Carcass
Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious

What follows a person's death? Funeral, burial, and many farewells. 

If this question had been posed to the Carcass around 1991, they would probably have invited you to listen to their most recent (at the time, of course) work: Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious (in Italian, The Process of Dying - Discussing the Unhealthy).

Indeed, because Necroticism is a sort of concept album that, unlike other concept albums (just to name one: Tommy by The Who), does not tell a story, no, rather it has a central theme around which the songs are constructed. In four words: how to reuse the dead...

Shocking, you might say, but for those who followed the Carcass from the times of Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness, this detail couldn't be so surprising, after all, we had already accustomed ourselves to their more straightforward and splatter content.

Necroticism is the album that marks the first stylistic shift of Carcass (the second will come with the subsequent Heartwork): there is a maturity from the musical point of view, leaving aside that noisy and unrefined Grind of the beginnings, in addition, the Swedish guitarist Michael Amott is introduced, whose contribution will prove to be fundamental for the Carcass.

The album is often (mistakenly) described as "the perfect union of Grind and Death metal" when, in my opinion, it is not at all like that: very little Grind is felt (for example, some blast-beats in Inpropagation, one of the album's most violent tracks); rather the album offers us a very technical Death metal that could also be taken as Progressive due to the structures of the songs.

As I was saying before, the contribution of Michael Amott is fundamental: the guitar riffs are more complex and innovative (see Pedigree Butchery), in some parts Amott and colleague Steer delight us with intelligent and unexpected fills, while the solos become more "tasty".

As far as the other instruments go, there's not much to say: the bass is inconsequential, as always in this music, while drummer Ken Owen, having realized there's more to it than just snare, hi-hat, and bass drum, proves to be one of the best drummers on the extreme scene.

The album is characterized by a superb sound, the production is really excellent, as is the content: eight songs for a duration of forty-eight minutes in which you won't get bored easily.

From the violence of the opener Inpropagation (where the poor corpses become fertilizer) to Corporal Jigsore Quandary (corpses = puzzle), one of the band's most famous tracks, supported by a riff as elementary as it is brilliant. The subsequent Symposium of Sickness, as the title suggests, has contents worthy of Symphonies of Sickness. Next, we find another strong piece of the album: Pedigree Butchery (corpses = dog food), in which an unexpected clean riff stands out. It is followed by Incarnated Solvent Abuse (corpses = glue/solvent..), another of the most famous pieces. We arrive at Carneous Cacoffiny (corpses = components of musical instruments), followed by Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition, supported by some exceptional palm-muted riffs. Closing it all is Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Artiche, the longest track on the album, as well as one of the most complex, moreover, one of those I did not understand...

In conclusion, I can say that Necroticism is one of Carcass's most valid albums, perhaps only rivaled by Heartwork.

I recommend it to those who already know some hits of the Liverpool quartet (not The Beatles, mind you) and to those looking for a Death metal that knows how to blend power with originality.

 P.S.: remarkable is the fact that almost every song begins with a snippet of a conversation regarding autopsies, morgues and so on, and that all solos have a name (http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/carcass/necroticismdescantingtheinsalubrious.html#1).