'''''Heartwork''''' is the fourth album by British [[extreme metal]] band [[Carcass]], and has been described as the band's "breakthrough"<ref name=allmusic>{{cite web|last=Loftus|first=Johnny|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/heartwork-mw0000622563|title=Heartwork - Carcass|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref> and "mid-period masterpiece".<ref name=pitchfork /> It was released through [[Earache Records]] on 18 October 1993. The album was recorded at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool from 18 May – 21 June 1993. The sculpture depicted in the cover art, "Life Support 1993", was designed by H.R. Giger, and is an update of a sculpture he created in the late 1960s. The video for the song "Heartwork" features a real-life interpretation of the sculpture, including a human welded as a part of it. The album was reissued as a Dualdisc on 2 June 2008. [[Michael Amott]] left the band after the recording of the album before founding [[Spiritual Beggars]], and was temporarily replaced by Mike Hickey. In ''The Pathologist's Report'', [[Bill Steer]] says ''Heartwork'' is his favourite Carcass album.<ref>{{cite web|title=''The Pathologist's Report'' Part 4|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hjqCYX5bvk}}</ref> The band [[Carnal Forge]] named themselves after the song from this album.<ref>{{cite web|last=York|first=William|title=The More You Suffer - Carnal Forge|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-more-you-suffer-r636453/review|publisher=AllMusic|accessdate=18 December 2011}}</ref> ==Release==''Heartwork'' sold at least 81,000 units.<ref name="decibelhalloffame">{{cite web |url=http://www.decibelmagazine.com/hall-of-fame/carcass-2/ |title=Carcass 'Heartwork' |work=Decibel |publisher=Red Flag Media |location=Philadelphia}}</ref> It spawned one single under the same name that featured the title track and non-album tracks "This is Your Life" and "Rot 'n' Roll".<ref name="earacheheartworkep" /> ==Critical reception==In an October 2007 interview, [[Evile]] frontman Matt Drake described ''Heartwork'' as "just one of the best albums ever".<ref name="EvileLucemFero">{{cite web|title='Armoured Assault' - Evile frontman Matt Drake hails gargantuan Thrash masterpiece ''Enter the Grave''|author=Morgan, Anthony|publisher=Lucem Fero|date=October 2007|url=http://www.lucemfero.com/evile102007.php|accessdate=3 May 2008}}</ref> Described in 2013 by Hank Schteamer of Pitchfork as Carcass's "mid-period masterpiece", he praised ''Heartwork'' as being "perhaps the greatest example to date of an extreme-metal band nodding to the polish and swagger of above-ground rock while retaining their core ferocity".<ref name=pitchfork>{{cite web|last=Schteamer|first=Hank|date=11 September 2013|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18360-carcass-surgical-steel/|title=Carcass: Surgical Steel|publisher=Pitchfork|accessdate=30 March 2014}}</ref> Johnny Loftus called the album the band's "breakthrough release" on AllMusic, and suggested that while "some purists might decry its melodic breaks for soloing or nods toward conventional structure[,] ''Heartwork'' is that rare album that so carefully dissects and reconstructs its original form that its additional body parts seem like they were there all along".<ref name=allmusic/>