- Country: UK
- Style: Grindcore / Death metal
- Label: Century Media
- Release date: 18 September 2020
Sixteen studio albums in, Napalm Death still sound like they are trying to break something. Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism opens with “Fuck the Factoid” and “Backlash Just Because”, two short, vicious blasts that do the job any grind fan expects.
What makes the album stand out is everything around the blasting. “Amoral” is a mid-paced, toned-down number that owes more to Killing Joke than to Repulsion, and “Contagion” is relentless, clattering fury. Then “A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen” closes the record with a slow, bleak industrial groove that has very little to do with grindcore and is all the better for it.
None of this feels like a band chasing a new audience. It feels like veterans who still listen to strange records and drag the best ideas back into the grind. Furious, smart, and a lot more varied than it has any right to be.
Best tracks:
Backlash Just Because
Contagion
Amoral
Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen
Author’s rating: 8.9/10
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