The County Medical Examiners
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The County Medical Examiners are an American goregrind band, whose intended purpose is to emulate the classic goregrind of the 1980s - the early albums of Carcass. The band is a power trio of actual medical examiners (at the time of their first releases they were still doing their studies) comprising Dr Morton Fairbanks on guitar and vocals, Dr Jack Putnam on drums and vocals, and Dr Guy Radcliff on bass and vocals. Note that these are not their real names, as they would probably be expelled from the medical profession for playing the sort of music that they do, despite keeping it more tasteful than their idols. Where Carcass would perform Exhume to Consume, The County Medical Examiners do A Brief Discourse On Wound Ballistics. Their lyrical content merely describes what goes on in the morgues of hospitals, rather than discussing grisly acts of necrophilia and cannibalism. The band's frontman is Dr Morton Fairbanks, who writes most of the bands music and lyrics, though all band members are credited. It should be noted that Dr Guy Radcliff (who is many years the senior of the other two band members) is not a goregrind fan, but joined the band as they were short a bassist, and out of his professed love for the avant-garde. The County Medical Examiners have released a few albums, and are sporadically working on a new album. They have never performed live.
Controversy surrounds the identity of the band members, as they use pseudonyms to avoid the wrath of hospital administration and fan attention. One rumor suggests that TCME contains at least one member of Exhumed, mostly because the domain name for the band's website was registered by a former member of Exhumed, and not under the name of the "band members," but it's now commonly accepted that TCME, being uninterested in their online promotion, have many people behind the scenes--including various other Carcass clone bands, as well as Relapse Records staff--donating their time to web design and promotion, as well as guest musical appearances.
[edit] Discography
- Fetid Putrescent Whiffs (Demo, saw limited distribution) (2001)
- Forensic Fugues and Medicolegal Medleys (LP) (Razorback Records) (2001)
- General Surgery/The County Medical Examiners Split (LP, latter half is performed by TCME) (Razorback Records) (2003)
- Reeking Rhapsodies for Chorale, Percussion, and Strings (EP) (Razorback Records) (2004)
