Napalm Death - Utilitarian

Published March 15 2012

*=Staff's pick	Circumspect Errors In The Signals* Everyday Pox* Protection Racket The Wolf I Feed* Quarantined Fall On Their Swords Collision Course* Orders Of Magnitude Think Tank Trials Blank Look About Face Leper Colony Nom De Guerre Analysis Paralysis Opposites Repellent A Gag Reflex*

Genre	Grindcore/Death Metal	Mark "Barney" Greenway	Vocals
Tracks	16	Mitch Harris	Guitar
Running time	46 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Shane Embury	Bass
Release	27 February 2012	Danny Herrera	Drums
Country	England	-	Keyboard
Producer	Russ Russell
Similar artists	---

With an impressive duration for a band in the more extreme school of metal, and with a total of fourteen full-length albums in the bag, Napalm Death has nothing left to prove. And it shows, because on Utilitarian the band really is putting themselves out there with a production that has huge, if not epic proportions. Just listen to the sound of Danny Herrera's drums on opener Circumspect - a song that is well, not typical for the band.

Errors In The Signals shows that the band hasn't deserted the modus operandi of ages past - putting their entire weight on the acceleration-pedal and not taking it off until they have presented us with insane sax-playing in Everyday Pox, solid hard-hitting rage in Protection Racket and a furious diatribe in The Wolf I Feed. The latter offers nice "singing" from both Harris and Greenway, with Harris's more shrieking qualities and Barney's growling showcased beautifully.

Napalm Death doesn't convince me through and through with this album. Within songs like Fall On Their Swords that at first doesn't impress but has a nice chaotic ending, and Quarantined, that has one of the weakest choruses I've heard in a long time from the band, I feel that Napalm Death aren't delivering all the way.

I can't help but to think that the band really should have skipped a few songs, particularly those at the end of Utilitarian at which point I every time have ceased to listen actively. And Napalm Death is one of my favorite bands out there. At the same time there is brilliance and a rage that at times really comes through. Barney Greenway is very, very angry about the state of things and has taken the chance to write lyrics that make Utilitarian one of the most political albums the band has put out.

There is, despite my objections, enough of totally great music on Utilitarian. Not as great as on Time Waits For No Slave - but at times Utilitarian gets pretty close.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	6	6	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Martin