Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Napalm Death
Label: Century Media
Release: 2009
Length: 50:13
Rating: 4/5
Remember the Road Runner cartoon and the poor (hapless) coyote who keeps ending up with a piano on his head, whistles off a cliff more times than you can count, and gets blown up in a thousand and one ways… Well, that’s exactly the effect the fathers of grindcore, Napalm Death, have on the listener. In 1969, metal was born in Birmingham with Black Sabbath, and in the years that followed it spawned ever more extreme bastards, until 12 years later the same city spat out Napalm Death. Influenced by hardcore, metal and above all the post-punk of Swans, the Brits invented an unbelievably aggressive and brutal kind of music that got labeled grind. With their first record, Scum, they wrote the opening chapter of music history, and with the track You Suffer from that album they even made it into the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest song of all time (You Suffer is exactly 1.316 seconds long).
It’s been 27 years since the band formed, there isn’t a single original member left, and the legendary grind four-piece has just dropped their 13th studio album (not counting the covers record Leaders Not Followers Pt.2), Time Waits For No Slave. Remember that first sentence? Because the opening track, Strong-Arm, leaves exactly that effect: it’s like a ton of bricks dropped on you while someone shoves a lit firecracker into your ears. After a quarter of a century, Napalm Death still know how to write a killer, brutal, aggressive track. In that sense you could say the guys are looking back to the days of Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration, only with far better production and far superior technical chops. True grinders will fear that like a black metaller fears the cross, but Time Waits For no Slave is probably the band’s best album since the classic Harmony Corruption. TWFNS shares that album’s dark atmosphere too, and tracks like Diktat feel like organized chaos. The band members put in a dazzling performance, whether it’s Danny Herrera’s superb drumming, which outdoes even himself, or Shane Embury’s insane bass work. Barney proves he’s getting better and better as a vocalist, and on this album he literally coughs up and screams out his lungs and vocal cords. Perfect for his socially critical lyrics! Even though there are a few vocal “layers” and “overdubs” here and there, Barney still sounds like a rabid dog, and his snarling would put the fear of God into Satan himself. Guitarist Mitch Harris matches the bass brilliantly and serves up some excellent riffs that keep the Napalm Death “trademark” while adding a more technical, or experimental if you like, touch. Mitch also helps Barney out with some sick shrieking, which creates a dynamic balance between deep growls and higher screams.
With Time Waits For No Slave, Napalm Death have delivered one of the best releases of the year so far, one that will no doubt rank high at the end of the year too. After all this time, the legendary fathers of grind still sound fresh and punchy, and even though they sound quite different today than in the days of Scum, with the new record they’ve left the average releases of the nineties behind and are back on track and in top gear!
Lineup
Mark “Barney” Greenway – vocals
Mitch Harris – guitar, backing vocals
Shane Embury – bass
Danny Herrera – drums
Production
Russ Russel and Napalm Death
Tracklist
1.Strongarm
2.Diktat
3.Work to Rule
4.On the Brink of Extinction
5.Time Waits for No Slave
6.Life and Limb
7.Downbeat Clique
8.Fallacy Dominion
9.Passive Tense
10.Laurency of the Heart
11.Procrastination of the Empty Vessel
12.Feeling Redundant
13.A No-sided Argument
14.De-evolution Ad Nauseum
