Napalm Death
"Enemy of the Music
Business"
Spitfire Records
By Vinnie Apicella 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!
|
More from the Online Metal Journal |
|
|
|
|