Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious (Full Dynamic Range Edition)

As they'd done on their last album, Symphonies of Sickness (1989), Carcass continue to develop and expand their music on Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious. They'd begun as a grindcore band — in fact, one of the first and certainly one of the most influential — as showcased on their debut album, Reek of Putrefaction (1988). Then came Symphonies, where they stretched out the grindcore of Reek: longer song lengths, more innersong developments, further levels of musical complexity, better production, and so on. This trajectory continues on Necroticism as Carcass break free of grindcore's stylistic limits, crafting expansive songs that ever develop and hark back musically to early-'90s thrash (à la Megadeth circa Rust in Peace [1990] particularly). Necroticism, however, is a death metal album through and through, make no mistake. It may lean toward thrash as much as it does grindcore, but it's still awfully damn ferocious. Jeff Walker spews out his septic vocals in a manner that is sure to send children and grandparents fleeing, and his lyrics are just as medically jargonistic as ever, though a bit toned down in terms of shock value. Moreover, the band adds a second guitarist, Michael Amott, who frees up Bill Steer to solo more often and play more elaborately, which makes Necroticism very much a guitar album, more so than anything Carcass has recorded to date, and which elevates Steer to center stage, where he showcases precisely how much he's grown as a musician since his days in Napalm Death. Necroticism ultimately is the crossroad between Carcass' seminal grindcore (i.e., Reek, Symphonies) and their latter-day, more straightforward death metal (Heartwork [1994], Swansong [1996]). As such, it's one of their most interesting albums, if not one of their best, reflecting their past while foreshadowing their future. Songs like "Incarnated Solvent Abuse," one of the album's highlights, illustrate this very well. Though often overlooked in favor of what came before and what came after, Necroticism is nonetheless one of the standout death metal albums of the early '90s. Produced by Colin Richardson, it sounds phenomenal, and the musicianship here is a huge stride forward for the band, especially that of Steer. [The 2004 CD reissue includes the videos for "Corporal Jigsore Quandary" and "Incarnated Solvent Abuse." These are nice additions, but the previous CD reissue had included the Tools of the Trade EP, which is now missing here on the 2004 release. The previous edition including the three-song EP is preferable — if you can find it, that is.]