| Reek of Putrefaction | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 28 July 1988 | |||
| Recorded | December 1987–March 1988 | |||
| Studio | Rich Bitch Studios | |||
| Genre | Goregrind | |||
| Length | 39:41 | |||
| Label | Earache, Combat (US) | |||
| Producer | Carcass, Paul Talbot | |||
| Carcass chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
 "Clean" 2002 re-issue cover | ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
Reek of Putrefaction is the debut album by British extreme metal band Carcass. It was released by Earache Records in July 1988.
When released, Reek of Putrefaction reached No. 6 on the UK Indie Chart, establishing Carcass as one of the pioneers of the grindcore genre. [2] The late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel declared it his favourite album of 1988, in an interview for British newspaper The Observer . [3]
Guitarist/vocalist Bill Steer retrospectively said that "The first album wasn’t very focused, it was just about being fast and heavy…".
He went on to say that the band did not intend the muddy sound present throughout the album: "The first one obviously is a crazy accident. It’s got a small following but we did not intend to make that record the thing that people hear now. We had different ideas and we just couldn’t execute them. We were too young, too naïve, and inexperienced. From 'Symphonies' onwards, we got better at achieving the things we wanted to achieve in the studio."
Reek of Putrefaction was recorded in four days at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham. According to guitarist Bill Steer, the studio's engineer "ruined" the record, especially its drum tracks. Carcass had only had a few hours available of mixing, so they had to release the LP as it was to meet the label's deadline. The band were "everything but happy" with the result, declared Steer. [4]
When the master recording was first sent to the pressing plant, the original vinyl LP had to be pressed at lower volumes, because the bass frequencies were so low (sometimes reaching 25 Hz) that they were in danger of rendering higher frequencies inaudible. [5]
Reek of Putrefaction was first released in 1988. The original album cover consisted of a collage of autopsy photographs collected from medical journals. [3] Reek of Putrefaction was re-released in 1994 with a "clean" cover. [6] In 2002, the album was reissued with a censored outer cover proclaiming "Original artwork contained inside".
The album was re-released in 2008 as part of an ongoing series of Carcass reissues to tie in with their reunion. The main album, along with the demo Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment, is presented as one side of a dualdisc, while the DVD side features the first part of an extended documentary titled The Pathologist's Report Part I: Incubation. Later editions contain the album on a CD and the documentary on a separate DVD. The album is presented in a 12-panel digipak with full lyrics and artwork and is sealed in a white medical bag with sticker, to hide the controversial cover art.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Genital Grinder" | 1:32 |
| 2. | "Regurgitation of Giblets" | 1:24 |
| 3. | "Maggot Colony" | 1:37 |
| 4. | "Pyosisified (Rotten to the Gore)" | 2:55 |
| 5. | "Carbonized Eyesockets" | 1:11 |
| 6. | "Frenzied Detruncation" | 0:59 |
| 7. | "Vomited Anal Tract" | 1:45 |
| 8. | "Festerday" | 0:22 |
| 9. | "Fermenting Innards" | 2:35 |
| 10. | "Excreted Alive" | 1:21 |
| 11. | "Suppuration" | 2:19 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Foeticide" | 2:46 |
| 13. | "Microwaved Uterogestation" | 1:24 |
| 14. | "Feast on Dismembered Carnage" | 1:27 |
| 15. | "Splattered Cavities" | 1:54 |
| 16. | "Psychopathologist" | 1:18 |
| 17. | "Burnt to a Crisp" | 2:43 |
| 18. | "Pungent Excruciation" | 2:31 |
| 19. | "Manifestation of Verrucose Urethra" | 1:02 |
| 20. | "Oxidised Razor Masticator" | 3:13 |
| 21. | "Mucopurulence Excretor" | 1:09 |
| 22. | "Malignant Defecation" | 2:14 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 23. | "Genital Grinder (Intro)" | 0:50 |
| 24. | "Regurgitation of Giblets" | 1:56 |
| 25. | "Festerday" | 0:19 |
| 26. | "Limb from Limb" | 1:05 |
| 27. | "Rotten to the Gore" | 2:54 |
| 28. | "Excreted Alive" | 0:55 |
| 29. | "Malignant Defecation" | 1:59 |
| 30. | "Fermenting Innards" | 2:33 |
| 31. | "Necro-Cannibal Bloodfeast" | 1:49 |
| 32. | "Psychopathologist" | 1:29 |
| 33. | "Die in Pain" | 0:11 |
| 34. | "Pungent Excruciation" | 3:04 |
| 35. | "Face Meltaaargh" | 1:16 |
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Indie Chart [7] | 6 |
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Swansong is the fifth studio album by English extreme metal band Carcass. It was released on 10 June 1996 in the UK by Earache Records. It is the only Carcass album to feature guitarist Carlo Regadas. This album was intended to be their major label debut, having been signed by Columbia Records following the success of Heartwork, but disputes with that record company caused them to return to Earache. The album was re-released on 21 July 2008, as a dualdisc including the fifth part of The Pathologist's Report. It was the band's last studio release for over 17 years, until the release of Surgical Steel in 2013, and the last to feature founding drummer Ken Owen.
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Scum is the debut studio album by English grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 1 July 1987 by Earache Records. The two sides of the record were recorded by two different lineups in sessions separated by about a year; the only musician in both incarnations was drummer Mick Harris. The two sides are very different, and the two taken together serve to bridge stylistic elements of heavy metal and punk rock. While the songs on the A-side are influenced heavily by hardcore punk and anarcho-punk, the vocals and lower-tuned electric guitars on the B-side anticipate subsequent developments in extreme metal. Loudwire put it in the list of the best 10 metal albums of 1987.
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Carcass are an English extreme metal band from Liverpool, formed in 1985. The band have gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Bill Steer and bassist-vocalist Jeff Walker as the only constant members. They broke up in 1996, but reformed in 2007 without one of their original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons. To date, the band have released seven studio albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, two demo albums, one video album, and six music videos.
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