Anyone who knows me even remotely well realizes that I am, indeed, a Carcass fan and have been ever since I first heard "Corporeal Jigsore Quandary" off of one of my all-time favorite albums, Necroticism - Descanting The Insalubrious back in 1992 at the tender age of 15. Yes, even back then I was a necrothrashing, beer swilling death metal fanatic. Of course I was also all of about 5′4" and 120lbs soaking wet at the time… and I wore glasses… and I had short hair… and I had a beard that would make every Hasidic Jew cringe with envy even though I had no moustache because it simply refused to grow… and I got beat up a lot in school… and GOD DAMNIT, LET ME STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS! IT’S TIME FOR ME TO MOVE ON AND HEAL! For the love of all things good in this world, please make the hurt go away… please mommy, make the bad man stop… Ahem… anyway… now nearly 24, several inches taller, with my long flowing hair, my beer gut, still laughably small penis, and several years after the break-up of Carcass and, thankfully Blackstar, Deathvomit Records has released a compilation tribute album to the Gods of gore-grind. The compilation basically consists of some of the best known bands in the gore grind community and almost every band on Deathvomit for some strange reason. I think it may have been part of the ritual for joining the Necropolis Horde, Deathvomit Dingleberries or whatever silly-ass evil wanna-be name they’ve given themselves. Like any compilation CD there are some great tracks, but also a few that are so bad it makes me want to shave my head and become a Hare Krishna and sell books in airports and never to listen to metal again, only the comforting sound of spare change hitting my tambourine. The two bands on this compilation who almost drive me to this extreme end are Cattle Decapitation and Bodies Lay Broken, both of whom should be put in front of firing squads for butchering Carcass classics. Another surprise was Exhumed, who have basically proven that while they are Carcass clones, they aren’t very good Carcass clones with their half ass cover of "Exhume To Consume". There are a few tracks that also reek of rotting flesh in a dead skunk’s asshole, but the majority of the tracks are great. Regurgitate do excellent covers of the tribute’s first and last tracks, "Genital Grinder" and "Psychopathologist". Haemorrhage’s cover of "Rotten To The Gore" is almost as good as the original. Nasum shred through "Tools Of The Trade", Mexico’s Disgorge burp-blast their way through "Hepatic Tissue Fermentation". General Surgery, Necrony and Impaled all do covers that do the originals justice. Dead Infection tear ass through "Pungent Excruciation" and even Avulsed, of all bands, do a decent job of "Embyonic Necropsy And Devourment". The highlights of the album for me are two bands I’d never listened to before, but have now got my complete and undivided attention. Pig Destroyer’s covers of "Genital Grinder" and "Regurgitation Of Giblets" are excellent and highly energetic. Last, but certainly not least, is Vulgar Pigeons‘ insane cover of my all-time Carcass fave, "Corporeal Jigsore Quandary". They just put so much aggression and energy into it my hair can’t help but windmill out of control and a moshpit of one begins regardless of where I happen to be when this track plays, just a hurricane of fists and elbows. While I do applaud a lot of the bands on the tribute for their dead-on interpretations of their Carcass favorites, I can’t help but be disappointed about the compilation for that same reason. There is such a thing as creative interpretation, do not fear doing something new and interesting, it is that mentality which makes metal of today so stagnant, so few bands are willing to stray away from "what works". Carcass broke the gates wide open for the gore-grind community, the least most of these bands could do is show respect to that by taking things a step further and not being satisfied with being the same. A few bands have done this, and I think that’s great, but the majority could have, and probably should have, tried putting more of their own sound into the music. Another thing I would have liked to have seen would have been bands outside the gore-grind community showing respect. There are more bands that loved Carcass than those just bands obviously influenced by them, and I think it would have been interesting to show that. A final complaint is that there were no covers from Heartwork. I’m aware it strayed away from their beginnings, but it is still an amazing disc and it would have been great to see what bands of today would have done to make those songs better, but I digress. Overall the tribute is a great disc and worth owning by any true Carcass fan, it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. I’m annoyed there’s no cover by Circle Of Dead Children, since they would have done an insane cover of any of their material, but I’m still just happy they kept Mortician off of the disc, I would have been forced to drop a cinder block on Will Rahmer’s head if they were to butcher any Carcass classics. Thankfully I can now avoid the first degree murder charge and simply sit back and enjoy the pultacious, pugnacious, delicious gastric-idiopathology. Written By: Teufel