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Now we’re talking. Does heavy metal get any better than this? I can still remember a little chill up my spine when I heard the first little Maidenesque harmony guitar fill, popping up like magic out of the detuned background. To me, this said: expect the unexpected–”sure, we’ve got the murder scene photos on the cover, the ridiculously pretentious title, and the faux med school lyrics, but we’ve also got this, so stick with us.”

From start to finish, this album is a masterpiece. I can remember tearing my hair out when choosing my Best of the 1990s albums in deciding which Carcass album would make it in, this one or Heartwork (spoiler alert, it was Heartwork). While you can definitely argue which is the overall better album, this is clearly the quintessential Carcass album, combining the brutality of the first two albums (including medical literature raided lyrics and imagery (though less gory and more witty this time around), tandem bad cop/worse cop vocals, and intricate arrangements) with the melodic, memorable songwriting of what was to follow.

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