by Greg Prato
Carcass was the first extreme metal act to replace "dining with Satan" lyrics with nearly incomprehensible words and phrases that belonged in a medical student's final exam essay. And subsequently, they spawned a host of similarly styled groups, such as County Medical Examiners (these chaps cut right to the chase, eh?). The group's 2007 release, Olidous Operettas, follows all the guidelines Carcass set early in their career -- growled vocals, speedy tempos, and of course, simply grisly subject matter (and just as gruesome album cover art for that matter -- the cover of Olidous Operettas is an oh-so pleasing conglomeration of faces that appear to be completely devoid of any skin). Make sure the proper anesthesia dose has been administered and that the scalpel is sharp before diving into such selections as "The Virchow Postmortem Procedure," "Expeditious Evisceratory Mishap," and especially the potential Top Ten hit, "Maturating Decompositional Gas."