Search - Carcass :: Heartwork

Masterpiece.

Hugo Guiral | France | 11/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Carcass is my favorite band of all time and this is one of their best releases (I LOVE them all to be honest, even Swansong).



Perfect guitar work and solos here... just amazing.



Must buy for any music fan.

This is also a good starter for people who want to get into death metal."

One of the most important metal album of the 90s

Christopher Krause | Long Island, New York | 10/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While I can understand accusations of 'selling out' in regards to Carcass' Swansong, i'm baffled as to why Hessians think this band is selling out with the metal masterpiece which is Heartwork.



While previous Carcass albums could categorically be classified as goregrind (a genre they virtually created with Symphonies Of Sickness), it is clear that for Heartwork the band has naturally progressed away from it's gore roots and has been now more influenced by grindcore a la Napalm Death. In the wake of this progression Carcass has also managed to create, and if not create, at least greatly contribute to the formulation of the melodic death metal genre.



While Heartwork would probably pass as an exceptional grindcore album by itself, its the inclusion of it's virtuistic melodic underlying guitar track, along with very catchy song composition which really sets it apart from the masses of generic, imitation music. Carcass takes the unpolished and fairly generic grindcore sound of 'Necroticism - Descanting The Insalubrious' and adds innovation in the form of melodic death metal elements. Again Carcass is pushing the artistic envelope with little concern and manages to do so with incredible skill and success. Heartwork sounds like an album from the 2000s and is clearly ahead of its time, indeed, even today you will find bands heavily influenced, if not blatantly plagiarizing Carcass (God Forbid, Agaithodaimon, Deadlock and Six Reasons To Kill come to mind off the top of my head).



Every Carcass album sounds unique from the last, and not in an attempt to sell more records (what normal would actually enjoy this? the heaviest thing in the semi-mainstream in 1993 was metallica), but in an attempt to do something novel, something Jackson Pollock. This sort of progressive attitude toward creating music is what elevates Carcass over Napalm Death, which although effective in the same way a hardcore band like Earth Crisis is in conveying a message, never manages to achieve any level of artistic innovation - other than simply playing well, and sticks to old, conventional grindcore formulas, only marginally evolving over the years.



Carcass is all about exploring the medium and 'art for arts sake' while remaining lyrically faithful to illuminating the decadent, judgmental, futile, grubby, apathethic and vile reality of western culture in an attempt to raise awareness and (in a measure almost reminiscent of a hardcore band) vent the angst. Gone are the tasteless and almost gratuitously gorey lyrics and in their place are more mature, intelligent and thought provoking words. Carcass' goal is no longer to 'shock and offend' but instead to get you thinking about important social matters.



It's almost hard to believe that Heartwork was originally released in 1993 - and when put into a historical framework, its clear that this album had a massive influence on all 90s metal, at least across extreme metal genres, from Mayhem to Bolt Thrower. Technically and lyrically Heartwork is arguably one of the most influential albums to ever be created, and almost one of the most satisfying, catchy, addictive and thrilling. Everything is here, in a flawless, virtuistic performance.



Anyone who considers innovation selling out can consider me a suckup fanboy, because Heartwork is a masterpiece."