Originally formed as a grindcore/D-beat band in the mid 80’s, Liverpool UK’s Carcass grew to be one of the most beloved and influential Death Metal bands. Their first album Reek of Putrefaction was a brief, roughly produced, and abrasive effort. Despite the bands dissatisfaction with how their debut turned out, it managed to catch the attention of the late DJ John Peel. Peel invited the band onto his show where they recorded an EP entitled ‘The John Peel Sessions’. The EP featured songs that would end up on the bands second effort ‘Symphonies of Sickness’. Symphonies marked a vast improvement over ‘Reek of Putrefaction’ in the production department, and marked a stylistic change towards a Death metal sound.
Carcass recruited British-Swedish guitarist Michael Amott(then of the recently defunct Carnage), to join Bill Steer as a second guitarist. The band then went into the studio and recorded ‘Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious’. The album featured a slightly more melodic edge, particularly in the leads department. Amott and Steer made an interesting team trading off different types of guitar soloing technique; Amott’s more melodic and influenced by the Swedish Death Metal scene, and Steer’s more atonal and decrepit sounding. The transition towards a more melodic sound continued on the bands magnum-opus ‘Heartwork’. ‘Heartwork’ featured a combination of crushing riffs with dual guitar harmonies, melodic solo’s, and Jeff Walkers savage shrieks. ‘Heartwork’ became a pioneering and extremely influential piece of work that continues to inspire bands working within the melodic death metal genre, to this day. Before the release of ‘Swansong’ Michael Amott made his exit, and went on to form Arch Enemy. Carcass went back to performing as a 3 piece. Taking influence from more traditional rock and roll, and combining it with the intensity of death metal, ‘Swansong’ -released in 1996- would become the bands final album before ‘Surgical Steel’.
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