arcane-beautiful This album is just perfect to be honest. Not one flaw on it, every song is amazing and memorable, and each song has its own distinct characteristic. Finding an album like this very rare indeed.

After Necrotocism. Carcass adopted a more melodic and maturer style, with their music becoming more to the point, with shorter compositions, with an ordinary strophic structure in most songs. Lyrically, the album has less to do blood, guts, gore and murder and focuses more on more universal topics, including love, sex, religion, art and war.

This album I believe is also a landmark because it really cemented the melodic death metal movement that was about to follow. Now, ok Slaughter Of The Souls by At The Gates did too, and In Flames took it a step forward, but this album really is a landmark for metal in general...cause it really took metal in general, and changed death metal for the better...making it more contemporary as a genre, yet keeping its power.

I think in their next album, they lost it a bit...but after this album...I DONT CARE!

1. Buried Dreams - Amazing intro and kick ass rifss. Jeff's vocals sound like he's gargling acid. Amazing arrangement. 10/10

2. Carnal Forge - Kick ass intro. Quite thrashy. Just frantic and a head melting song. 10/10

3. No Love Lost - Amazing main riff. Great chorus and lyrics. It's kind of like a metal pop song. 10/10

4. Heartwork - Now this is a song that created a genre...I think. The metal community was shoken when this was release (I believe). With an interesting video, and some of the greatest riffs and melodic lead lines u cud ever hear. 10/10

5. Embodiment - One of my all time favourite Carcass songs, mainly cause the main riff kicks a serious amount of arse. I always play this riff on guitar. It's just metal at its best, and its why I love the genre so much. 10/10

6. This Mortal Coil - Amazing riffs.A very melodic song. Metal at it's best really. 10/10

7. Arneit Macht Fleisch - Quite thrashy. Just an adrenaline rush throughout. Full of exciting twists and turns. 10/10

8. Blind Bleeding The Blind - Pure embodiment of classic metal. Quite groovy at times. 10/10

9. Doctrinal Expletitives - What a kick ass riff. Very powerfull. It's like being crushed by a train. 10/10

10. Death Certificate - It's a rifforgasmrama. Oh...and the song is amazing too. 10/10

CONCLUSION: I gave all the songs 10...which means its perfect. Just so enjoyable to listen to and I could listen to it about 100 times in a row (wudnt get much sleep, but hey when music is this good, ya cant say now...im not going to by the way haha)

Stooge It’s so rare to find an album that combines crushing heaviness with such rich melodies without it sounding forced. Carcass achieves the perfect balance on Heartwork.

Heartwork is an endless (well, 42 minutes) stream of riffing. That being said, it is more than simply a riff catalog. They are but part of the recipe in making a melodic death metal album to which all others must be compared. There are no tracks that I would consider as filler. I wouldn’t even say there are standout tracks because it is such a consistent album.

The guitar duo of Bill Steer and Michael Amott really shine on this album. With their excellent soloing on “Carnal Forge”, “Heartwork”, and “Death Certificate”, they prove themselves to be among the top guitar duos in all of metal. Jeff Walker barks just as viciously as on previous albums, except this time you can actually make out what he’s saying without clinging tightly to the lyrics sheet.

It’s a fantastic sounding album, which has as much to do with producer Colin Richardson as it does the band. They created a death metal album that is very accessible, but it doesn’t sacrifice the core sound of Carcass. While they may have some slower songs (“No Love Lost”, “Embodiment”), only perhaps the most stubborn of fans from their Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness days could accuse them of selling out.

Bottom line: Classic!

Time Signature Artwork...

Genre: melodic death metal

"Heartwork" is yet another improtant and groundbreaking metal release by Carcass, mainly because it is one of the first melodic death metal releases. A lot of diehard Carcass fans disliked this album because Carcass turned away from many of the elements that had defined them, such as gory lyrics and musical brutality, but the Carcass boys themselves are very proud of this album - Bill Steer even thinks it's the best album they made.

Musically, this album is simpler than "Necroticism" - both in terms of the complexity of the guitar riffs (there atill are some qurky and odd riffs though) and the structure of the songs, and there's plety of melody and groove. But, this is by no means a bad album. In fact, it's a brilliant album, and I certainly understand why the Carcass boys are so proud of it.

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Swedish melodeath and American melodic metalcore.