Swansong was the major label debut by Carcass, as well as being their last album. It was released through Columbia Records in 1996 (see 1996 in music). Though the album continued the progression towards more melodic music seen on Heartwork, the album was seen as a "sell out" by many of the band's fans, though it gained many new fans, reaching No. 46 on Billboard magazine's Heatseakers chart.
Though the band had always shown a sense of humour in their song titles, Swansong made this more obvious, with song titles such as "Keep On Rotting in the Free World" and "Generation Hexed".