CARCASS — Reek of Putrefaction (review)

CARCASS — Reek of Putrefaction album cover Album · 1988 · Goregrind Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
UMUR
"Reek of Putrefaction" is the debut full-length studio album by UK goregrind act Carcass. The album was released through Earache Records in July 1988. Carcass was formed back in 1985 by drummer Ken Owen and guitarist Bill Steer under the name Disattack. In the beginning they played D-beat style hardcore punk (imitation style of the hardcore punk act Discharge). A couple of other people also went through the lineup in those early years, the most important being bassist Jeff Walker who would stay with the band. A guy called Sanjiv handled the vocals. Around 1987 they changed the band name to Carcass. Bill Steer shortly joined Napalm Death for the recording of the "Scum (1987)" album but was still a member of Carcass. Before entering the studio to record "Reek of Putrefaction", vocalist Sanjiv had left Carcass and the three remaining members shared the vocal duties on the album. Thus the classic goregrind vocal style was born. Bill Steer handles the deep grunts/growls, Jeff Walker handles the aggressive higher pitched snarling and Ken Owen occasionally joins in with a gurgling kind of growling vocal style.

The music on the album is filthy and extremely badly produced grindcore/hardcore with gore themed lyrics. There are 22 tracks on the album and they are all relatively short (most between 1 - 3 minutes in length). Song titles like "Genital Grinder", "Vomited Anal Tract", "Feast On Dismembered Carnage" and "Carbonized Eye Sockets" are the order of the day. While the music is mostly blasting away in a very fast pace, there are actually plenty of mid-paced sections too. Had the production been just a little less muddy some of these tracks might actually have sounded pretty good. Carcass re-recorded "Pyosisified (Rotten to the Gore)" for the "Tools of the Trade (1992)" EP and that version of the track is great, which pretty much proves my point, that it´s not the material that´s sub par in quality, but the raw, and amaturish sound production, which doesn´t allow the material to shine.

It might be hard to believe when listening to the primitive and noisy grindcore attack on the album, but "Reek of Putrefaction" is widely regarded as one of the most influential albums in extreme metal and a seminal album in the goregrind genre. Hundreds, maybe thousands of imitators and bands that are influenced by the early Carcass sound, have emerged in the years since this album was released. While history has certainly proved how important this album is, I still feel just about the same regarding the music on the album today as I did back then. The tracks sound too much the same, the sound production makes the album just barely listenable, and the musicianship is untight and sloppy. Somehow the primitive charm that others hear almost completely eludes me. Judged on quality alone a 2 star (40%) rating is fair.
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