Necroticism / Descanting the Inasalubrious

Carcass | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Earache Records
• ASIN: B000005830
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,991 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Inpropagation

2. Corporal Jigsore Quandary

3. Symposium of Sickness

4. Pedigree Butchery

5. Incarnated Solvent Abuse

6. Carneous Cacoffiny

7. Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition

8. Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Article

9. Tools of the Trade [*]

10. Pyosified [*]

11. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation II [*]

Editorial Reviews

UK standard CD edition of this digitally remastered Metal classic. Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious was Carcass' 1991 breakthrough album, the first to feature current Arch Enemy guitarist Mike Amott. Formed in the late 80's, Carcass featured ex-Napalm Death guitarist Bill Steer and ex-Electro Hippies vocalist Jeff Walker. The band became famous as a Gore Metal band, using extreme images on album sleeves and in lyrics, often with a medical dictionary providing inspiration. Eight tracks. Earache. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best Carcass album ever, April 26, 2003

By 

J. sierra "funeral fog" (Colombia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Necroticism / Descanting the Inasalubrious (Audio CD)

Man, I've been listening to metal music since I was 13, and since then many records have been cranked up (more than 17 years in this patch), and I can honestly say this work from Carcass still holds for me as their best, and one of the milestones of heavy music, not very often one may find an album that has such a distinctive sound and song structure. Many other bands can presume of being skilled, but they lack interest or sense of melody; others may say they are brutal and fast, but are boring and repetitive. Carcass here demonstrated they were VERY good musicians, that they could come up with catchy yet melodicaly varied songs and calm the blood thirst of any consumated death metal fan. Those of you reading this review may not like the album, perhaps not even the band, and that's ok, we all have different tastes, but nobody can deny these guys were (and still are) well ahead of the pack.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carneous Cacoffiny, October 22, 2004

By 

Patrick Stott (Rolleston, Canterbury, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Necroticism / Descanting the Inasalubrious (Audio CD)

Michael Schenker once said that when Punks finally learned to play their instruments, the music would be called Metal. Whether he was being facetious or remarkably astute, he was correct. Carcass, with roots firmly planted in the fledgling mid-80s Grindcore scene, created `Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious', an album widely hailed as one of the all time greats in Death Metal.

Because the band approached the music from a different background to traditional Death Metal bands, Carcass were not constrained by it's invisible but impenetrable boundaries, and "Necroticism..." is not strictly a pure Death Metal album, but contains a large Grindcore component. The progress in the years since the release of the bloody pulp of `Symphonies Of Sickness' and the indecipherable white noise of `Reek Of Putrefaction' was remarkable. The Punks had indeed learned to play their instruments.

Carcass' 1987 debut album `Reek Of Putrefaction' was a balls-out one-riff-per-song blast, with only one song passing the three minute mark, while many were considerably shorter, as was the old Grindcore tradition. Fast forward to 1992 and the band's songwriting and composition skills had developed to the point where songs were now six or seven minutes. Riff after riff was strung together, like a DNA double helix. Carcass adapted many songwriting conventions, like introductions, and rudimentary choruses, but part of the charm of this album is the delight they took in throwing in an unexpected blast passage or discordant solo.

Ken Owen's drumming in particular had matured from frenzied flailing, where he seemed to hit as many drums as possible as rapidly as he could, to a powerful, fluid and accurate sound, part Death, part Grind.

Part of the problem (or part of the charm, depending on how you look at it) with Carcass' first two albums was the indistinct guitar sound. It was loud and blurred, and so poorly defined it is near on impossible to hear what Bill Steer was playing, but was probably true to the band's live sound at the time. However, producer Colin Richardson reassembled Carcass' wall of noise on this album, brick by brick, so the riffs and solos shared and traded by Steer and new boy Michael Amott are crisp and clear, yet heavy and menacing. The opening passage of "Lavaging Expectorate Of Lysergide Composition" bounces along like an Iron Maiden riff on steroids.

Many bands missed the point of Carcass' lyrics and copied the gore theme while trying to be as offensive as possible. Jeff Walker's lyrics have a hidden depth to them. Yes, there are horrific gory passages, which are designed to shock. Behind the medical dictionary verbosity though, lays a witty, satirical sense of humour. Each song has a story to tell. Opener "Inpropagation" is a tale of using human remains as fertiliser. "Incarnated Solvent Abuse" is a recipe for creating glue from rendered down corpses, while "Lavaging Expectorate Of Lysergide Composition" explains how to get high from chemicals created by decaying bodies. Perhaps most repugnant is "Pedigree Butchery", in which human babies are processed as dog food, with wonderful lines like "Rheological, twisted nursery chymes/The fluxing of the defleshed/Paedophilosophical, carnage knowledge/As the illegitimate to the domesticated is fed". The lyrics are still completely indecipherable without a lyric sheet, while Walker took on a bulk of the vocal duties, rather than the three way sharing of the previous albums.

The overall sound of this album was far removed from Carcass' early albums, and quite a distance from most Death Metal bands of the time, except perhaps Bolt Thrower. Before `Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious', Carcass had been a bit of a cult band in Death Metal circles, too chaotic to gain wide acceptance, but their perverse lyrical bent was much appreciated. After this album's release however, all things gory and Grindy in the underground were loudly professing their love for Carcass. So imposing is this album that few bands have ever tried to imitate it's sound, and none have ever succeeded, not even Carcass.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The picture of ill health, you're a bit cut up...", July 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Necroticism / Descanting the Inasalubrious (Audio CD)

Its hard to describe this album as anything less than incredible. I've been a metal fan for 20 years, and this CD has had more spins than any of the other hundreds of discs in my collection. No contest. I believe this to be Carcass' finest hour... the perfect compromise of the awesome brutality of 'Reek of Putrefaction' and 'Symphonies of Sickness' and the ingenious song structure of their other masterpiece: 'Heartwork'. In my opinion, this is THE death/grind album. Nobody does it like Carcass did. The guitar work is amazing, and the dual solos and vocals are just plain awesome. From the grinding opener "Impropagation" to the beautiful ending of "Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Article" (which is the original last track on the CD) this album never ceases to amaze me. I don't own any other CD that I've listened to so frequently and enjoy so completely as Necroticism. Its been over 10 years, and this one is still going strong. Buy this. :)