Swansong

Swansong was recorded between February and April 1995 at Rockfield Studios in Wales and Battery Studios in London, produced by Colin Richardson. The success of Heartwork had brought a contract with Columbia Records and this was to have been the band's major-label debut; disputes with that company sent them back to Earache instead, and the record did not appear until 10 June 1996, more than a year after it was finished. The line-up had changed again. Michael Amott left in 1994, Mike Hickey of Venom passed through, and Carlo Regadas took the second guitar. It is the only Carcass album Regadas played on, and the last with founding drummer Ken Owen. Between the recording and the release Bill Steer left and the band broke up; the next album, Surgical Steel, was seventeen years away. 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". The sleeve reworks the Great Seal of the United States with its Latin motto and its numerals replaced. It reached number 46 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and number 33 in Finland. The running order here is the twelve tracks of Earache MOSH 160CD, titled as the sleeve prints them. The Japanese edition (Toy's Factory TFCK-88789) carries thirteen. A limited pressing shaped like a brain came with a bonus disc, Somnus Pecunia Cibus, holding "Go to Hell", and the 2008 reissue adds "Death Rider Da", a jingle made for Japanese radio.