck)
06. Buried Dreams (live)
07. No Love Lost (live)
08. Rot ‘n’ Roll (live)
09. Edge of Darkness (live)
10. This Is Your Life
11. Rot ‘n’ Roll
12. Tools of the Trade
13. Pyosisified (Still Rotten to the Gore)
14. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation II
15. Genital Grinder II
16. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation
17. Exhume to Consume

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