Carcass Songs Ranked

Carcass is an English extreme metal band from Liverpool that was formed in 1986. The band has gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Bill Steer and bassist and vocalist Jeff Walker as the only constant members. They broke up in 1996 but reformed in 2007 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons. To date, the band has released six studio albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, two demo albums, one video album, and six music videos. Carcass is regarded as the pioneer of the goregrind genre. Their early work was also tagged as “splatter death metal”, and “hardcore” on account of their morbid lyrics and gruesome album covers. Their fourth album, Heartwork (1993), is considered a landmark in the melodic death metal genre. Carcass was also one of the few death metal acts to sign to a major label, with Columbia Records handling North American distribution for Heartwork, while the album was distributed worldwide by Earache who released all of the band’s albums up to and including Swansong (1996). The band’s lyrics often focus on animal rights issues. Walker and Steer are both vegetarians. Steer used to be vegan and Walker was a hunt saboteur. Here are all of Carcass’ songs ranked.

Don’t miss out on the pulsating metal sound of Carcass below! Click to enjoy the songs that made them popular in the UK and the US!

10. Keep On Rotting In the Free World (Swansong 1995)

“Love the chorus! Anyway, this is obviously about capitalism, and the dominance of the West in the global economy – the Western nations being “consumers, and all others being consumed”. Eventually, nothing will be free – air, dreams, life. The chorus simply exemplifies the message – that we will keep on deriving from those less fortunate than us, although in the natural, non-economic world, our money and investments and exploitation would simply fall apart (“…whilst in the real world you…rot!!”). I think, overall, this is about the intricate financial web that Capitalism has spun, and if the threads fade, we would simply fall to earth.”

9. Carnal Forge (Heartwork, 1993)

“Sounds like this song is talking about genocide victims and how they are lumped up into one big mass grave. The guitar solo here is really spectacular. Further proof Carcass were specialists at what they did.”

8. Inpropagation (Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious, 1991)

“A few interesting uses for a corpse that Carcass wrote about on that album. It’s nothing new to them. They were always taking death metal lyrics to the extreme. Not just writing about dying or being dead, but using scientific terms and words only heard from a mortician’s mouth. They definitely did their homework when forming the band! They were going to tell the world that they were not just posers who can convert any slasher movie into awesomely heavy music. They’ve always been the ones who penned a beautiful seranade to a cadaver, and describing what actually goes on inside a body post-mortem.”

7. This Mortal Coil (Heartwork 1993)

“Jeff is clearly talking about how the ‘new world disorder’ (his opinion of the ‘new world order’ proclaimed by George Bush Senior when the Berlin Wall fell, will try to destroy anything in its path that stands in the way of profit-making. The only equality will be in pain and hate.”

See more: Carcass Albums Ranked

6. No Love Lost (Heartwork 1993)

“Pretty cool death metal single. I have never been to gripped by it, but the great riffing is more than enough for me to enjoy this song. This song figuratively describes the futility of love and how it can ultimately twist relationships instead of supplement them.”

5. Buried Dreams (Heartwork 1993)

“Holy mother of god, this song is heavy. If it doesn’t make you feel at least a wee bit like headbanging, there’s something very wrong with you. It’s such a catchy song too, with a nice melodic, emotive guitar solo to boot. I have my problems with the album, but this song has always been one of my favorite metal tracks of all time. “This Mortal Coil” also has a nice galloping rhythm to it, and has some very good melodic moments all over.”

4. Reek of Putrefaction (Reek of Putrefaction, 1988)

“The production really does let this album down massively, the band have even said that themselves in interviews. The shitty low-fi production doesn’t competely ruin the record at all but with a better producer this could have been one of Carcass’ best.”

See more: Queensryche Albums Ranked

3. Corporal Jigsore Quandary (Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious 1991)

“”With some riffs it’s simple: you know where the words are going to fall. It’s just a matter of filling in the gaps, the blanks, put them down. With ‘Corporal,’ even though it’s got a kind of chorus riff, there is no real chorus, because the words in there are repeated. That’s something that was deliberate back then, because my attitude as a 19 or 20 year old was that chorus of being lazy – just repeating the same thing. That just illustrates how awkward we were when we were young. In fact, we were fighting against just being obvious.”

2. Incarnate Solvent Abuse (Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious 1991)

“One of Carcass’ best albums. The lyrics are some of the best written I’ve ever heard, especially the wide use of medical terminology to describe ways to get rid of corpses. The riffs are great and it’s the best structured of all the albums. I’d take this over grindcore Carcass any day.”

1. Heartwork (Heartwork, 1993)

“Brilliant song, the one melodeath song to rule them all. The guitar work here is impecable, featuring both fast riffing as well as slowing down for some highly melodic parts. The vocals are sopt on, really catchy. Makes for a really epic song, one that cannot be blasted loud enough.”