Guitarist/vocalist Bill Steer retrospectively said that "The first album wasn’t very focused, it was just about being fast and heavy…".
He went on to say that the band did not intend the muddy sound present throughout the album: "The first one obviously is a crazy accident. It’s got a small following but we did not intend to make that record the thing that people hear now. We had different ideas and we just couldn’t execute them. We were too young, too naïve, and inexperienced. From 'Symphonies' onwards, we got better at achieving the things we wanted to achieve in the studio."
Production
Reek of Putrefaction was recorded in four days at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham. According to guitarist Bill Steer, the studio's engineer "ruined" the record, especially its drum tracks. Carcass had only had a few hours available of mixing, so they had to release the LP as it was to meet the label's deadline. The band were "everything but happy" with the result, declared Steer.[5]
When the master recording was first sent to the pressing plant, the original vinyl LP had to be pressed at lower volumes, because the bass frequencies were so low (sometimes reaching 25 Hz) that they were in danger of rendering higher frequencies inaudible.[6]
Releases
Reek of Putrefaction was first released in 1988. The original album cover consisted of a collage of autopsy photographs collected from medical journals.[4]Reek of Putrefaction was re-released in 1994 with a "clean" cover.[7] In 2002, the album was reissued with a censored outer cover proclaiming "Original artwork contained inside".
The album was re-released in 2008 as part of an ongoing series of Carcass reissues to tie in with their reunion. The main album, along with the demo Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment, is presented as one side of a dualdisc, while the DVD side features the first part of an extended documentary titled The Pathologist's Report Part I: Incubation. Later editions contain the album on a CD and the documentary on a separate DVD. The album is presented in a 12-panel digipak with full lyrics and artwork and is sealed in a white medical bag with sticker, to hide the controversial cover art.
Track listing
Side One: Faecal Disarticulation
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Genital Grinder"
1:32
2.
"Regurgitation of Giblets"
1:24
3.
"Maggot Colony"
1:37
4.
"Pyosisified (Rotten to the Gore)"
2:55
5.
"Carbonized Eyesockets"
1:11
6.
"Frenzied Detruncation"
0:59
7.
"Vomited Anal Tract"
1:45
8.
"Festerday"
0:22
9.
"Fermenting Innards"
2:35
10.
"Excreted Alive"
1:21
11.
"Suppuration"
2:19
Side Two: Anal Disgorgement
No.
Title
Length
12.
"Foeticide"
2:46
13.
"Microwaved Uterogestation"
1:24
14.
"Feast on Dismembered Carnage"
1:27
15.
"Splattered Cavities"
1:54
16.
"Psychopathologist"
1:18
17.
"Burnt to a Crisp"
2:43
18.
"Pungent Excruciation"
2:31
19.
"Manifestation of Verrucose Urethra"
1:02
20.
"Oxidised Razor Masticator"
3:13
21.
"Mucopurulence Excretor"
1:09
22.
"Malignant Defecation"
2:14
2008 reissue bonus tracks (taken from the Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment demo)
^J. Purcell, Natalie (5 May 2003). McFarland (ed.). Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture. pp. 21–22. ISBN0-7864-1585-1. Retrieved 18 December 2011. Carcass' debut album Reek of Putrefaction is said to have spurred the British Grindcore with its precise riffs and outrageous guitar solos. [...] Carcass' following album, Symphonies of Sickness, featured slower and catchier songs, and showed the band's movement into the Death Metal genre.
^ abMudrian, Albert (2004). Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore. Los Angeles: Feral House. p. 132. ISBN978-1-93259-504-8.
