Ken Owen

Ken Owen (born Kenneth Owen, 23 April 1970, Billinge, Lancashire) is an English drummer. He was born in Billinge, and grew up in Gayton, Merseyside. He is best known as one of the founding members of Carcass, for which he also handled some of the vocals. After the band broke up in 1995, he started Blackstar, along with two other Carcass members. In February 1999, he suffered a brain haemorrhage at home and spent ten months in a hospital slowly emerging from a coma, making it impossible at the time for him to continue playing the drums. More recently, he has started playing drums again, but mostly makes music using the computer software program Reason.

Despite his condition, he remains close to Carcass and its members: in 2008, he joined Carcass on stage at the Sweden Rock Festival 2008, Wacken Open Air festival 2008, Damnation Festival 2008 & 2013, 2009 at Bloodstock Open Air and in 2010 at Vagos Open Air to play a short drum solo. Jeff Walker has noted Owen's influence on the album Surgical Steel; Owen appears on the album contributing some backing vocals, as well as in the music video for Unfit for Human Consumption. In September 2015, he released his first solo album, Symbiotic Possibilities, which is a techno album recorded using Reason software.

Jeff Walker

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Bill Steer

Bill Steer (born William Geoffrey Steer, 3 December 1969) is a British guitar player, and co-founder of the extreme metal band Carcass. He is considered a pioneer and an essential contributor to grindcore and death metal due to his involvement in Napalm Death and Carcass, two of the most important bands of those genres. Presently he plays with Gentlemans Pistols, the reactivated Carcass and appears as a live second guitarist for Angel Witch.

Born in Stockton-on-Tees to a Scottish mother and English father, Steer spent his teenage years in the Wirral. According to various interviews, it was at this time he was exposed to hard rock and heavy metal in the form of Motörhead, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, UFO, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and so on, followed by lesser-known NWOBHM artists such as Raven, Tank and Venom. These years saw Steer begin playing electric guitar and also becoming one of the earliest tape traders in the UK, immersing himself in the embryonic underground death metal scene. During this time, an early incarnation of Carcass was formed.

Owen

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Reek of Putrefaction

Reek of Putrefaction is the debut album by British extreme metal band Carcass. It was released by Earache Records in July 1988.

Background

When released, Reek of Putrefaction reached No. 6 on the UK Indie Chart, establishing Carcass as one of the pioneers of the grindcore genre. The late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel declared it his favourite album of 1988, in an interview for British newspaper The Observer.

Production

Reek of Putrefaction was recorded in four days at Ritch Bitch Studios in Birmingham. According to guitarist Bill Steer, the studio's engineer "ruined" the record, especially its drum tracks. Carcass had only had a few hours available of mixing, so they had to release the LP as it was to meet the label's deadline. The band were "everything but happy" with the end result, declared Steer.

When the master recording was first sent to the pressing plant, the original vinyl LP had to be pressed at lower volumes, because the bass frequencies were so low (sometimes reaching 25 Hz) that they were in danger of rendering higher frequencies inaudible.