Carcass "Reek Of Putrefaction"

Reek of Putrefaction is the debut album by British extreme metal band Carcass. It was released by Earache Records in July 1988.

When released, Reek of Putrefaction reached No. 6 on the UK Indie Chart, establishing Carcass as one of the pioneers of the grindcore genre. The late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel declared it his favourite album of 1988, in an interview for British newspaper The Observer.

Reek of Putrefaction was recorded in four days at Ritch 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 end result, declared Steer.


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.

Reek of Putrefaction was first released in 1988. The original album cover consisted of a collage of autopsy photographs collected from medical journals. Reek of Putrefaction was re-released in 1994 with a "clean" cover. 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.


Reek of Putrefaction was re-released on CD for the first time in 1989 by Earache Records (cat.-no. MOSH 18CD for the uncensored version, GMOSH 18CD for the censored cover). The CD (76:25) contained both, the "Symphonies Of Sickness" and the "Reek Of Putrefaction" album, but omitted the "Reek Of Putrefaction" tracks # 5, 6, 8, 13, 19 and 21.

Reissued on vinyl 2002, European pressing x1000 on 220g black vinyl, US pressing x 1000 (700 blue vinyl, 300 clear vinyl).

September 2008 reissue: Fully remastered on a DualDisc (combined CD and DVD) in a deluxe digipak packaged in a white "medical" bag with expanded artwork. It includes part 1 of the mini-documentary series entitled "The Pathologist's Report" on the DVD side plus the 13 tracks of the "Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment" demo-tape as bonus-tracks on the CD side.

Recording information:

Recorded, mixed, re-recorded and re-mixed at Rich "Funeral" Bitch Studios December 1987 - March 1988 on 16 track facilities.

According to an interview with Bill Steer, the initial recording was completely ruined by Mike Ivory so the band had to hastily re-record and re-engineer the album in order to meet the label's deadline.