NAPALM DEATH
Leaders Not Followers (Dream Catcher)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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Easily the most misunderstood group in recent memory, Napalm Death have been called a lot of things: "the end of music as we know it," metallic hardcore, grindcore, earthquake thrash, and perhaps the most one-dimensional insult: death metal. While grindcore is a genre they helped give birth to, it's not even close to being the be-all end-all to their long career.

With recent stabs at melody, and interspersed bits of "clean," growl-free vocalizing, they seem more like an angry Sonic Youth than a band who once toured with Obituary. Now they've jumped ship. Left the label they helped spawn (Earache), and gone to an entirely different imprint, one that doesn't even have a web-site, much less a sizeable catalog of artists either made up of members of Napalm Death (Godflesh, Terrorizer, Cathedral, Meathook Seed, Extreme Noise Terror, Scorn, Carcass, Painkiller, Blood From the Soul, and Unseen Terror to name a few), much less bands who out and out imitate them (Brutal Truth). With this clean slate comes an EP's worth of cover songs. No, they've unfortunately left off Siege, Rudimentary Peni, Confuse, and Discharge, a few of their more obvious influences. Instead they opt for tracks by two virtually unknown bands, one painfully obscure group, one of the biggest punk bands around, and a straight-up death-metal band (the appropriately christened Death). Napalm's show-closer, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off," by the Dead Kennedies, was herein re-recorded, but originally found its way onto the Virus 100 D.K. tribute CD, and an EP (the proceeds of which were donated entirely to anti-fascist organizations).

What is interesting to note is the fact that while it is very well-known that everyone in the band met through being avid tape traders (a very underground arena where bands covered on "Leaders…" like Raw Power and Repulsion were celebrities), few are aware that several of its current and founding members ran fanzines. Instead of burning upside-down crosses into their skulls, or abusing small animals like Glen Benton of Deicide (a noted death-metal band, with album titles like Once Upon the Cross), the members of Napalm Death spend their spare time collecting science fiction knick knacks and writing for rock mags. Leaders Not Followers is an interesting stop-gap for a band who have picked up where the Swans left off. Unpredictable, and impossible to classify. Strongly recommended. (napalmdeath.com or geocities.com/Area51/Zone/2453/frame2.html)

© 2000 - Jason Thornberry