Search - Napalm Death :: Utopia Banished (Bonus Dvd)

High level intensity.

Puzzle box | Kuwait | 07/14/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Utopia Banished has got to be one of the best Napalm Death albums ever. This in my honest opinion was when they were at their peak, just a great fast paced hardcore punk influenced death metal and grindcore album. Every aspect of Napalm Death is still intact; the fast grinding guitars, the inhuman quickness of the drums and Barney Greenways unmistakable roar (I love it when he says I ABSTAAAAAAAIN!!!!!). The album is uncompromising in its brutal heaviness. The lyrics are brilliant as always, dealing with social political issues which the music matches to a T. There is also a vast improvement here, for example "the world keeps turning" has a good chugging metal groove which takes hold immediately which makes it one of my favorite ND songs along with "suffer the children" and "Plague rages". "The World Keeps Turning" is the first single from the album and it's great. Nothing but hardcore-like thrashing skank beats mixed in with grind core blast beats and some serious death metal overtones. "Cause And Effect (Part II)" is one of the better examples of death metal-influenced grind core. "Distorting The Medium" has one of the better stat/stop intros and is quite unique. "Got Time To Kill" could have been "Dementia Access" part 2 for the most part with guitarist Mitch Harris' insane shrieks. "Awake(To A Life of Misery)" is total double-bass and blast beats and then what is probably the best song on the entire album is "Contemptuous". With samples from the movie "Full Metal Jacket" The rest of the album is as brilliant especially "christening the blind" which was my second favorite song, the power groove takes hold from first cut to last and listening to this album is like being punched in the face with a knuckle buster. "Utopia Banished" is without a doubt faster and most extreme version of what "Harmony Corruption" could have been, but instead they took one step forward. The album is a total of 15 songs of pure death metal-influenced grind core in the fact that it's more extreme than death metal, but too well-produced and too well-played for most grind core bands to even attempt at playing. If you can imagine a hundred Tasmanian devils running around in a whirlwind of destroying everything in it's path, total manic brilliance. Here we have a re-packaging of this classic album which saw the Brum moshers in typically brutal form. Perhaps of more interest to established fans, though is a most comprehensive and impressive accompanying DVD, which includes (deep breath!) five promo clips, two complete concerts from their earlier years in the late 80's and early 90's, and two tracks from the BBC Arena Heavy Metal Special, one of the aforementioned TV appearances which helped bring them into the public consciousness. This cd/dvd is just to awesome to pass up and is an essential album for grindcore and death metal fans, SO WHAT THE F&*^ ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?, GET THIS ALBUM NOW!.

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