CARCASS
Biography and discography of Carcass, the extreme metal band formed in Liverpool, England in 1985, with a page for each of their seven studio albums from Reek of Putrefaction in 1988 to Torn Arteries in 2021, including running orders, CD details, liner notes and a record of their concerts in Japan.
Biography
CARCASS
Biography
Carcass are an extreme metal band formed in Liverpool, England, in 1985. The extremity of their early records and the medical vocabulary of their song titles made them the starting point of what came to be called goregrind, and Heartwork, in 1993, left the reference point for melodic death metal. They have made seven studio albums, from Reek of Putrefaction in 1988 to Torn Arteries in 2021, broke up in 1996 and started again in 2007. Guitarist Bill Steer and bassist and singer Jeff Walker have been there from the beginning.
Formation and the debut (1985-1990)
The band grew out of Disattack, a Liverpool hardcore punk group that carried guitarist Bill Steer and drummer Ken Owen. When bassist Jeff Walker joined, the name changed to Carcass. Steer was at the same time the guitarist in Napalm Death, and Carcass began as something he ran alongside it.
Earache Records released the debut, Reek of Putrefaction, in 1988. It was recorded in four days at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham, produced by the band with Paul Talbot, and the band did not want the sound that came out of it. Jeff Walker later told Metal Hammer that the record was spoilt by a really lazy engineer who could not give a damn any more, and that it was a shame, because there were killer riffs on there, muddied by the production. Steer has said the album was not very focused, that it was just about being fast and heavy, and that the murk was inexperience rather than intent.
It reached a small audience hard all the same. John Peel of BBC Radio 1 named it his favourite album of 1988 in an interview with the Observer, and had the band in for a session on his show the following year. The sleeve, a collage of autopsy photographs taken from medical journals, kept the record out of the larger shops and was censored on later reissues.
Symphonies of Sickness, in 1989, is the second album and the one you can actually hear. Colin Richardson produced it; there are fewer songs, each one longer and more intricately built. It was in this period that Steer left Napalm Death to concentrate on Carcass.
A four-piece, and Heartwork (1991-1993)
In 1991 the Swedish guitarist Michael Amott, later of Arch Enemy, joined on second guitar and the band became a four-piece for the first time. On Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious, released that year, the sections inside each song run longer and the structures are knotted, close to the technical death metal then emerging. Kerrang! gave it a perfect score in its 364th issue.
Heartwork, in 1993, grafts melody onto the mass of weight they already had and lines up riffs that carry a trace of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. That combination is where what is now called melodic death metal begins. Colin Richardson produced it again, at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, and the sleeve photographs H. R. Giger's sculpture Life Support 1993. Earache released it in Britain and Columbia in the United States the following year, which makes it the band's only major-label record. Walker told Metal Hammer that he did not think there was any doubt the album had been a major influence on all grind and death metal bands.
The Columbia deal, and the end (1994-1996)
Michael Amott left in 1994 and Mike Hickey, formerly of Venom, took his place. It was this line-up that played the band's first concerts in Japan. Hickey left in turn, and Carlo Regadas came in for the fifth album.
It was recorded between February and April 1995 at Rockfield Studios in Wales and Battery Studios in London. Disputes with Columbia Records then sent the band back to Earache, Bill Steer left in the course of it, and Carcass came to an end. Swansong, made before the split, was released by Earache in June 1996, after the band had ceased to exist. The vocabulary is still death metal but the songs are built as rock songs, which is why the record is usually filed under "death 'n' roll". It is also the last album with founding drummer Ken Owen.
The years away, and the reunion (1997-2012)
Ken Owen suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in 1999. He recovered, but has not been able to play as he did.
The reunion began in 2008 as a live band only: Jeff Walker, Bill Steer and Michael Amott, with Daniel Erlandsson of Arch Enemy standing in for Owen. Walker said at the time that no new album would come of it. What changed his mind came on the 2008 tour, when Steer watched Dan Wilding play and heard something of Owen in it. Amott and Erlandsson left in 2012 for Arch Enemy, and Steer and Walker brought Wilding in.
Surgical Steel and after (2013-2026)
Surgical Steel, the first studio album in seventeen years, came out on Nuclear Blast in 2013. The band paid for the recording themselves, having no label behind them at the time, and what came out sets the melody of Heartwork beside the roughness of the grindcore records before it. Trooper Entertainment issued the Japanese edition on 4 September 2013, ahead of the rest of the world. Ken Owen sings backing vocals on it.
