Heartwork

... in my opinion, of course.Carcass has a lot to be proud of. They were the pioneers of 3 metal subgenres: grindcore/goregrind, death metal and melodic death metal.With each album they were getting better as musicians and as songwriters. With each album they were changing their style. Now that's what I like. Death did the same too. I like things that change and progress. Some bands/artists change for the worse. But Carcass and Death were only getting better.Heartwork has plenty of blastbeats, which is what I loved about their first 2 albums. Necroticism lacked blastbeats. Ken Owen just got better and better with each album. Jeff Walker's vocals are as aggressive as ever. Bill Steer's guitar work is the highlight of the album. Very tasteful solos and riffs are as fiery as ever. Bill Steer and Chuck Schuldiner are my two favourite metal guitarists ever.Highlights: Buried Dreams, Carnal Forge (that solo! that freaking solo!), No Love Lost and This Mortal Coil.

If Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Chopin were to get together and record a death metal album, I think it would sound something like "Heartwork." To be sure, "Heartwork" bears many of the marks of a death metal album: it's heavy, it's aggressive, it's typically pretty fast, and the vocals are harsh. However, this album goes down a lot easier than the typical extreme metal album, thanks to Carcass's top-shelf musicianship and doses of rhythm and melody. Probably what I like most about "Heartwork" is that the music is techncial and the arrangments are complicated, but at the same time it manages to be pretty catchy, with plenty of memorable songs. "Carnal Forge" and the title track blaze along at about mach 3, while "No Love Lost" and "Embodiment" grind it out with slower tempos. My favorite here, though, would have to be the heavy and complex "Doctrinal Expletives," which winds its way through multiple tempos and features some inspired guitar work. Jeff Walker's vocals, in contrast to the guttural grunts used by the typical death vocalist (not that grunting is all bad), are a black-metalish rasp that flows very well with the music. It's really guitarists Bill Steer and Michael Ammott that make this album, though. They contribute plenty of catchy riffs and harmonies, and the solos are far more melodic than the typical death metal fare. I saw this album described once as Obituary meets Iron Maiden, and I think that's a pretty apt description. If you want to hear something that's extreme but still accessible, look no further. And be sure to check out Mike Ammott's current band Arch Enemy, who rule as well.

When Heartwork came out alot of death/grind fans panned the album, which I thought was wrong, the album had a cleaner sound, but no less heavier sound. The band was getting more popular and because they incorporated some slower parts the album really was not commercial by any stretch of the imagination. Songs like carnal forge, This Mortal Coil the awesome title track or the best song on the album Arbeit Macht Fleisch grinded pretty hard, just had more melody. The riffs were simply killer and still are. I can remember Headbanger's ball playing the Heartwork video each week along w/Morbid Angel's rapture video-good times. Anyway again Earache has released a monster remaster and the sound packs so much more heaviness and loudness than the original. Lyrics reprinted on the multi fold out digipack and the dvd has the 4th part documentary. Extra disc includes demos of the album, nothing too special in that dept. Anyway Heartowrk was the album that platooned the band even further and was the last great record for the band. Unfortunatley the band tarnished the name a bit w/the release of Swansong, their last release which really was lame. Heartwork still stands up today and has aged well as a death/grind release.

The finest album of it's kind at a time when there was nothing else like it. This album was a benchmark for metal and I was speechless when I first heard it over 20 years ago and still love it today. Carcass invented this genre of music and no band as of yet has equaled them in it. Poignant messages are brought to life in a ear shredding tone like being hit in the chest rapid fire with an Uzi on full auto. Blind Leading the Blind is one of my all time favorite songs and is riff heaven. You will not be let down with this album...

No words can really do this masterpiece justice. It is simply the coolest, most inspiring Death Melodic Metal I've ever heard.If your a fan of any Death Metal, or any Heavy Metal, this is a mix of both....Iron Maiden meets Obituary sounds about right.I was completely blown away after hearing this, and I'm not really a big Death Metal fan. It's pure brilliance. Nobody has ever been able to do it quite like Carcass did with Heartwork....It's a shame these guys are no longer together. Carcass has truly created one of the greatest CD's I've ever heard....Heartwork will change your ideas about Death Metal.5 Stars Does Not Do This Justice.....

This reissue of "Heartwork" is excellent-Like the previous one "Necrotism".This is a limited edtion.There is a extra cd of demo tracks from the album and the dvd(Which is always interesting).This is Micheal Amott's last album with Carcass.It's the best Carcass cd ever.The Songs are excellent.The Guitars are so razor sharp and so very heavy.When I frist bought the cd-Carcass gone commercial?.When Earache and Columbia merged together.Still Carcass still kept their heavy sound.This cd put rings around Megadeth's "Countdown to Distiction" during that time-Such a feroarious monster.Highly Reccommeded-Get all these digapak Carcass reissues(Inculding "SwanSong").

Best death metal album of the nineties. This album is what produced technical death metal and inspired Charles Schuldiner (R.I.P) to make his magnum opus Symbolic a tech death album. Unfortunately it is overshadowed by the utmost biblical Necrophagist and Obscura but this is still a relic of the genesis of Classically inspired death metal.

Disappointed when I received this to find it was an Argentinian Import on the Icarus label. Though these are officially licensed for that region, they can be of inferior quality. Even the audio has been analysed on some of these releases and found to be of inferior quality, possibly because they are supplied in a compressed format such as MP3 and then converted back to AIFF CD format files. Not saying that is the case with this one, but this really wasn’t what I wanted so I returned it immediately.

There's nothing quite like the sound of metal bands slowing down a bit,---fabulous melodies and harmonies all backed by the muscle of precision thrash,plus it leaves plenty of room for light and shade as the whole thing erupts from loud and fast to louder and much faster."Heartwork" sets the tone for Swansong, for me it's both a move out of the swamp of thrash and a work in progress towards, dare I say it, a commercial sound--if the sound of Death rattling out his words of misery over the metal miasma could sell. Still, Slayer* did it without Death on vocals.Carcass are more down to earth, less worldwide wrestling.Jeff Walker apparently wanted more bass and you can see why when you compare Heartwork to Swansong but I dunno, it might muddy up the bass drums...Anyhoo this album made me feel good to the point of laughing out loud which is what music should do.A Must Have.Mmmmmmm... uplifting metal............*Just thought I'd edit this to say goodbye to Jeff Hanneman

Since1993 this album has been my top 10 most frequently listened death metal albums and one of my favourite albums ever.Everything done here is done well with open mind and strong hand of metal. Highly recommended along with DEATH "Spiritual Healing", CANNIBAL CORPSE "Tomb of the Mutilated", MORBID ANGEL "Blessed are the Sick", NAPALM DEATH "Harmony Corruption", DEICIDE "Deicide" and some more

After buying the thrash/death metal masterclass that is "Surgical Steel" I of course wanted to explore their back catalogue. Taking the advice of another reviewer I tried Heartwork - I was not disappointed. This album is fantastic, full of great songs and heavy riffs. It's different from SS i.e. not as ferocious but defintely worth buying.I bought secondhand from a reseller, came on time and in perfect condition

Just such a fine album. Ive never checked out Carcass before even though Ive been in death metal for over 20 years. I figured since Im going see the guys at Bloodstock I had better check them out....and Im bloody glad I did!Good catchy metal, great riffs, great hooks and even harmonies.Buy this album. I got it on cd then loved it so much I now have it on vinyl. Awesome.Now you guys must get Surgical Steel....