Book Carnage

Carnage was a Swedish death metal band from Växjö that, though short-lived, served as a launching pad for some of the genre's most important musicians. Guitarist Michael Amott and bassist and vocalist Johan Liiva founded the group at the end of 1988, and the band quickly made a name in the underground tape-trading scene with the demos The Day Man Lost and Infestation of Evil in 1989, plus the EP Live in Stockholm. After several lineup changes, with singer Matti Kärki, guitarist David Blomqvist, drummer Fred Estby and bassist Johnny Dordevic joining Amott, Carnage released its only album, Dark Recollections, in 1990. It came out on Necrosis Records, a division of Earache Records, as a split CD with Cadaver's Hallucinating Anxiety, and was reissued with bonus tracks in 2000. The band broke up in 1991. Its members went on to shape Swedish metal: Amott joined Carcass and later formed Arch Enemy with Liiva as well as Spiritual Beggars, while Kärki, Blomqvist and Estby reformed Dismember. Carnage remains a respected name among fans of early Swedish death metal and the roots of its later bands.