DB HOF NO. 8

The making of Carcass’s “Necrotocism”

released: 1991

label: Earache

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Liverpudlian grind titans Carcass may not have invented grindcore with 1991’s Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious, but they certainly opened it up to a magnitude of previously unfathomed possibilities. After releasing two well-received but sonically blurry (and visually controversial) grind shitstorms in Reek of Putrefaction (1988) and Symphonies of Sickness (1989), guitarist/vocalist Bill Steer, bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker and drummer Ken Owen began writing longer, infinitely more complex and compelling songs before recruiting future Arch Enemy guitarist Michael Amott (then of Carnage) from Sweden and entering Amazon Studios in Simonswood, England, with producer Colin Richardson. The result was an eight-song psychedelic metal colossus with song titles like “Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition” and “Corporal Jigsore Quandary,” bizarre samples culled from British TV programming, and medically/disease-themed lyrics (penned by Walker) that cleft a fine line between morbid obsession and rarefied genius. But Necroticism isn’t just the crucial transitional album between Carcass’ muffled past and its highly refined death-rock future—it also happens to be the latest inductee into Decibel’s Hall of Fame.

—J. Bennett

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