Jeffrey Walker
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Walker is a bass guitarist and vocalist from Windle, St Helens
, UK. He is best known for his work with the death metal
/ grindcore
band Carcass
for which he is also the main lyricist. Before Carcass, he played in the punk
band the Electro Hippies
. After the demise of Carcass, he went on to form Blackstar
with two former Carcass bandmates. In some territories the band was called Blackstar Rising.
In addition, he made cover artwork for a few albums, including Scum by Napalm Death
. He is also credited for the cover art to the cult Axegrinder
album Rise of the Serpent Men. He also designed Diamanthian's (a Liverpool
based death metal
band) logo, as well as producing their debut album.
Whilst in Liverpool, Walker was well known amongst radical activists, especially for his work as a hunt saboteur
.
Jeff along with Bill Steer ran the short-lived record label Necrosis, which was an imprint of Carcass' label Earache Records
and that signed bands such as Norwegian group Cadaver
and Repulsion
from the USA. Jeff Walker also reputedly painted the cover of one of the editions of Repulsion's Horrified
.
Walker also appeared in an episode of the science fiction
comedy Red Dwarf
. He performed as 'Gazza', a 'neo-Marxist nihilist anarchist', the bassist of the band 'Smeg and the Heads' in the 1989 episode "Timeslides
" along with Carcass
bandmate Bill Steer
as the "whacked-out crazy hippy drummer" 'Dobbin'.
A solo album, Welcome to Carcass Cuntry
, was released on 9 May 2006 on Fractured Transmitter Records under the moniker Jeff Walker Und Die Fluffers. The album consists of covers of country/blues songs with a metallic twist. Various guest appearances on the album including former bandmates Ken Owen
and Bill Steer, as well as members of the band HIM.
Walker appeared as a guest singer on Napalm Death
's The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code
album, on the track "Pledge Yourself to You". He has also worked with This Is Menace
, singing on the tracks "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Pretty Girls" while also supplying vocals to Mnemic
's "Psykorgasm". He has appeared live with the Finnish grindcore
band To Separate The Flesh From The Bones
.
Walker was recently the touring bassist with Brujeria
under the name El Cynico. He is currently touring with the reformed Carcass, who made an appearance at Wacken Open Air
. His bandmate Bill Steer
hinted in a recent interview that a new Carcass album could be possible. The Carcass reunion show schedule continues in 2009, a new North American tour is announced for March 2009.
Metropolitan Borough of St Helens
The Metropolitan Borough of St Helens is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It is named after its largest town St Helens, and covers an area which includes the settlements of Newton-le-Willows, Earlestown, Haydock, Rainhill, Eccleston, Clock Face, Billinge and...
, UK. He is best known for his work with the death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
/ grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
band Carcass
Carcass (band)
Carcass are an extreme metal band from England, who formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons....
for which he is also the main lyricist. Before Carcass, he played in the punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band the Electro Hippies
Electro Hippies
Electro Hippies was a crust punk/thrashcore band formed in St Helens/Wigan, United Kingdom, in 1985.Though they were short-lived and underground through their career, their music influenced many future crust, hardcore punk, and grindcore bands. The band relied heavily on low bass end sounds to...
. After the demise of Carcass, he went on to form Blackstar
Blackstar (band)
Blackstar was a British heavy metal band, formed as a retooling of the band Carcass in 1995 without Bill Steer along with former Cathedral guitarist Mark Griffiths....
with two former Carcass bandmates. In some territories the band was called Blackstar Rising.
In addition, he made cover artwork for a few albums, including Scum by Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
. He is also credited for the cover art to the cult Axegrinder
Axegrinder
"Axegrinder" was a single by iconic Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus. It was released on RCA Records in August, 1989 from their album Magnum Cum Louder; and was written by Dave Faulkner. B side "Spaghetti Western" was also written by Faulkner....
album Rise of the Serpent Men. He also designed Diamanthian's (a Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
based death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band) logo, as well as producing their debut album.
Whilst in Liverpool, Walker was well known amongst radical activists, especially for his work as a hunt saboteur
Hunt saboteur
Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights or animal welfare activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into those who believe in direct intervention and those who watch the hunt to monitor for cruelty and report violations of animal...
.
