Napalm Death - Utilitarian

 Napalm Death’s fourteenth LP Utilitarian is probably the record that many fans were waiting for. Utilitarian is a grindcore record through and through. For album after album Napalm Death played death metal with little or no punk elements. They were making good records, yes, but everyone was still asking: “Where did the grind go?” Well, it’s back.

Utilitarian plays faster and more furious than any ND album of late, and it does it with the best song-writing the band has achieved recently too. Don’t expect Scum, but expect an extremely heavy grind attack played by some very experienced old boys. Vocals are spot on, showing one of the widest ranges of different types of screams in any metal band around these days. The madness of oldschool Napalm Death is of course gone, with the savagery of the early days traded for a more level-headed, serious delivery that they have achieved over the course of their death metal work. The raw production is also of course gone as metal is a big business now and all that. But even the most crystalline production could’t hide the harsh edge of these riffs. Structure and song-writing is immaculate. Utilitarian should be textbook on how to write a grind album well. It all works perfectly and never becomes boring or repetitive. In fact, like on all my favorite grind records, there is a commendable amount of variation. Utilitarian sports thrashy Nasum breakdowns, doomish segways and choral vocals. This is probably my third or fourth favorite ND album now. There is nothing more to say, except perhaps that the cover is classic Napalm! You know what to expect now. Get it if you haven’t already.

In short: Napalm Death fuse elements of their past albums with their early sound and decades of experience to bring one of the best albums to the table. Perhaps what it would be like if Nasum had played Scum.

Standout tracks: “The Wolf I Feed”, “Collision Course”

Score: 9.0