Both styles that are combined here shine in their own special way though. Some songs like 'Regurgitation of Giblets', 'Foeticide' and 'Festerday' might show more death metal sensibilities with relentless blast beats and more thrashing moments with Death-styled riffs, but songs like 'Suppuration' and 'Feast on Dismembered Carnage' display more of the grindcore stylings reminiscent of early Napalm Death. But within the aforementioned songs mentioned to switch between these dynamics, the other styles are still present. The stereotype that a lot of short songs make a grindcore album could give one the impression that this is a pure grindcore album, but the first set of songs listed could easily bring this argument down. However, all of these songs have that in common, they are short and to the point.
I'm afraid the riffs on some of these songs wouldn't have the same effect if they were more drawn out. Some of these songs would get boring easily and quite monotonous. Luckily, the benefit of the album as a whole, the band realized that there were a lot more riffs to be offered and a lot of them didn't really fit together. This has the illusion of monotony and massive variety both simultaneously, because while the riffs are vastly different on a lot of the songs, if there's not enough attention placed upon them, they can all seem indistinguishable and interchangeable.
But that raises the question - what is to blame for that? The production values and mixing? I could see this as the cause of the issue. Sometimes, the guitars can get lost within the blast beats, drowning them out beyond recognition, with cymbal echo and the snare overriding the general instrumental mix overall most of the time. The guitars themselves when they're distinguishable are reminiscent of a chainsaw, with a piercing sound to fit the crude nature of the songs. The bass is highly audible, which I guess is good, because it makes the guitars sound more full than they really are, but I would prefer less distortion. The blink-and-you'll-miss-it solos are mixed atrociously as well, soaring over everything else with ease.
Yet I find that's what fits with this album. With such dirty, disgusting lyrical subjects, you need an equally dirty sound to match all of it, and this does the trick. The lyrics aren't the fantasy-gore, torture stories found within such bands like Cannibal Corpse, a lot of these are possible impending dangers, described in horrific detail. Whether these stories are told from the point of view of a disease carrier or a 'Psychopathologist' (see what I did there), they're both equally as frightening, and when the vocabulary found within a medical dictionary is deciphered, these seem much more nauseating and possibly vomit-inducing.
"Purulent torso is a perfect maggots meal
Spilt cerebrospinal fluid is sucked up with zeal
Botulism vitiates the emulsifying bile
Liquidized gall bladder, viscid pus smells vile"
The delivery of such gory lyrics is impeccable as well, with all three members contributing to create a sordid cacophony of pitch-shifted gutturals, throaty rasps and shredding screams. There are certain moments within the album where two of these styles or maybe even all of them are all carried out simultaneously, to create an even creepier delivery. The effort and force put into these vocals are easily noticeable, as I sometimes think they're almost choking up vomit producing such things. This combined with the all the riffs that I've tried my best to describe are the near-perfect mixture of putrid disgust.
To think that this is what some consider just humble beginnings is staggering, because while there might not have been much to do in the way of producing better sounding albums, Carcass practically reinvented the wheel with this album alone. 'Symphonies of Sickness' brought this style to the next step, that's for certain, but this is a monument that is not to be looked over, and should be looked upon with the utmost respect. Enjoy yourselves with this one.
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