Friday, September 30, 2011

inner incineration

The early 90's was certainly death metal's heyday and a time when a lot of bigger grindcore bands experimented with the genre. Of these cases, probably the most notable was the early(ish) years of Napalm Death. Ask a lot of people today and they'll tell you that some of the best Napalm Death stuff is when they were playing with the style. I'll quickly argue that point though, you can never go past the grinding perfection of "From Enslavement To Obliteration". Anyway, this is their third full length from 1990, "Harmony Corruption". Earache Records #19. Original pressing on black wax that I recently acquired at the same time as winning the Left Hand Path LP.
With my previous argument in mind, I still do enjoy this album, even if the a-typical, muddy, thick Scott Burns death metal production fucks with the real quality of it. Apart from a few of the obvious stalwarts, I really don't think that the American Death metal sound is that good, and it's a widely known fact that this album was obviously more of a step sideways than forward for the English troupe at this stage. They further experimented with this sound for a few more years, and then tread the waters of a slightly more radio friendly approach, before returning to the traditional grind sound. The last two albums are good examples of this, fantastic.
This LP marked the debut of now long running vocalist Mr. Mark Greenway, who's style at this stage in 2011 is certainly the iconic Napalm Death sound. It's like pizza and pepsi; you don't do one without the other, ever.

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