Review of Napalm Death's new album "Time Waits for no Slave" To be released in 2009.
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Napalm Death are an English grindcore band. They formed in the village of Meriden near Birmingham, England in 1982[4] by Nicholas Bullen and Miles Ratledge.
Although other groups had previously played fast and aggressive music with a similar style, Napalm Death are credited with defining the grindcore genre through their blend of post-punk, hardcore punk and metal musical structures, aggressive playing, fast tempos, and deep guttural vocals. The group coined the term 'Grind' to describe the music they played with particular reference to the sound of American post-punk group Swans.
Track by Track :
1. Strongarm - Just like the name suggests... Napalm Death starts this album of strong. It immidiately throws you into the insane world of Napalm death with some fast punk drumming that shift back and forth between blast beats and the thrash drumming with some shrieking and fast guitar work. The one thing I've noticed already, while remaining the same, they've improved a little bit on the concepts they've tried to incorporate since that last album. Overall this song makes you think the rest of the album will be amazing, and let's hope so on that. I write reviews as I listen to the songs to be as accurate as possible.
2. Dictat - This song doesn't quite start out as strong as Strongarm, but the dualed vocals of lows and highs and blast beats come in then you start to wonder what the hell are they going to do next since with Napalm Death you never know, and that's the best aspect of them. Overall this song is also very good, it switches between Thrash Riffs, Thrash Drums, to amazing grinding the Napalm Death way, and the guitars are a change of pace so far. They sound a little more structured than the last Napalm Death albums. Also sort of new for Napalm Death, they throw in a part at around 2:45 that's like Groove/Slam and it sounds good and then the song closes very strong.
3.Work to Rule - In this song you're greeted with some echoey guitar that doesn't sound like something they would do, and then get kicked in the chest by blast beats. After about 30 seconds in they go back to some crossover thrash and then break into more grinding like at the intro, and the next 30 seconds goes back into the crossover with little to know vocals then you're greeted with something amazing at 1:36.... Napalm Death pulls off atmospheric BLACK METAL! That's right! It sounds amazing too. And then they go back into their crossover riffs from before, the song is a little monotness but not enough to annoy you, and the black metal part thrown into it completely makes you forget about the rest of the song.
4. On the Brink of Extinction - In the first 30 seconds you can almost start to debate if Napalm Death is turning into a thrash metal band. They've used alot of thrash before, but just a tad more in this album, it's less grind than usual. At about 1:30 they use some grind riffs with thrash drums, and at about 1:50 (You knew it was coming) Napalm Death goes into one of their always fun, guitar opening grind sections. Towards the end of this song it goes back into grind.
5. Time Waits for no Slave - Alright! Title track! It starts out with some blasting and some very unique (to today's standards) riffing. Although at around 20 seconds, you see something else that Napalm Death hardly ever does, if they ever have before. It's almost like Semi-Clean vocals. After about a minute in they slow down with the grinding and then kick into some thrash grind, and then back into more grind. All and all this song sounds like something that would have been on the last album, And back to 3 minutes in they throw in another well placed slam groove. This CD Will cater to the needs to pull in new fans as well as please their old audience for sure.
6. Life and Limb - One thing that shocked me, this song starts off with a breakdown. This song definitely pulls influence from some of the black metal bands atmosphere and the hardcore bands intensity, meanwhile staying in the vein of grind with the swift changing riffs thrown in and the amazing blast beats. One thing that threw me off about this song is the way they threw in more semi-clean vocals for the chorus.
7. Downbeat Clique - Now their going into the slam metal department with this song. some nicely done groove slam to start this song out with. All and all this song revolves around the opening riff and they use different variations of ir for the picking making it not too repetitive, and not making it stale either, and at 1:35 you go into some more amazing riffing and blast beats with dual vocals and then thrown back into thrash metal. This is probably a song I can see spitesuicide here on the forums liking. :P
8. Fallacy Dominion - The beginning of this song takes you back to the days of "The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code" and that's a good thing. Also they throw in another black metal section here earlier in the song which is not as amazing as the last, but in general is very good. This is a more mellow song for Napalm Death, again with some slow riffing and slow drumming for their standards and more semi-clean vocals. Overall this song just makes me think that Napalm Death is changing more from their grind side to something new. Progressive Grind anyone?
9. Passive Tense - Wow... This song only makes me second my opinion on my last comment.... They start this song out very very slow and atmospheric, and then kick into some grind/slam at around 50 seconds, and it's pretty much like that the entire song. It almost seems like something you would never imagine Napalm Death doing.
10. Larceny of the Heart - This also grows off of the last song, opening slow and then after a minute in brings you into some napalm grinding, and then remains this way the rest of the song. It almost sounds like some Hardcore Punk with Death metal vocals.
11. Procrastination on the Empty Vessel - Another song building off of the last! That's three in a row. Very arabian-ish intro riff also. This sounds like something you would hear from Vemi Domine. (Excluding the clean singing)
12. Feeling Redundant - So I'm guessing the last three songs were parts to a whole thing, this one doesn't build off of them, The first half of this song is very strong crossover thrash and mid way through changes back into grind. Then back into another slam! Surprised me there. Napalm certainly have changed from all of their other stuff, but that's good. Don't want a band getting too stale.
13. A No-sided Argument - Ahh now we're back to good old grinding Napalm! The first half of this song will take you back to "Enemy of the Music Business" and "Order of the Leech" with some slow grinding to insanely fast grinding, and a solo! They executed a perfect thrash solo while playing crossover in the background of it. One of the great songs of the Album.
14. De-Evolution Ad Nauseum - I think this track... Beats all others... It's the right way to close an already very great album. This song makes me think back to the days of "Diatribes" With the fast and not-so-fast-but-still-fast parts thrown in that confuse you of what's going on, and then break into something else while you're still adjusting to the last thing. In this song they combine all of the sounds from all of the other styles they've used and compiled them into one amazing song. WELLLLLL DOOOOOOOOOOOONE Might I add. Not something that many bands can do and make it sound that amazing.
OVERALL SCORE AND FINAL THOUGHTS :
8.5/10
For new fans : You'll probably be wanting to pick this album up, it's very diverse.
For old fans : You should DEFINATELY pick this up. It shows a whole new side to Napalm.
Overall the album is one that won't be on the shelf for while, but ptobably not one you'll be using in the car, unless you're insanely mad and you're driving to your girlfriends ex-boyfriends house who she slept with again while she was with you and you were going over there to kill him with a shovel blade to the throat. Well, that's not quite exact I just wanted to be randomly violent.
I recommend this album.