(Earache Records)
59:27min
Saddening as it may be for the young, who will likely never see CARCASS record another album like "Reek Of Putrefaction", and the old(er), who know better than anyone, what they and the current generation are missing, there is still the record itself which is available once more with the original artwork, the demo tracks, DVD footage, and a plethora of other features. "Reek Of Putrefaction" served as one of the several tipping blocks that pushed both Grindcore and Death Metal to the fore. It is a nasty and raw collection of tracks whose only real flaw is in the production, which really is not all that bad contrary to... well, the band's new fangled beliefs, not anyone else's. Being one of the first of its kind, it's rather difficult to criticize and compare it with anything. If one negative thing must be said in addition to the comment on the production, it is that the songs are a tad on the repetitive side. But, that's a small grievance. The sound of the record alone is quite enough to mangle flesh. They became much better songwriters afterwards, as we all know. CARCASS's influence was extremely widespread. Sweden's TRAUMATIC, masters of Grind themselves, recorded a cover of 'Genital Grinder'. They were one of many who drew inspiration from them. This dual disc edition comes as a massive digipack that features the originally banned artwork (packaged in a white "medical" bag), a bunch of old pics, lyrics and small articles. The audio side has the entire "Flesh Ripping Torment" demo from 1987as bonus tracks (13 songs, still with original vocalist Sanjiv), while the DVD section on the flip side comes up with part 1 of the CARCASS history "The Pathologist's Report" (dealing with the band's early days). For all further info check out www.myspace.com/carcass, www.earache.com
Nat Shapiro
