- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Grindcore / Death metal
- Label: Century Media
- Release date: 27 February 2012
Fourteenth studio album, sixteen tracks, and still no sign of a band going through the motions. Utilitarian was produced by Russ Russell, and it is ugly in exactly the right ways: blasting, lurching, then suddenly opening up into something you didn’t expect from a grind institution.
The headline moment is “Everyday Pox”, where John Zorn turns up on saxophone and the whole thing collapses into free-jazz squall. It’s less of a gimmick than it sounds, because Napalm Death have always had a noise-rock streak, and here it finally gets a proper outlet. Elsewhere “Errors in the Signals” and “Analysis Paralysis” are as tight and angry as anything Barney Greenway has barked over in the last two decades, and “Quarantined” is a reminder of how heavy this band can be at mid-pace.
Frode Sylthe’s artwork fits the mood: cold, collective, faintly nightmarish. This deep into their career, they still sound like they have something to prove.
Best tracks:
Errors in the Signals
Everyday Pox
Analysis Paralysis
Quarantined
Author’s rating: 8.6/10
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