Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious

This is the first record the Liverpool band made as a four-piece. Michael Amott joined on second guitar for these sessions, and the writing, which three players had been carrying, becomes markedly more elaborate. Earache released it in Europe in October 1991 and Relativity in North America on 11 February 1992. It pushes further along the move towards death metal that began on Symphonies of Sickness: the sections inside each song run longer and the structures are knotted, close to the technical death metal then emerging. Drummer Ken Owen and bassist and singer Jeff Walker have both since rejected the word grindcore for this album, saying they would rather call it progressive. Most of the lyrics set out ways of disposing of a body in medical vocabulary, and the song titles follow suit. Kerrang! gave the album a perfect score in its 364th issue. The 2008 reissue adds a DVD side carrying the documentary The Pathologist's Report Part III: Mass Infection and a 1993 interview. The running order here is the original's as printed.