The Official Napalm Death Thread
 

A couple of things before I start. Despite their heavy sound I am almost loathe to put Napalm Death in the metal forum as their ethos is still essentially Punk to this day but with the long hair still around and a sound influenced by Metal I think this is probably the better place.

Also why no thread? I can't believe a band so seminal has no thread!


Without going into huge detail if you haven't heard of Napalm Death regardless of your age then you have been living under a very large heavy metal rock (pun intended).

One of the originators of Grindcore (albeit from a Punk angle), their seminal debut album Scum is an all time classic with one Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh) being one of their earliest members and Carcass main man Bill Steer being an integral member at one point. The current line up has pretty much been stable since 1991 and they have continued to put out album after album with the same intensity and politically charged lyrics since their early days.

Although the band have incorporated heavier and slower elements in their music over the years, they have never sold out and remain as intense as ever and for my money outshine 95% of the so called extreme bands out there.

I have seen the band a number of times especially in the late 80's/ early 90's and know a past member well and used to hang around with the current bass player way way back (he probably wouldn't recognise me now) and over 20 years later got to see them last week and they absolutely destroyed even though the band are in their 40's now.

Have a couple of vids:

Early days around 1990:


and a few years back:


From their latest 2009 release:


Despite that early vid with vocalist Lee Dorrian sounding like a demented pig, you can hear how influential they were in extreme Metal and the latest vid with Barney's stupendous voice proving that they can still blow you away.

Fans?

I have to admit they are one of those seminal bands that I've never gotten around to checking out despite being a grindcore fan. What album do you think is their best?

Scum is seminal in terms of influence but From Enslavement To Obliteration or Smear Campaign are probably their best.

I'll definitely check those out. Thanks!

I've been trying to find some of their old demos.

So far I've only found Hatred Surge from 1985.

I'm not a HUGE fan of their first two albums, not being a huge hardcore fan I guess. But their later death metal work is some of the best death metal I've heard. Harmony Corruption and Utopia Banished are just about the most perfect combination of hardcore, grindcore, and death metal that I've ever heard and Barney's vocals are just too awesome.

1990 is the early days?

anyways, that aside...

One of the very first albums I got on cassette that got me into Metal:
http://image.kazaa.com/images/53/745..._Despair_3.jpg

i was a fan from early on but found their discography daunting later, but i'm slowly returning to them and might eventually obtain their entire discog

i have Scum, From Enslavement to Obliteration, Harmony Corruption (which i discovered on my own) and Time Waits for No Slave (mostly cos of the thread-starter's rec)

Hmm. I've the first two and I've heard bits of their mid 90s work, and when Napalm are on they're great, but I never considered them to be very consistent. Never had anything by them I could just put on and let play for the length of the album; always had to do lots of track skipping.

Casual fans would just be better off getting the "Noise for Music's Sake" comp.

But you are correct, when they are on they are on... when they are off they are really off.