- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Grindcore / Death metal
- Label: Century Media
- Release date: 23 January 2015
Thirty-four years into their career and Napalm Death still sound like they are angry about something specific. On Apex Predator – Easy Meat that something is modern slavery and the cheap goods it produces, and the record is built to make you uncomfortable before it makes you headbang.
The title track doesn’t start with a blast at all. It clanks and thuds like a factory floor, all metallic percussion and chanted vocals, and the effect is genuinely unsettling. From there it’s the familiar machine at full power: “Smash a Single Digit” is over in well under two minutes, “Metaphorically Screw You” is pure hardcore spite, and “How the Years Condemn” is the one that sticks in your head afterwards. The stranger, more discordant material is the reason to keep coming back, and “Cesspits” in particular has a sickly, lurching groove that few grind bands would bother with.
The production is loud and raw, but the low end has real weight and Barney sounds as furious as he did in the nineties. There’s hardly a dead track among the fourteen. Few bands this old make records this alive.
Best tracks:
Apex Predator – Easy Meat
Smash a Single Digit
How the Years Condemn
Cesspits
Timeless Flogging
Author’s rating: 8.6/10
Gave it 5 stars
No member has given this album 5 stars yet. Join WeMetalheads and rate it.
