Josh_Martin said:

I suppose I should cut some of you some slack. Hearing Heartwork as your introduction to Carcass at age 17 in the late 90's is quite a bit different than waiting impatiently for the new album from one of your favorite bands to show up in the mail and when it does its a total fucking sell out.

Well, my introduction to Carcass was the 'Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment' demo in 1987, and I love their first three records in addition to Heartwork. I guess I just wasn't too surprised since I would read inties with Walker/Steer even before they did the Columbia record, and they usually covered the fact that they wouldn't be happy making the same record twice, which they didn't. That said, I'm not a fan of Swansong in the slightest, nor the post-Carcass Blackstar Rising. I think it has a lot to do with increased Amott songwriting for Heartwork, he seemed to follow through with a lot of that riffing in Arch Enemy.