Later Napalm Death may well be more fun to listen to, but in terms of purity and meaning, Scum and From Enslavement To Obliteration are classics and deserve a place in every Grindster's collection – hell, every Extreme music fan’s collection.Napalm Death's second full effort, From Enslavement to Obliteration in ways put the seal on what the band had done, with most of its members going off to pursue their own individual efforts soon thereafter, and as such is the perfect complement to Scum, showing the quartet both straining at the bit and honing its original approach to a T. Extreme Metal is an odd beast at the best of times, and tracing its evolution is extremely difficult, but it’s definite that it wouldn’t exist at all as we know it were it not for Napalm Death’s ‘brand’ of light-speed music. Listening to FETO is as rewarding and engaging now as it must have been at the time, over twenty years ago. There’s not really a great deal more that can be said. And it’s hard to argue after a listen to FETO, whoever you are, although Grindcore types like me will hold this album in great esteem for its place in the genre's history, for whilst Scum was the father of the genre, FETO is the first genuine album to deserve tagging with that label. Rather, the band are an icon of musical purity, standing as opposition to everything that music as an industry stands for. Cock-Rock Alienation is a scream of rage against the music industry – ‘making idols out of arseholes’ as the lyrics state – a theme that Napalm Death have often returned to, a statement of intent that sums up the band’s ethos and unwillingness to be pigeonholed into a by-product of Punk, where most mainstream types would rather Napalm Death as a name be shoved. Moments like the title track show the brutality of the Death Metal influences that would come to define the band on their third album, whilst the Hardcore Punk influences are toned down a lot, although not gone altogether – the likes of the intro section to Practise What You Preach show that the ‘core’s still present and correct.Īs good as Unchallenged Hate is, a build-up to utter Grindcore chaos that grips you in its catchy grasp and never lets go one track ultimately sums this band up, from the moment of FETO’s release to their current incarnation. There are even solos here and there, Uncertainty Blurs The Vision for one. The likes of Lucid Fairytale are as bilious and raging as anything on Scum, and after you’ve heard FETO (as fans dub it) a few times it’s obviously a more professional album, rather than the refined demo that Scum ultimately is. Looked at rationally, it’s a more laughable intro than Scum’s Multinational Corporations but also a more heartfelt one, opening an album that is much harder and darker than its predecessor. The various influences are more pronounced intro dirge Evolved As One could be a Godflesh demo, the pseudo-Industrial drums and wall-of-noise guitars an unholy anthem as Dorrian spews bile over the top. Of course, saying that one early Napalm Death album is ‘musically superior’ to another isn’t saying much, but it’s clear that the band have tightened up here. Temporarily lacking a guitarist, Bill Steer of friends Carcass provided the riffs on this album, and the resulting album is one that, if not surpassing its predecessor in terms of pure noise, is musically superior. Joining the band is its longest member to date, Shane Embury on bass, and who has since become the main songwriter and driving force of the band. Only two members remained in the band since the previous line-up, Lee Dorrian and Mick Harris on vocals and drums respectively. Whereas Scum was the sound of a young band making a racket for the sheer sake of it, noise for music’s sake, From Enslavement To Obliteration showed drive and progression, the start of the Death Metal influence that would drive the band completely in years to come, not to mention what is unarguably the greatest Grindcore song ever written, Unchallenged Hate. Although it tends to be overshadowed by Scum, Napalm Death’s follow up to that genre-defining album is just as deserving of attention.
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