Carcass are a British band from , who formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2007 without one of its original members, drummer , due to health reasons.

Although widely regarded as pioneers of the genre, their early work was also tagged as splatter death metal, hardgore, and ; on account of their morbid lyrics and gruesome album covers. However, they also became one of the pioneers in the subgenre known as with their 1993 album .

Columbia (1993-1995)

The band's fourth album, , was released in late 1993. It was considered a radical change by many fans, which eliminated Steer's deeper vocals and the clinically gory lyrics. Again, Steer handled all rhythm guitar duties, this time due to Amott losing his passport in India (thus making him unable to return to England in time to record). Song structures, whilst still containing musically complex parts, were simpler, in some cases using the verse/chorus/verse formula.

After the release of Heartwork, Carcass signed a worldwide deal with , who hoped for commercial success, even suggesting that Jeff Walker learn how to sing. Some credit Carcass with being a very early founding influence for not just one, but two genres of metal – , and . Michael Amott left the band right after Heartwork was recorded, and was for a while replaced by Mike Hickey, who was later replaced by Carlo Regadas.

During the summer of 1994, Walker remixed the track "Inside Out" for a remix album, although the version stayed fairly true to the original with the exception of Owen's drum samples from Heartwork replacing the Die Krupps original, and additional mixing from Walker and Colin Richardson at Parr Street studios (where Heartwork was recorded).

Carcass now set about writing songs for their major label debut. During the December 1994 UK tour Carcass showcased two songs from their current writing sessions – "Edge of Darkness" and "Firmhand", both showing a more straight forward song writing approach than on previous efforts. Around this time, "Edge of Darkness" was recorded for the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show sessions – a session which could be found on later compilation albums.

By late 1994, 17 songs were ready and the band set about using their $200,000 advance to record the album, again with Colin Richardson, at Rockfield studios in Monmouth, South Wales in early 1995. During the 6-week recording schedule the record label began to withdraw support, stating that Carcass were not ready to record, and needed to write more songs. This advice was ignored, as was the suggestion to have remix the album, and the band continued. At the time, Jeff Walker stated in an interview with the UK's Metal Hammer Magazine that the album was taking more of a classic rock approach, with drums, bass and twin guitars à la Thin Lizzy, in comparison to earlier "multi-layered guitar" productions. This has since been put down to Bill Steer's unwillingness to perform the time consuming guitar layering (as once again Steer performed all rhythm guitar) through losing interest in the metal genre.

During the Swansong recording sessions, Carcass were asked to remix a track - "". This wasn't a remix as such but more of a re-recording with only Björk's vocals remaining. All rhythm guitars were handled by Steer, and the track saw light of day in March 1996 on Björk's "" single.

Continuing record company problems with Columbia/Sony caused the album to be delayed from late summer 1995 to June 1996, in which time Carcass moved back to Earache Records, and broke up before even releasing . The move back to Earache was dubbed by Walker as "the second great rock and roll swindle" as they had effectively been paid twice for the same album.

Swansong featured twelve of the seventeen tracks put to tape during the recording sessions.

Kerrang! reported in June 1995 that prior to Swansong's release, Carcass would be releasing an EP featuring two tracks from what would be Swansong and three songs from the sessions that would not make the final LP. However, this EP was never released, most likely due to the lack of record company support for newly recorded material.

Walker has since stated in interviews that all seventeen songs should have been included in a double album, and that some songs omitted from Swansong were actually stronger than some of Swansong's actual content.

Carcass also remixed 's "Democracy" (by re-recording the music, but keeping the original vocals), although this time Regadas performed all guitar duties, as it is thought Steer had quit the band by early 1996. The Carcass "Rooster Mix" was made available on Killing Joke's .

Around the time of Swansong's release, Carcass informed the press that they were ending the band without even a farewell tour, but most fans had guessed this may be the case via the album title.

The album sold well, staying near the top of the 'Indie Rock Chart' in the UK for several months above bands such as despite having no touring support from the band. It is rumoured that the band were offered several lucrative tours in 1995, such as supporting on their "X-Factour 95" tour, which had the album been released as expected in 1995, could have improved the band's sales and longevity.

A posthumous compilation, was released in October 1996 to collect together Carcass' rarer material, including unreleased material, songs only available on EPs and compilations, and live tracks.

An accompanying video was released a few weeks after the Wake Up CD with little knowledge from the band or their management. The video, later released on DVD, featured five of the band's promotional videos, a show from the Grindcrusher 1989 tour (as a three piece) and a show from the 1992 Gods of Grind tour. Sound on the two live shows is poor, particularly the latter which Walker has described as "unmixed".

Owen, Walker and Regadas continued with the band , accompanied by former bassist Mark Griffiths, using the second Swansong advance from Earache to fund the recording. Blackstar, later Blackstar Rising, became defunct after drummer Owen suffered a severe . Michael Amott went on to found band and successful Swedish melodic death metal band . In the biggest musical departure, Steer formed , a -esque rock band.