Swansong (album)
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Swansong is the final studio album by the British Melodic death metal band Carcass. It was released on June 10, 1996 in the UK for Earache Records. This album was intended to be their major label debut, having been signed by Columbia records following the success of Heartwork, but disputes with that record company left them to return to Earache. The album was re-released on 21 July 2008 as a dualdisc featuring the 5th part of The Pathologist's Report as well as a set of stickers in a digipak with the bonus track mentioned below.
About the album
Because Swansong continued the progression towards a more melodic style (beginning with Heartwork), it was not received well by all fans. However,[citation needed] the album gained Carcass many new fans, reaching No. 46 on Billboard magazine's Heatseakers chart.[citation needed]
The band had always shown a sense of humour in their song titles, and Swansong illustrated this with titles such as "Keep on Rotting in the Free World" and "Generation Hexed".
A limited edition of this album was released as a brain-shaped CD, with a bonus 2-track CD 'Somnus Pecunia Cibus'. The reason for the bonus disc was to include "Go to Hell", which wouldn't fit on the brain shaped CD (Made by Nimbus Manufacturing in Wales, UK) due to the 'cutting' into the disc required for the brain shape. This delayed the release of the disc by a week (originally planned for 3 June 1996, the same day as Metallica's Load), so an extra track, "Emotional Flatline" was included as an apology for the delay.
Track listing
- "Keep on Rotting in the Free World" (Walker) – 3:42
- "Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody" (Steer/Walker) – 4:17
- "Black Star" (Regadas/Walker) – 3:29
- "Cross My Heart" (Steer/Walker) – 3:34
- "Child's Play" (Steer/Walker) – 5:43
- "Room 101" (Steer/Walker) – 4:35
- "Polarized" (Regadas/Steer/Walker) – 4:02
- "Generation Hexed" (Steer/Walker) – 3:48
- "Firm Hand" (Regadas/Walker) – 5:22
- "Rock the Vote" (Walker) – 3:53
- "Don't Believe a Word" (Steer/Walker) – 3:57
- "Go to Hell" (Walker) – 3:22
Bonus Track
- "Death Rider Da" - 1:18 (Japanese/2008 reissue bonus track)
2008 Reissue
The latest edition of the album, released on 21 July, comes packaged in a twelve-panel digipak with full artwork and lyrics as well as a limited edition sticker sheet with classic Carcass motifs. It also features the previously Japanese-only bonus track "Death Rider Da" as well as the fifth and final part of the extensive interview The Pathologist's Report. The chapters for this installment of the documentary are as follows;
- Issues With the Release
- Extreme But Not As We Know It
- Moving to Columbia
- The Cover Artwork
- Mike Hickey and Carlo’s Involvement
- The End is Nigh
- The Aftermath
- Influencing the Next Generation
- Ken Talks About His Illness
- Outtakes
Personnel
- Ken Owen - Drums
- Carlo Regadas - Guitar
- Colin Richardson - Producer, vocals on "Deathrider Da"
- Bill Steer - Guitar
- Jeffrey Walker - Bass, Vocals
- Nick Brine - Assistant Engineer
- Jim Brumby - Assistant Engineer
- Gee - Paintings
- Stephen Harris - Engineer
- Barney Herbert - Assistant Engineer
studio cover
- Over the CD, you can see the "unfinished pyramid et al" from the Great Seal of the United States, but it reads "carcass" instead of "annuit coeptis", "somnus pecunia cibus" instead of "novus ordo seclorum" and "MCMXCV" instead of "MDCCLXXVI".
References
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