Jeff along with Bill Steer ran the short-lived record label Necrosis, which was an imprint of Carcass' label Earache Records
Earache Records
Earache Records is a heavy metal-oriented record label based in Nottingham, UK and New York, USA. It helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing many of the earliest grindcore and death metal records in the period 1988-1994.-History:...
and that signed bands such as Norwegian group Cadaver
Cadaver (band)
Cadaver was a death metal band from Råde, Norway. The band had a brief venture in the early 1990s before splitting in 1993. Cadaver would eventually re-emerge as Cadaver Inc. in 1999 which consisted of only one founding member...
and Repulsion
Repulsion (band)
Repulsion is an early grindcore / death metal band from Flint, Michigan. They have been called the "most influential grindcore band of all time".-History:...
from the USA. Jeff Walker also reputedly painted the cover of one of the editions of Repulsion's Horrified
Horrified
Horrified is the only full-length album released by the American grindcore band Repulsion. Although the album was originally recorded in 1986, it remained unreleased until three years later. It was originally released on Necrosis Records, a sublabel of Earache Records.-Album information:The album...
.
Walker also appeared in an episode of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comedy Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
. He performed as 'Gazza', a 'neo-Marxist nihilist anarchist', the bassist of the band 'Smeg and the Heads' in the 1989 episode "Timeslides
Timeslides
"Timeslides" is the fifth episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series III, and the seventeenth in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 12 December 1989. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the plot deals with Lister's desire to...
" along with Carcass
Carcass (band)
Carcass are an extreme metal band from England, who formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons....
bandmate Bill Steer
Bill Steer
Bill Steer is an English guitar player, and a founder of British Metal band Carcass...
as the "whacked-out crazy hippy drummer" 'Dobbin'.
A solo album, Welcome to Carcass Cuntry
Welcome to Carcass Cuntry
Welcome to Carcass Cuntry is a country metal album by Jeffrey Walker, of the metal band Carcass. The instrumentation is performed by notable heavy metal musicians, including Faith No More’s Billy Gould, H.I.M.‘s Ville Valo, Anathema’s Danny Cavanagh and Carcass members Bill Steer and Ken Owen...
, was released on 9 May 2006 on Fractured Transmitter Records under the moniker Jeff Walker Und Die Fluffers. The album consists of covers of country/blues songs with a metallic twist. Various guest appearances on the album including former bandmates Ken Owen
Ken Owen
Ken Owen 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...
and Bill Steer, as well as members of the band HIM.
Walker appeared as a guest singer on Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
's The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code
The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code
-Credits:* Mark "Barney" Greenway – Vocals* Shane Embury – Bass, rhythm guitar, background vocals* Mitch Harris – Lead Guitar, background vocals, video director, video editor* Danny Herrera – Drums* Jello Biafra – Vocals on "The Great and the Good"...
album, on the track "Pledge Yourself to You". He has also worked with This Is Menace
This Is Menace
This Is Menace was a British metalcore supergroup formed in 2004.-History:The band was formed by bassist Mark Clayden and drummer Jason Bowld during the hiatus of their previous band, Pitchshifter. The group released their limited EP, Collusion in 2005...
, singing on the tracks "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Pretty Girls" while also supplying vocals to Mnemic
Mnemic
Mnemic is a Danish metal band, formed in Aalborg, Denmark in 1998. Their music has been described as a fusion between metalcore, melodic death metal, industrial metal and progressive metal, with additional elements of thrash metal and groove metal, to form a style the band themselves have...
's "Psykorgasm". He has appeared live with the Finnish grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
band To Separate The Flesh From The Bones
To Separate the Flesh from the Bones
To Separate the Flesh from the Bones is a grindcore/death metal band from Finland. The band can be considered a side project of three members of Finland's metal and rock scenes: Pasi Koskinen , Mika Karppinen , and Niclas Etelävuori .-Biography:The project began circa 2004 when three active...
.
Walker was recently the touring bassist with Brujeria
Brujeria (band)
Brujeria is an extreme metal band formed in Tijuana, Mexico in 1989. Their name comes from the Spanish word for "witchcraft". Their songs, which are sung in Spanish, are focused on Satanism, anti-Christianity, sex, immigration, narcotics smuggling, politics....
under the name El Cynico. He is currently touring with the reformed Carcass, who made an appearance at Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air is a summer open air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany...
. His bandmate Bill Steer
Bill Steer
Bill Steer is an English guitar player, and a founder of British Metal band Carcass...
hinted in a recent interview that a new Carcass album could be possible. The Carcass reunion show schedule continues in 2009, a new North American tour is announced for March 2009.