There isn’t a hint of doubt in my mind, that the insufferably cliche “…needs no introduction” line has been dropped in every other review of this album. So, let’s skip that part and get right into it.
Napalm Death are undoubtedly one of the more polarizing bands around and have been for decades now. Since dropping classics like Scum, From Enslavement to Obliteration and Harmony Corruption, they’ve slowly, but surely progressed outside of the Grindcore bubble and branched out into relatively uncharted territory for their ilk at the time, navigating through multiple different styles and continually adding elements of Death Metal (Fear, Emptiness, Despair), Noise Rock (Diatribes), Groove Metal (Breed to Breathe) and various other things to their harsh, grinding sound, that would remain at their core throughout. The 90s was an interesting time in the band’s storied history and I’ll admit that they’ve had their hits and misses in my book as well. The 2000s specifically, was their low point for me, with albums like The Code is Red… Long Live the Code and Smear Campaign, where they ventured further into the mainstream scene and really polished up their sound, which lead to some bangers of tracks, as well as some duds, across each album of that time span. They became quite a mixed bag at that point, which led to my interest in them to start waning for a while, but things picked back up with Apex Predator – Easy Meat, where they really went back to their roots and tapped back into that angry, snarly, pure, raw Grind side of them for the first time in a while, which I’d actually put in the same sonic category, as a lot of the modern Grindcore acts, like Insect Warfare, Wormrot, Brutal Truth and Cephalic Carnage and what they were doing at the time, almost like they finally adapted to that style, and decided to immerse themselves in it, while still keeping things fresh and adding in a few different elements into their sound along the way.
That album was a complete return to form that got me back into them, where they seemingly dropped most of the experimentation and decided to tackle the modern Grindcore sound full-on, but do so in such a way that didn’t stunt their growth as a band. That was a whopping five years ago at this point. How time flies! Now here we are in 2020, in those five years, whenever it came up in my mind, I was left to wonder whether or not ND would be able to top the madness that was Apex Predator, or was it just another mere experiment, to see if they can top the young whippersnappers of today, who were all the rage in the Grindcore scene. On top of that, my taste has shifted much farther into the underground, and Napalm Death at this point, aren’t exactly on the top of my list of new shit to check out. When I first heard that this album was coming out, it wasn’t so much excitement that I felt, but more “oh, cool, I’ll give that a listen when I feel like it.” So, I finally caved and decided to take a break from jamming out Raw Black Metal demos for a bit, and give this a listen, and I can honestly say, and I don’t use this phrase often, that I was pleasantly surprised. Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism may very well be Napalm Death’s most multi-faceted release yet, or at least in their modern era. It’s another serving of savage, ripping Grind, that the band has once again proven to be capable of belting out consistently, going into their fourth decade in existence now, that continues to shape itself from within, using more outer elements, that this time around, include a little bit of Industrial, Punk, Hardcore, some Swans-esque Noise Rock, little bit of Death Metal and various other elements sprinkled into this cacophonous ripper.
It starts off strong with Fuck the Factoid, which immediately comes slinging at you with blasting ferocity, like a slew of a knives being thrown at you; I almost didn’t recognize Barney Greenway’s voice, as he’s added a bit of a shrieking snarl to it, rather than the usual raspy growls we’re used to hearing from him. It sets the tone right with a slew of chaos and stays the course, blasting throughout it’s brief, but un-wasted length, as does Backlash Just Because, only with a nice breakdown towards the end; a nice little hint of Chaotic Hardcore shines through there. The Curse of Being in Thrall has a nice Thrashy flow to it, with a fast and razor-sharp delivery of riffs and hyper-aggressive kick-drumming, entwined with more blasting ferocity that relentlessly pummels you when it switches back from the Thrashy sections. Things are pretty straightforward so far, but the layers are slowly peeled back as it goes on. Case in point, things get groovy with Contagion, which has a bit of a Fear Factory vibe to it. The punching riffs and even the vocals reek of Demanufacture, at least in some parts, just with a Punky edge. Joie De Ne Pas Vivre is a straight Punk ripper, where Barney gets even shriekier, adding a bit of a Black Metal kind of feel to his voice. It’s overall flow and the quick, spastic guitars sound kind of like a cross between Disrupt and Destroy Erase Improve-era Meshuggah. Halfway through, and this album is already all over the place, but in a good way, the same way a band like Meshuggah, or some of the high octane Mathcore acts, like the Dillinger Escape Plan or Curl Up and Die were capable of pulling off in their heyday. I’m not saying this album has a hint of Mathcore in it, but they’d probably give it a go if they wanted to, and they’d probably be good at it.
This album is full of twists, turns and hard lefts, and goes in whatever direction it feels like, which represents the Napalm Death attitude very well. That becomes even more evident when Invigorating Clutch takes a hard left into Sludge territory, and things come to a sudden slow-down, and get Doomy. By this point, the Grindcore rule book gets thrown straight into the trash (which Napalm Death have already done years ago) and this is the track that’ll really piss off all the purists. This is still very much a Grind album at it’s core, which rears its ugly head again in the following tracks, like Zero Gravitas Chamber and the title track, which has my favorite intro on the entire album, where Barney screams his lungs out into the microphone for a good minute, until the rest of the band starts throwing down again, with more of those spastic, off-kilter riffs and relentless blasts. Nastiest fucking track on the album! Acting in Gouged Faith and Feral Carve-Up are also pure, no-bullshit grinders. The two tracks that go the farthest outside the box, at least to me, are Amoral, which has a weird, but enticing Alternative/New Wave type sound, that I’ve seen get compared to Killing Joke, who I haven’t listened to much of, so I’ll take as a valid comparison. A rather simplistic, easy to digest track, with a catchy main riff and chorus to it. Then there’s closer (unless you listen to the bonus tracks version with the two covers), A Bellyful of Salt and Spleen; a slow, harrowing droner of a track, with hints of Doom and Industrial, that drones on for nearly five minutes, with only a steady, patterned rhythm and Greenway’s despondent clean, crooning vocals droning through it. It’s not my favorite track of the bunch, but it does end things on a bleak, uncertain note, which is very fitting to the uncertain times we’re living in.
I can’t exactly call this a “return to form”, because Napalm Death never really had a definitive form or style that they stuck their name to. I had my doubts about this one, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was this album a swift slap in the head, to remind me of how great these guys really are and how consistent they remain at belting out some of the hardest Grind in the game, but it’s their most versatile and proficient outing to date, that further proves that Napalm Death isn’t just a one-trick pony, who should stick to their 80s Punk ethos. Napalm Death is a band who are gonna play whatever the fuck they want and this album is another big “fuck you” to the detractors and purists who scoff at anything beyond Utopia Banished. You can call it “progressive” if you want, “experimental” or even “avant garde”, but ND have always been one of the most transcendent bands of their ilk and continue to belt out the most brutally honest, abrasive and passionate extreme music out there, despite their mainstream status, where most bands dumb it down; a true rebellion if there ever was one. Their classics will always be the most iconic and essential to Grindcore altogether, but Napalm Death in the current day are an entirely different beast, that continues to transcend it’s roots and creating it’s own lineage. Throes of Joy is just the latest step in the evolution. A stellar piece of extreme music for these trying times.
Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is available through Century Media Records.
Thy Kingdom Scvm 