Carcass - Swansong (1996)

1996/Earache

A « Classics » section and no trace of Swansong ? Are you kidding ? Well, I had to make things right at one time, and the fact of seeing the postman bringing me a collector Swansong t-shirt was, to me, the ideal occasion.

Back in the time (that is mid-90s), I was starting to dig bands like Pantera but had issues with the herds of scary lumberjacks whose chief (or spokesman) expressed himself through very strange and above all very disorientating grunts… Couldn't see the point of it. Luckily, it didn't last. Best of Trash, a TV programme that saved many lives among (French) people of my generation, allowed us to find out that radio standards (which weren't all so bad at the time, by the way) did not sum up the whole musical universe and that something else did exist. That's how I first faced « Keep On Rotting In The Free World» (generally referred to as « Keep On Rotting ») … and instantly loved it. That mix of death metal atmosphere, rock'n roll groove and high energy literally overthrew me, the poor growing human being engrossed by the pictures and the sounds emanating from the screen. Then, a few days after the end of high school for me, I find the Holy Growl. My very first cd marking the beginning of that era (my arrival in Boulogne/Mer, the university), alongside No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom and Asian Dub Foundation's eponymous debut : yes, Carcass showed with Swansong they were open-minded and it seemed I was a teenager more than eager for open-mindedness. Haven't changed much since, for that matter. Needless to say, the rest of that 12-track milestone matched my expectations, if I had any. Hard to guess, indeed, what I would get...

Behold that rare shaped cd, one of the limited editions existing for Swansong

Here's to me the perfect album to make someone who isn't initially into growls or screams enter the joyful realm of death metal. I'm a living proof of that and I strongly doubt I'm the only one that Carcass helped to accept that extreme (yet so sweet) way of singing. Speaking of that, it seems amazing how Jeff Walker's vocals are easily understandable, while so sharp and so powerful. They constitute a major ingredient of the brilliance of Swansong as they both manage to add to the violence, the anger and the explosiveness of the songs and to enable the fans to sing aloud every single word of those disillusioned, anti-establishment anthems. However, Jeff Walker could have sounded like Boy George, the result would (almost) have been the same. Ok, I may be going too far (Black humour and I are inseparable but now and then I have to set limits for the sake of coherence) but the point is, the music here is so great that the vocals could have been weak, you'd still admire the force of the whole.

Well, they're not. So much the better. Every part of what is offered is actually at the top, as good as it can be. When you have the chance (« chance » means « luck » in French, it takes on its full meaning here) to hold that cd into your hands, you quickly guess you've got a state-of-the-art work of cutting edge metal, a masterpiece within which every protagonist pushed his limits to reach an ultimate goal… Maybe without being conscious of it, I'll give you that. Nevermind : each track from Swansong seems to have been designed both to punch the listener in the face and to make divine riffs flow to his/her ears. Rhythm guitars draw an impressive (and irresistible) structure while solos just finish you off. The drummer plays like he's having the time of his life (check out the « Keep on Rotting » video to see him move like he's been bitten by a fucking beast carrying the St Vitus' dance virus). The bass is simply huge (as for its sound, listen to the introduction of « Child's Play », telluric, pachydermic yet utterly catchy). To sum up, everyone involved did his best to help provide a diabolically melodic and groovy album full of overwhelming and disarming hooks, riffs, screams, and more generally sonic assaults. From « Keep on Rotting » to « Go to Hell » (an invitation for those who wouldn't be caught and convinced by their music ? Should be so anyway), the twelve songs represent twelve anthems that have found their way through the decades without a wrinkle and that still embody the social and musical significance of 1990s metal bands, bands that pushed the boundaries, that made you be curious and look for other mixtures, for new kinds of genre-blending, for innovative combinations. As far as Carcass and Swansong are concerned, you can say that the English death metallers completely nailed it at the time, and that, despite the omen nearly proved to be true concerning the (dark) future of the band, that album above all carved in stone the narrow-mindedness' swansong...

Syl Alba

Read more about the album on Encyclopedia Metallum