Torn Arteries, in 2021, was the first time since Heartwork that Carcass had recorded two albums with the same line-up. Its title comes from a demo tape Ken Owen made in his teens. Release had originally been set for 7 August 2020 and the pandemic pushed it back by more than a year. James 'Nip' Blackford replaced Tom Draper on guitar the same year.
In September 2026 the band said that drummer Dan Wilding needed to be with his family and moved their Australian, New Zealand, Chinese and Indian dates to September 2027. They played two shows in Japan that same month.
About the members
The current line-up is Jeff Walker on bass and vocals, Bill Steer on guitar, James 'Nip' Blackford on guitar and Daniel Wilding on drums. The member list on this site holds only the four Walker and Steer named themselves in an interview given during the band's Japanese tour of April 2024, and no player is added to it by inference. Waltteri Vayrynen, who deputised on drums in 2026, is a touring musician and is not in it.
On Blackford joining, Steer has said that their previous guitarist, Tom, had issues with his green card application, and that James was the first choice in his mind. Walker has said that Blackford did not just come into the band and work musically but worked on the personal level, and that with James they have the best of both worlds.
Discography
There are seven studio albums: Reek of Putrefaction (1988), Symphonies of Sickness (1989), Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious (1991), Heartwork (1993), Swansong (1996), Surgical Steel (2013) and Torn Arteries (2021).
Beside them are the EPs Tools of the Trade (1992) and Heartwork (1994), the post-reunion EPs Surgical Remission / Surplus Steel (2014) and Despicable (2020), the compilation Wake Up and Smell the Carcass (1996) and several live records. The album list on this site covers the studio albums.
The early Japanese editions carried titles of their own. The band page on the Loud Park 13 site gives them: Reek of Putrefaction as 腐乱屍臭, Symphonies of Sickness as 真・疫魔交響曲 and Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious as 屍体愛好癖, with the later records transliterated instead. This site uses the original titles throughout.
Concerts in Japan
The band has played Japan many times. Fourteen of those concerts are registered in the LIVE section of this site, which is every one whose date can be established from a source.
The first visit was in 1994, by the line-up that had taken Mike Hickey in after Michael Amott left. The band page on the Loud Park 13 site records it, but nothing opened for this page gives the day or the hall. A concert page here carries its date in its own URL and stays up permanently once published, so a concert whose date cannot be sourced is not registered.
There have been four festival appearances: Loud Park 08 on 18 October 2008 at Saitama Super Arena, from 17:25; Loud Park 13 on 19 October 2013 at the same hall, BIG ROCK STAGE, from 16:40; Loud Park 15 on 11 October 2015, EXTREME STAGE, from 18:40; and Loud Park 2023 on 26 March 2023 at Makuhari Messe, halls 9 to 11. The Loud Park 13 booking was announced on 4 September 2013, the day Surgical Steel came out in Japan ahead of the rest of the world.
There have been three headline tours. Carcass Japan Tour 2014 ran for five nights in May: Hiroshima Club Quattro on the 1st, Umeda Club Quattro on the 2nd, Nagoya Club Quattro on the 3rd and Shibuya Club Quattro on the 6th and 7th. Carcass Japan Tour 2024 ran for four in April: Nagoya Club Quattro on the 16th, Umeda Club Quattro on the 17th and Shibuya Spotify O-EAST on the 18th and 19th. In September 2026 they played Toyosu PIT on the 17th and Daikanyama SPACE ODD on the 18th. Creativeman promoted all of them, with Trooper Entertainment, who release the band's Japanese editions, alongside.
About the sources
The facts here come from the band page on the Loud Park 13 site; the timetables and line-up pages of the Loud Park 08, Loud Park 15 and Loud Park 2023 sites; the promoter Creativeman's own pages for the 2014, 2024 and 2026 tours; Blabbermouth's interview with Jeff Walker and Bill Steer (2024) and its report of the band's statement (2026); Metal Hammer's articles on the first two albums (Jason Arnopp) and on Heartwork (Malcolm Dome); MusicBrainz; and the English and Japanese Wikipedia articles on the band and on each album. No player's name and no concert date is supplied by inference.
Trivia
The early albums were given Japanese titles of their own. The band page on the Loud Park 13 site gives them: the debut, Reek of Putrefaction, as 腐乱屍臭; the second album, Symphonies of Sickness, as 真・疫魔交響曲; and the third, Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious, as 屍体愛好癖. From the fourth album on they were simply transliterated instead — Heartwork as ハートワーク, Swansong as スワンソング and Surgical Steel, seventeen years later, as サージカル・スティール. This site uses the original titles throughout, so none of these appear on its pages.
