Napalm Death
Leaders not Followers 2 (2004)

review by: Jason Thornberry
Date: 11/15/02

Albums by established groups chock full of cover songs are a dime a dozen, and there are a billion bands intent on foisting their favorite artists on you. From Metallica, to Eric Clapton, to Dwight Yoakam, Richie Stevens, and Cat Power, artists have strip-mined their record collections, and though the occasional intention is to explain where they've derived their influences, the term "stop-gap" usually comes to mind instead. It's as though some will do almost anything to remain in the public consciousness, weighing their own work against performers no nearer to stardom through this association (see Metallica).

So when Napalm Death brought out their first edition of Leaders Not Followers in 2000, it would have been to be suspicious of their motivation. The aim, however, was to be educational, not to revel in monetary exploitation/grave robbing. Napalm's collective knowledge of these groups, some of whom are quite obscure, helped shed light on their careers. This even, in one case, propagated the release of an entire disc worth of demo tracks from Michigan's Repultion, featured on their first installment. The roots of that six song release have blossomed into Part 2, which, at nineteen tracks finishes the argument that their vortex of dissonance had to originate somewhere. And while many will claim them for the "metal" camp, the Crasstifarian mood of their early years is felt when they tackle the songs of Discharge and Anti Cimex. They move on through numbers by Agnostic Front, Siege, Die Kruezen, and Attitude Adjustment, as well as a few more metal/speedcore hits by Cryptic Slaughter, Master and Sepultura, but the idea is to show how each group helped forge Napalm Death's sound and attitude.

And Napalm borrow from all of them, but they have advanced too, obviously. They have added their own signature quirks, while inventing an entirely new genre from piles of nearly-forgotten demos, rehearsal tapes, and albums that never saw proper release. Fast forward to now and Napalm Death's songwriting has moved beyond extremes heretofore unforeseen anywhere in guitar-based music. Leaders Not Followers 2 is a fresh start, a turning of the page, for a band who, two decades in, still have more to add.

Napalm Death
Leaders not Followers (2000)

review by: Jason Thornberry
Date: 1/28/02

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 who 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 Kennedy’s, 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 it’s 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.

Napalm Death
Words From the Exit Wound (1998)

review by: Jason Thornberry
Date: 12/21/01

On this CD, The End Of Music As We Know It weigh the new option of going more toward their progressive "angry Sonic Youth" tag, or continue to defy the expectations of the short-sighted 'scene police', who take themselves too seriously anyway, and dismissed their 1990 flirtation with death metal on "Harmony Corruption" as a complete conversion. You won’t find the strange, de-tuned Thurston Moore-isms prevalent throughout "Diatribes", but you will find a heavier slant toward more-is-more vocal stylings. Major over-dubs, doubling, and lots of distorted "speaking" parts. Napalm have cut short on Barney Greenway’s trademark animal growl, and added some very clean uh, singing on a few tracks. Will their recent stabs at melody mean a more "public acceptance ready" Napalm Death? Doubtful. They still generally make so-called "extreme acts" sound like Elton John. A great album. As usual.