Carcass (GB)

About

Few bands have left fingerprints on as many subgenres as Carcass. The Liverpool outfit started in goregrind territory with their 1988 debut Reek of Putrefaction, a record so primitive that the band themselves hated it, yet it landed them a Peel Session on BBC Radio 1 and became a landmark of the style. From there they kept evolving, tightening and expanding their sound through Symphonies of Sickness and the intricate Necroticism, before Heartwork in 1993 essentially invented melodic death metal as the world came to know it. Columbia Records signed them hoping for a crossover hit and even suggested Jeff Walker take singing lessons, which tells you everything about how awkward that relationship was. After splitting in 1996, Carcass reformed in 2007 and eventually returned with Surgical Steel in 2013, which was met with serious critical enthusiasm. Their seventh album Torn Arteries followed in 2021, named after an old Ken Owen demo. Through it all, guitarist Bill Steer and bassist vocalist Jeff Walker have been the constant core, shaping a catalog that runs from medically gory grindcore to riff driven melodic metal.