CARCASS - Symphonies Of Sickness (12" LP)

From the opening seconds of “Reek of Putrefaction” (the track, not the debut), the listener is enveloped in a viscous atmosphere of rot. The production, while still raw, provides a newfound clarity that gives each instrument room to inflict its own unique damage. Bill Steer’s guitar tone is impossibly thick—grimy yet articulate—channeling riffs that lurch, grind, and twist with ghastly elegance. His solos, though used sparingly, are blistering, melodically unhinged flares that punctuate the carnage like surgical strikes. The bass, helmed by Jeff Walker, snarls beneath the guitars with a menacing growl that feels almost tactile, enhancing the album’s grimy texture.

Vocally, Symphonies of Sickness is a three-headed monster. Walker’s acidic shrieks, Steer’s cavernous growls, and Ken Owen’s pitch-shifted grotesqueries swirl together like an autopsy gone wrong. It’s this vocal interplay that adds to the album’s horrific charm, painting a sonic picture of decomposition and disease that’s as theatrical as it is menacing. The lyrics—cryptic, medical, and grotesquely poetic—contribute to the album’s identity as a morbid tome of pathological obsession.

The songwriting is where the album truly stands apart. Tracks like “Exhume to Consume,” “Ruptured in Purulence,” and “Excoriating Abdominal Emanation” showcase an evolved sense of structure, balance, and dynamics. These are not just grindcore outbursts—they are fully-formed compositions that incorporate slower, doom-laden passages and rhythmic shifts that allow the music to breathe and fester. The band’s use of tempo changes and eerie melodic undercurrents injects a disturbing beauty into the brutality, making each track memorable beyond its shock value.

Ken Owen’s drumming, while still ferocious, displays far more nuance here. His blast beats are tighter and better defined, and his slower, groove-laden rhythms provide the perfect contrast to the album’s more unhinged moments. His performance on tracks like “Crepitating Bowel Erosion” proves that Carcass had not only retained their grindcore roots but had also begun to pave the way toward the more technical and melodic directions they would later explore.

Simply put, Symphonies of Sickness is not just an essential Carcass album—it is a landmark release in the history of extreme metal. It captures a moment when goregrind broke free from its crude origins and became something deeper, more twisted, and oddly sophisticated. Even decades later, its influence continues to fester in the genre’s DNA. For those seeking the perfect balance of filth, finesse, and ferocity, this remains a masterpiece that still sounds as unsettling and exhilarating as the day it was exhumed.