Sheesh! What to say about Napalm Death? Pioneers and torch bearers of grindcore and one of the cornerstones of British metal, Napalm Death are back and have come back hard with Apex Predator-Easy Meat. This album is quite the mature release, mixing visceral and in your face metal, with moody atmospheric moments giving it an experimental vibe. The opener and title track, Apex Predator-Easy Meat, starts with a low pitched echoing spoken word which has an evil, almost demonic timbre. From here, a metallic sounding snare clatters before the spoken word becomes distorted and sounds almost like a Dalek. The overall effect is a tense and unsettling intro track that draws you in before Smash a Single Digit tears you apart with some classic grindcore stylings.
The heavy stylings continue through Metaphorically Screw You and into How The Years Condemn, which was the second single to be released from this album. The track starts off in a somewhat unassuming manner, a drum roll and a very punky beat carries the listener through the intro, in a head nodding fashion. But, once the vocals and guitar work crashes in, this song quickly becomes one of the heaviest on the album. The riffing has a thrash quality and certainly puts the big four to shame-not that I have much love for them anyway-but while they insist on being the poster bands, I'll insist on tearing them down. The emotion in the vocals is raw and edgy and rightly so! Lyrically, this song comes from a very personal place and discusses how the years of touring, or hedonistic "rockstar" abuse can condemn your body or friendships. It is about recognising that, the frustration and making a choice to combat it.
The face rending tornado continues with Stubborn Stains and Timeless Flogging. However, Dear Slum Landlord.... brings the album back to an experimental plane. It is a more down tempo track, at least when placed next to the breakneck offerings that bookend it. The demonic/chant timbre is back, giving this track an otherwordly quality that compliments the doom-esque groove and overly distorted drums fantastically; this track drips with an ominous threat. Cesspits, which comes after it (and was the first single) takes all that built up threat and turns it into a monster. The spoken word timbre makes brief entrances into the song and makes it sound as if vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway is coming apart from the sheer effort of spitting out those lines. The rest of the song is just as shattering, a relentless whirl of noise and aggression that Napalm Death have become known for.
The band then shred through Bloodless Coup, Beyond the Pale and Stunt Your Growth, which sounds like it may be a floor filler. Eventually though we hit Heirarchies, with big chunky groove laden riffs and a continued use of chants, this feels like Napalm pushing into the now popular doom/sludge genre once again. It even contains a small whirling solo. Of course that is not to say that all of this is delivered in a way that does not feel "true" to the band. It is still as aggressive as Napalm usually are, it is still grimy and with many balls placed on various walls, this song will tear through many speakers with improper usage!
A small jaunt through One-Eyed, takes us to the final and longest song on the album. Adversarial/Copulating Snakes glues the two sides of this album together; with a blistering fast grindcore track gets slowed down half way through and once again becomes a big riff track, with an errie spoken word accompaniment and the song grooves away to a white noise fade out, leaving in just as much of an unsettling way as it came in.
Ok, so to summarise, I like this album. It is one I do not regret purchasing and I feel I will grow into it well. Sure, as usual, this comes with the cavet that this is not metal for everyone but Napalm Death never have been and never will be. However, no one can dispute the enormity of this album, it is a huge statement that can be heard loud and clear. This may go down as one of my favourite Napalm Death releases.
Article by: Gary Lee (@thewheelbear)
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