CARCASS

Carcass is considered the major inspiration and musical foundation for most gore metal and deathgrind/goregrind bands as well as being one of the founding fathers of melodic death metal.

The band was first known as Disattack, playing hardcore/punk back in 1985. After releasing their first demo in 1986, their bass player left the band and Jeff Walker joined them after leaving Electro Hippies. By that time, they were also changing their name to Carcass, whose logo was drawn by Jeff Walker. Soon their drummer was replaced by Ken Owen and the singer by Sanjiv. Bill Steer also left Napalm Death in order to concentrate on Carcass.

Carcass started as a goregrind band, then moved to a death metal sound which evolved into their melodic death and heavy metal roots before their split. Their Heartwork album, released in 1993, is one of the first melodic death metal albums ever released.

Bill Steer moved into the stoner rock band Firebird (not to be confused with the 1978 NWOBHM band Firebird, Mike focused on his retro band Spiritual Beggars before forming a side-project with his brother Chris called Arch Enemy which went on to become very succesful. Jeff, Ken & Carlo formed the shortlived Blackstar after the demise of Carcass.

At the age of 28, Ken Owen had a brain hemorrhage, and was in a coma for almost a year. He was confined to a wheelchair for a time, but has since partially recovered and despite heavily confined movement has began playing drums again.

Carcass reuinted in 2007 for touring purposes. Despite Ken Owen starting to play drums again, he is unable to perform to the level required for Carcass. Daniel Erlandsson of Arch Enemy has replaced him for the reunion tour. Despite this, Ken has been involved in the reunited band''s activities, and makes brief appearances at selected live shows.

Bill Steer has said in a recent interview that there may be a new Carcass album, but it is unknown whether Michael and Daniel, or a different lineup, will record it.

A UK edition of Bjork''s "Isobel" single has a version of the song "remixed" by Carcass (in fact it was just the vocals to the original song mixed over an entirely new piece of music).

Jeff Walker appears on the release The Final Remixes by Die Krupps with a cover version of their track Inside Out.

Birth dates:
William Geoffrey Steer (3rd December 1969, Stockton-on-Tees, England)
Jeffrey Walker (25th March 1969, St Helens, Merseyside, England)
Kenneth Owen (23rd April 1970, Billinge, Merseyside, England)
Michael Amott (28th July 1970, London, England)
Daniel John Erlandsson (22nd May 1976, Malmö, Sweden)