Carnage (Swe) - "The Day Man Lost" demo, 1989

"Reek of Putrefaction" is simply one of the greatest albums ever released. A lot of people hate it for all the right reasons - it's absolutely filthy, the vocals are disgusting, downtuned and murky, the guitars have a huge, muddy cavernous tone, the entire thing sounds like a blur upon first listen, theres tons of guitar squealing leads that are about three times as loud as the rest of the music, the lyrics (when they can be deciphered) are absolutely disgusting, and of course the playing is super sloppy, bearing none of the finesse that the later Carcass albums would have. "Reek" is the true litmus test to whether or not I can fully trust someone's musical tastes or not. If you want to listen to overproduced, slick and clean music, why bother with death metal or grindcore in the first place? Shouldn't a fan of this kind of music want the most disgusting and filthy sounds to come out of their speakers every time? Personally, I think so.

Figuring out how to top such a landmark recording is a pretty challenging task. Carnage clearly spent a lot of time trying to wrap their head around such an impossible seeming task, so they went probably the easiest route; releasing a demo tape that sounds exactly like it. Clone bands can be a tricky issue to review. Many times bands going for another band's specific sound can get all the aesthetic details right, which Carnage certainly does here. The thick, muddy guitar tone, the absurdly low pitch shifted vocals, the shrill divebomb guitar leads that are so much louder than the rest of the music, the sloppy blasting, its all found here. However, what most clone type bands neglect to incorporate into their music is the spirit of the original. Theres really no point in listening to a band that captures the musical stylings of the original, but fails to capture the manic intensity and attitude. For this reason bands like Cretin have no interest to me. If I wanted to listen to Repulsion, I would. If I wanted to listen to Transilvanian Hunger, I would, not some random USBM band that released their first demo in 2004.

Carnage however, does not fall into this trap here. They seem to know exactly what Carcass were going for, but more importantly how and why they went there, and as a result almost manage to outdo the masters at their own game. The guitar sound on here is absolutely massive, much heavier and downtuned than "Reek", which adds a lot to the recording. The only remotely negative thing I have to say about the demo is its length. The whole thing clocks in at about four and a half minutes, which leaves the listener wanting a lot more. The band never lets up the intensity for these four and a half minutes, and while it may have been interesting to see what the band could have done on 7" or even an LP in this style, it might be for the best that the band decided to keep it short; the recording never gets boring or redundant, which is often the worst crime a musician can commit.

The band would change directions drastically after this, moving towards the style of death metal made popular by Nihilist. The second demo, "Infestation of Evil" and the "Dark Recollections" full length are both quite excellent recordings in their own right (the latter of which even absorbs and recontextualizes two songs from "The Day Man Lost" demo), but neither can even begin to approach the extreme and filthy sounds on here. The cover art, a crudely done cut, paste and xerox job of a basic dripping logo on top of a nuclear explosion matches the music quite nicely, and despite the fact that these songs are easily available on the "Dark Recollections" CD as bonus tracks, would look even nicer in 7" format.

"The Day Man Lost" is one of the rare recordings which are far more than the sum of its parts. Going beyond basic Carcass cloning and almost surpassing the original, this is easily in the top tier of grindcore recordings, and has a tendency to get overlooked in the wake of their more popular LP.