Their first visit to Japan after the reunion was Loud Park 08. The festival's own timetable puts them on the first day, 18 October, at Saitama Super Arena from 17:25, with Sonata Arctica before them and Avenged Sevenfold after, and Slipknot closing the night. Down, registered here for the same day, went on at 19:35. The timetable for the following day, 19 October, does not carry the band at all.
The Loud Park 13 booking was announced on 4 September 2013, the day Surgical Steel — the first studio album in seventeen years — was released in Japan ahead of the rest of the world; the festival's own band page says so. They played on 19 October at Saitama Super Arena, on the BIG ROCK STAGE from 16:40, on a stage that also carried Lost Society, Bring Me the Horizon, Therion, Lynch Mob and Europe, while the other stage was closed by Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington. The timetable for the following day does not carry the band.
At Loud Park 15 they closed the EXTREME STAGE, the one that gathered the death and black metal bands. The official timetable puts them on the second day, 11 October 2015, from 18:40, after Obituary, Abbath, Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates and Napalm Death had passed through the same stage, while Helloween and Megadeth closed the other two. The timetable for the previous day, 10 October, does not carry the band.
Loud Park came back for one year only in 2023, and the band played its Tokyo day. The official site gives Tokyo as 26 March at Makuhari Messe, halls 9 to 11, doors at 10:00 and music from 11:00, at 19,000 yen. The Osaka day of the same edition, 25 March at Intex Osaka, carried only Pantera, Kreator, Nightwish, Stratovarius and Bleed from Within, and not this band. The Tokyo bill added Amaranthe, Outrage, H.E.R.O. and Jason Richardson & Luke Holland to those five, with Bridear and Phantom Excaliver as opening acts.
Carcass Japan Tour 2014, in May, was five nights behind Surgical Steel. The promoter Creativeman's own page gives them as Hiroshima Club Quattro on the 1st, Umeda Club Quattro on the 2nd, Nagoya Club Quattro on the 3rd and Shibuya Club Quattro on the 6th and 7th, at 6,800 yen in advance and 7,300 on the door, on sale from 22 March. Nagoya alone opened an hour earlier, doors at 17:00 and on stage at 18:00, where the other three halls opened at 18:00 and started at 19:00. Both Tokyo nights sold out.
Carcass began as a side project the guitarist Bill Steer ran while he was a member of Napalm Death; the band page on the Loud Park 13 site says so. The line-up at the start was Steer with Jeff Walker on bass and vocals and Ken Owen on drums, and when the second album, Symphonies of Sickness, appeared in 1989 Steer left Napalm Death to concentrate on Carcass.
Reek of Putrefaction, the 1988 debut, was kept out of the larger shops by its sound and its lyrics, and at the same time drew John Peel of BBC Radio 1 to it. Metal Hammer's retrospective records that Peel played tracks from it on his show and named it his favourite album of 1988 in an interview with the Observer. The same piece suggests the rough recording was part of what caught his attention.
News
CARCASS Postpone Their Australia/New Zealand, China And India Dates To September 2027 Over Their Drummer's Family Situation
The band said on September 2 that drummer Dan Wilding needs to be with his family, and rescheduled the "Putrefying Down Under" tour. Only Bangalore Open Air in India goes ahead as planned, and existing tickets remain valid for the new dates.
[Japan] CARCASS Add A Second Tokyo Show On September 18 At Daikanyama SPACE ODD
The additional date follows the September 17 show at Toyosu PIT: doors 18:00 / start 19:00, 9,500 yen (all standing, one drink extra), with tickets on sale August 22.
Current Members
Current line-up as named by the band themselves, verified on 2026-09-30.
Albums
Carcass's seventh studio album, from September 2021, eight years after Surgical Steel and delayed over a year by the pandemic.
Carcass's sixth album, from September 2013: their first in seventeen years, recorded as a trio.
Carcass's fifth album, released in June 1996 after the band had already broken up, and their last record for seventeen years.
Carcass's fourth album, issued by Earache in 1993. It was recorded at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, and it is the reference point for melodic death metal.
Carcass's third album, issued by Earache in 1991. It is the first with guitarist Michael Amott and the first the band recorded as a four-piece.
Carcass's second album, recorded at The Slaughterhouse Studios in East Yorkshire over July and August 1989 with Colin Richardson producing.
Carcass's debut album, issued by Earache in 1988 and generally taken as the first record of what came to be called goregrind.