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Carcass > Wake Up and Smell the... Carcass > Reviews
Carcass - Wake Up and Smell the... Carcass

Carcass Reference CD - 86%

lostalbumguru, October 24th, 2023
Written based on this version: 1996, CD, Earache Records

In 1996 I bought the version of Wake Up... which came with a blacked out CD case. Let's be honest, even for the freer atmosphere of the mid 90s, autopsy photographs are still quite a lot. Even for an extreme metal band's album cover. Half the songs included on this kind of a Best-Of album just after Carcass disbanded are from Carcass' very heavy earlier phase, three songs are mid period songs, slightly different versions of songs appearing on E.P.s and such, and the first third of Wake Up... consists of songs which were rejected for Swansong, but which are in some ways better than the songs which were accepted for said album.

Emotional Flatline is pared back and mid-paced, but not in a bad way, just streamlined, mature, quite influenced by The Police in some ways, with staggered beats, honed-in guitar lines, and elegant, tidy bass-playing. Similar to Swansong, songs like Ever Increasing Circles, and I Told You So, are quite rocking, quite honest, but just brought back up above the drowning line, and into metal form. I really enjoy this flirting with the gap between hard rock and genuine metal. The vocals are still Carcass, still raspy and cynical. The lyrics are still cheeky and sarcastic, and occupy conceptual turf similar to other Carcass albums, such as how it is to feel human surrounded by technology, political corruption, the space shared by man and machine. All topics we could delve into in any year since the late 90s and still have no good solutions.

Edge Of Darkness is another of these would-be Swansong songs, and again the tempo is middling, the sound stage quite refined and raw. There's a boxy, powdery vibe on the first part of Wake Up... where you can really hear the studio itself as a member of the band. I like it, but who knows if we've closed the circle back to realistic album productions after 15 or 20 years of wall-of-sound or over digitised metal? You may have to crank the volume slightly to get the rocking feel from some songs on Wake Up... be they Swansong absentees or earlier tracks from Carcass' grindcore roots. You really get a complete view of Carcass' evolution from nastiness, speed, and horror, to smoother, more rock tendencies, but still with hiss and venom, and a more adult sense of existential dread rather than overt biological terror and misery.

Ken Owen's drumming is in fine Swansong mode, albeit slightly colder sounding than on that album, and we get to hear quite a lot of Carlo Regadas' playing, alone in his solos, and together with Bill Steer in rhythm parts. Walker's bass playing is clear and often offers deft hard rock counter melodies. Excitingly, Wake Up.. also features live in studio BBC recordings, in sync with John Peel. The sound quality of these recordings is quite good, and adds another reason that Wake Up... has everything you need on a Carcass Best-Of.

Songs inbetween the early gore and offal, and the later bones and brains are This Is Your Life, Rot & Roll, and Tools of the Trade, after which the rest of Wake Up... performs as a compilation should by going faster forwards, by going back in time with songs like Hepatic Tissue Fermentation and Exhume To Consume. It took over a decade for Carcass to come back into existence and while their two 21st Century albums are quite good, they don't quite have the spark of the early and mid-period Carcass albums, and even the thrown away tracks on Wake Up... just have more bounce and feeling than recent offerings. In the late 90s you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a Carcass retrospective compilation album. Ignore the others and find Wake Up and Smell the Carcass, on whatever format you can. It's a compilation album which has its own character and functions as a full album on its own terms.

An interesting medley - 81%

langstondrive, October 4th, 2004

This odds and sods from the kings of death/grind works in a sort of reverse order, with the newer songs coming first, gradually leading to the older cuts and reduxes of classic songs. A couple of tracks repeat, such as Edge of Darkness and Rot N' Roll, which kind of pisses me off, becuase they're essentially the exact same with the production being a minor difference. The most surprising thing about this compliation is the quality of the songs that didn't make the actual albums, most notably the Swansong selections. Sure, Blood Stained Banner sounds similar to Black Star at parts, but it really is a quality fucking song. The same goes for Emotional Flatline, which sounds much more evil and "metal" than many of its Swansong contemporaries.

The band themselves are in top shape for the songs, and the production is excellent for the most part, with the last few songs mildly blowing goat. As for the actual songs, Ever Increasing Circles has some awesome riffs, but lame lyrics, which is strange for a band like Carcass. The lyrics seem to go to the rhythm of R**k The Vote, but not nearly as effective. Honestly, they almost ruin an otherwise killer song. Ah yes, Blood Splattered Banner, the breadwinner of the Swansong material. That riff at the beginning of the song is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING KILLER. It then evolves into a great track, one that I am truly surprised didn't make the actual album. I told you so (blah blah blah) however, I am not surprised of it's failure to make Swansong. The riffs are rockish, the lyrics are complete shit (I can't stand repetition like that in the verses).

Thankfully, the Heartwork leftovers start here, with Buried Dreams crashing in with a really cool intro, then morphing into a great riff, and an extremely pissed off Jeff Walker. No Love Lost is another alternate version, with a lengthy drum/bass intro, before evolving into a pretty neat sounding riff that begs to be headbanged to. The first version of Rot N' Roll is next, with a thrashy 80's Megadeth style riff propelling the intro, which turns into a riff that sounds like satan himself picked up a guitar and chugged it out, before turning thrashy again. An awesome song. The next version of Edge of Darkness is very similar to it's predecessor, but with far more annoying and excentuated pinch harmonics in it's intro. This is Your Life picks things back up with a commanding intro riff and thrashy yet melodic elements throughout. The other Rot N' Roll is the same. Skip. Then...where did this come from??? Tools of the Trade kicks the shit out of the listener with one of the faster Carcass songs and comes totally unexpected after listening to another Edge of Darkness.

The next few songs are old style, with a production that emulates the classic Carcass, and even featues vocals from Bill Steer himself. They are all excellent and grindish, with the absolute highlight being Genital Grinder II. What a fucking riff. That main riff of this song has got to be the most evil riff in existence.

Overall a good complation, but buy it as a topping to your Carcass sundae.