Search - Napalm Death :: Complete BBC Sessions

Napalm Death - 'Complete Radio On Sessions,BBC' (Varese)

Mike Reed | USA | 06/22/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Personally,I liked their 'Bootlegged In Japan' CD better(see my review).But don't get me wrong,if you're a long-time Napalm fan,then you should get a lot from this sixteen track BBC compilation.If anything,it features a great song selection/mix of material from the band's entire back catalog.Just good grindcore for thrashers to thoroughly enjoy. Few of the cuts that I took a liking to were "The Kill / Prison Without Walls", "Moral Crusade / Worlds Apart" and "From Enslavement To Obliteration". A decent pick."

Incongruous but essential collection of BBC recordings

Jeremy Ulrey | Austin, TX | 02/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Already released once as "The Peel Sessions", four more tracks recorded in 1996 for the BBC Friday Rock Show have been tacked on as an added enticement. The primary raison d'etre of this package seems to be to give American fans a chance to pick up this material; the "Peel" disc was in fact an import, and even at it's moderate price was scarce in the US. That being said, there's little incentive for owners of that CD to pick up this new release. The artwork is as atrocious as that on it's foreign counterpart, and the vocals on the songs from '96 are mixed way back in the cheap seats. But fans discovering these versions for the first time will find a wealth of rage and hostility greeting them in the ultra-brief, ultra-violent forays into the band's early material. For those unfamiliar with the John Peel program, guests on the show are given four hours of studio time to lay down takes of however many songs they can manage in that time period. These restrictions don't allow the bands the luxury of editing or post-producing the output, so basically it's set the knobs on the control board and let `er rip. What comes out is a jaw dropping maelstrom of malcontent, rendered in brief, concentrated bursts (the echo following Napalm's performance of "You Suffer Part 2" actually lasts about four times longer than the song itself). Aside from the last four tracks, everything else is from those first three pre-death metal grindcore albums, resembling a musical train wreck witnessed from an uncomfortably close position. Napalm Death have now moved on to greener pastures while preserving their integrity, but "The Complete Radio One Session" reminds us of the energetic fury which once came ripping from a nation's loudspeakers, and on public radio, no less. Only in Jolly Old England."

Napalm Death - Their Greatest Album Ever Made!

Martin Thundercliffe | Carlisle, Cumbria, England | 11/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pure adrenalin throughout the whole listening of this album. The band initially advocated by John Peel in 1987 gets a complete album to itself of all the songs they recorded at BBC studios throughout the years. Despite all the changes in personnel the band have managed to retain their awesome credibiltity by recording some amazing tunes, my favourites including 'Scum' and 'My Own Worse Enemy'. This is a classic album of pure thrash metal that should be in every Napalm fan's collection."