Heartwork
Occupation
- Bill Steer: Electric Guitar
- Michael Amott: Electric Guitar
- Ken Owen: Drums
- Jeff Walker: bass guitar, vocals
Heartwork is the fourth studio album by the British extreme metal band Carcass. It was the first album that could be placed in the official album charts in their home country, where it reached number 67.
Background
The musicians were already provided to the recordings approach that the album because of the melody stressed songwriting could possibly bring them a contract with a major label and the final commercial breakthrough. In fact, already running negotiations between Earache Records and Columbia Records through an exclusive agreement for North America, which the group regarded as an additional incentive. In May 1993, Carcass went to the famous Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, to record the album under the direction of producer Colin Richardson to June. During the recordings, there were tensions within the band, the guitarist Michael Amott persuaded to leave immediately after the end of the studio stay Carcass. The album was released in October 1993 on Earache Records in Europe and in January 1994 on Columbia Records in North America. The commercial expectations were not met, in the UK, the album reached only number 67 of the album charts in the U.S., it is listed at number 23 of the Top Heatseekers, but could not reach the Billboard 200. While the band attributed the failure to a lack of support from Earache Records, Earache made the band responsible because it had the label not enough funds left by the unusually high revenue interest of 50 % in order to promote the commercial success by publishing a single can.
Reviews
Johnny Loftus of Allmusic called the album with its blend of melody and the typical Carcass "anti- music " the breakthrough of grindcore pioneers. The webzine The Metal Observer called the album as a big step in the musical development of Carcass, both the repulsive artwork as well as the " pathological texts" belonged to the past. The reviewer sees the music as " a kind of death metal ", but at the same time melodic and catchy than the previous albums. Only the production of the album is called " too soft ", which is believed to be the commercial claim of the album justice. For Sam Warren of Tartarean Desire Heartwork is the absolute masterpiece of Carcass, it has set new yardsticks in Death Metal, which can hardly ever reach a different band. He praises the successful combination of songwriting, catchy melodies, harsh vocals and " razor-sharp drumming " and says that every metal fan should have this album.