Napalm Death

”˜Carnage’ is a much-abused word when describing a metal album, but it was precisely bands like Napalm Death that prompted the description. How else would you represent a sound that merges the heaviest elements of death metal with the spitfire anarchy of crust punk and that borrows influences from every known genre of extreme metal? Twenty seven years after they gave the world grindcore, Napalm Death continues to push the boundaries of the genre and Time Waits For No Slave is another step in that direction. ”˜Strong-arm’ opens proceedings with Barney Greenway’s trademark guttural growl and banshee screech leading the fearsome foursome through their paces. The band revisits its crust-punk origins with ”˜Diktat’ while ”˜Work to Rule’ rides through a series of breakdowns before abruptly breaking into a black-metal midsection ”“ a clear demonstration that Napalm Death is not constrained by the limitations of its genre. The experimentation continues on ”˜Fallacy Domination’ and ”˜Life and Limb,’ where keen listeners will spot various hidden melodies running under the brutality, like the sung vocal parts on each track. Add to that the thrash-metal sound of ”˜Feeling Redundant’ and you have a package metal album of sorts. Mitch Harris’ insanely overdriven guitars are a perfect counterpoint to the bludgeoning consistency of Danny Herrera’s drum work. And Shane Embury is still the backbone of the band’s sound; his menacing basslines lend a decidedly apocalyptic feel to the tracks. Time Waits is Napalm Death most subtly experimental album yet, combining their unchanged core sound that fans have grown to love with elements that will make the album more accessible to new listeners. The apocalypse has never sounded better.