Metal Reviews
Metal Reviews
|
Words From The Exit Wound NAPALM DEATH |
| A name synonymous
with brutal, aggressive behavior and… death—as in “Napalm,” Barney
and company look to do more than just survive with their latest musical
obliteration, “Words from the Exit Wound.” You don’t have to
thin too hard I suppose, to conjure up just what some of those words
might consist of—ouch! With a legacy as long as the English Channel itself, Napalm Death has been through all a band can stand and are still coming out fighting with something to prove. Having impressed a loyal legion of followers at the recent N.J. Metal festival, the band is currently on the move ready to unleash their massive arsenal at the rest of the world. Having successfully bridged the gap between grind and hard-core long ago, “Words…” may well be their most lethal offering to date—and they’ve had many. “The Infiltraitor” opens the wound in a matter of seconds and tears through the flesh with skillful power, and if that’s not enough, by the time track five, “Cleanse and Impure” pours salt in that same festering wound, you’ll be writhing on the floor in pure agony. There’s no let up in sight on this one. No fooling around in areas for which they’ve yet to experience, it’s a straight ahead, in your face pounding, done at an immeasurably high speed and cat-like efficiency. The bloody carnage doesn’t stop and in fact becomes worse as the “Incendiary Incoming” approach where total devastation occurs, and by the time we’re “Thrown Down a Rope,” it’s much too late! An extra three bonus cuts exclusive to the U.S. release are added to bring the number up to fifteen, but you’ll do best to gun straight to those final cuts for it you wait to let ‘em all play out, I fear it may be too late to save your worthless existence. Released by Earache Records Limited. EUROPE : P.O. Box 144, Nottingham, NG3 4GE, United Kingdom. Email : mail@earache.com NORTH AMERICA : Earache Records Inc., Suite 915, 295 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10012, USA Email : EaracheRec@aol.com Website : http://www.earache.com Review by Vinnie Apicella |
Leaders Not FollowersNapalm Death |
|
One of the more conscientious in their delivery of extreme brutality, Napalm Death's follow up to '98s "Words from the Exit Wound" sees them tapping the vein of previously recorded songs, six in all and mainly from the underground-how fitting-on their new "Leaders not Followers" offering. A band that to this day still fills the void left since Slayer's "Reign in Blood" carnage of fourteen years ago, Napalm Death's been a model of perseverance in displaying their talent in an artform that's been picked apart and left for dead more times than even Clinton cares to remember! "Leaders Not Followers," words from the exit wound… and words to live by. The first five tracks they cover stem from long lost and not so classic moments from the likes of Raw Power, an early '80s hard core act from Italy, and their take on "Politicians" which if you can understand even a word, you've won half the battle. A good cut; quick and to the bone, and a great version with the stingiest trace of melody which quickly leads to "Incinerator," which possesses a deadly dual guitar riff to open and a full blast tribute to Toronto's Slaughter, who folded shortly after '87… so luckily leaving the door open to the less flashier version that came out a year or two later! Again another killer version with the mightiest of shredding overtaking all assumed boundaries of their origins and this one will blast ya! A rarity from Death surfaces near the end, "Back from the Dead," an unreleased track that follows step for step with the original annihilative principles first founded by the influential death metal giants, again some blazing guitar work and the garbled and gruff vocals we've all come to admire from Mr. Greenway. Leaving off with the Dead Kennedy's classic "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" which they've already done for a DK tribute and featured at many a show, re-recorded here for the benefit of those among us who've still managed to retain 40% of their hearing… there's not much time to prepare as it's over and done rather swiftly and if that's not enough after about a minute of blinding chaos, you've got about fifteen seconds worth of Welsh drunkenness before the time winds down! Napalm's a band that's always lived by their own rules and here are six primeval examples of incomparable apocalyptic torture… Released by Relapse Records Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] |
Enemy of the Music BusinessNapalm Death |
|
It's plainly evident that the chip on their collective shoulders has grown to such mammoth proportions so as to be uncontrollable by mere mortal methods… As if there were any other motivating factor, Napalm Death's got a serious issue they're addressing on their latest crushing release that one need not look very far to see what all the commotion is about. And commotion… after ten minutes of this, is putting it absolutely mildly! Non-coincidentally the band has just resurfaced with a new label and far be it for me to say, a new attitude. The anger, intensity and drive that have made them the class of Death Metal and Hard-Core since their near twenty year inception, remains fully intact and directed straight at the corporate bullshit that seems to suck the life out of any artist at one time or another… or at least attempts to do so. Right off the condition turns far more critical than I could've imagined simply going over the band's history… and one that for the uninitiated, reads like a who's who in extreme Metal circles. "Take the Poison," "and "Next On the List" serve full notice that not only are they not going to take it anymore… and then round after round of heavy artillery bombards your listening zone and you're caught in a hailstorm of double-bass and savage riffing directed straight at the enemy sending them hurtling backwards behind the line gasping for one final breath… I mean this is absolutely asphyxiating… I can't remember the last time this band played with this kind of intensity. "Constitutional Hell" is easily one of the best they've written, and rages about "higher powers" and how everything fits nicely into place and the common man's common ground slowly rots beneath his feet, where slowly he sinks into the earth looking toward the sky and wondering what was ever in it for him in the first place… And we need not look far for our answer. Every song here is a venom spewing toxic tirade against any and all oppressive forces that managed to raise their ire and culminates within the telling, "Can't Play, Won't Pay" is a nightmare of a song that raises the intensity level even higher, which was unimaginable three tracks ago, and in pure Death growls and throat-cutting chorus you can faintly make out the overall theme that led to their finally going over the edge-"We're enemies of the music business, you corporate fuck! Enemies of the music business, black sheep on the cusp… Enemies of the music business…" And ten years worth of disdain summed up in roughly three and a half minutes worth of excessive pain! Napalm Death's been around and seen and done it all and when they were finally pushed too far, they had to lash out in the worst way imaginable… and here is the end result! Released by Spitfire
Records. Review by Vinnie
Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] |