Napalm Death
Death By Manipulation
Earache/Relativity, 1991
 

Death By Manipulation is a compilation of material from Napalm Death. The last half of this compilation is made up of the Mentally Murdered EP and features original vocalist Lee Dorrian and guitarist Bill Steer, both of whom would leave Napalm Death, with Dorrian going on to form Cathedral ( going from fronting the "fastest band in the world" to the slowest) and Steer leaving to form Carcass.

The first half  is made up of the Mass Appeal Madness EP and Harmony Corruption album, featuring Mark "Barney" Greenway on vocals and new guitarists Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris, along with original drummer Mick "Human Tornado" Harris and bassist Shane Embury. This material took on a slightly more death metal structure while still maintaining the grindcore approach, with Greenway's delivery only slightly more intelligible than Dorrian and no less monstrous. A clearer production makes these songs easier to digest.

This compilation effectively showcases the band's past incarnation in contrast to its newer makeup, and serves as an accurate example of the band's earlier work for those who caught on with the band further down the line.

2000

Tracklisting

1. Mass Appeal Madness
2. Pride Assassin
3. Unchallenged Hate
4. Social Sterility
5. Suffer The Children
6. Seige Of Power
7. Harmony Corruption
8. Rise Above
9. The Missing Link
10. Mentally Murdered
11. Walls Of Confinement
12. Cause & Effect
13. No Mental Effort
 

Napalm Death
Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Earache/Columbia, 1994

 Fear, Emptiness, Despair saw the grindcore pioneers maintain the aggression of past works while simultaneously adding some new dimensions to their sound.

While still churning out their trademark blasting grindcore mayhem, it no longer serves as the foundation to the songs. Rather, the blasts are utilized as intensity enhancers, relegated to certain sections of songs. Examples of this approach are best featured in "Hung" and "Plague Rages". Only "Throwaway" features the blast-beat grindcore as a foundation, and even this track is broken up with mid-paced moments. There is more experimentation with varied tempo and rhythm structures which, up until this album, had never been flirted with to this extent. Drummer Danny Herrera makes this possible, for not only is he faster than original kitbasher, Mick Harris (who was nicknamed Human Tornado because of his inhuman speed), but he is also not as strict a player, much more efficient at hammering out varied rhythm patterns that opens the door for Napalm to explore new formations and avenues of extremity. And for those who believe that the blast is the only true extreme, witness Herrera's relentless performance in album highlight "State Of Mind" for dizzying percussive nirvana.

The guitar team of Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris come up with some menacing riffs, some of which embody the element of fear itself, the sound of something dreadful approaching with the intent to leave behind nothing but total and complete destruction. These riffs are utter chaos, and their usage of feedback/distortion as another form of intensity brings another dimension to the sound of Napalm. Barney Greenway's vocals remain as malevolent as ever, at times breaking things up with effect-ridden spoken sections and banshee screams from the depths of hell. His lyrics deal with the usual issues of social decay and political injustice, and every word is barked out as angry as anyone could possibly imagine.

While some fans of the band's earlier works may have jumped ship by now, Napalm Death are every bit as extreme, if not more so, than they have ever been. The affiliation with Columbia did nothing to temper the band's approach, although the band did receive critical acclaim from beyond the metal underground, due in small part to the inclusion of "Twist the Knife (Slowly)" on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. This is probably the closest the band have ever come to reaching mainstream audiences, as those who praised acts like Pantera, Sepultura and Fear Factory were more likely to be exposed to the extreme sounds of Naplam Death during this time than any other. While Naplam may no longer hold the title of the world's fastest band, they no doubt maintain the ferocious intensity they helped pioneer.

2000

Tracklisting

1. Twist The Knife (Slowly)
2. Hung
3. Remain Nameless
4. Plague Rages
5. More Than Meets The Eye
6. Primed Time
7. State Of Mind
8. Armageddon x7
9. Retching On The Dirt
10. Fasting On Deception
11. Throwaway

Napalm Death Homepage

Napalm Death Discography

Scum (Earache, 1987)
From Enslavement To Obliteration (Earache, 1987)
Rise Above live 7" EP (Rise Above, 1989)
Mentally Murdered EP (Earache, 1989)
Peel Sessions EP (Strange Fruit, 1989)
Harmony Corruption (Earache, 1990)
Death By Manipulation compilation (Earache, 1992)
Utopia Banished (Earache, 1992)
The World Keeps Turning EP (Earache, 1992)
Nazi Punks Fuck Off 7" EP (Earache, 1993)
Live Corruption live cd (Earache, 1993)
Fear, Emptiness, Despair (Earache/Columbia, 1994)
Hung 7" EP (Earache, 1994)
Greed Killing EP (Earache, 1996)
Diatribes (Earache, 1996)
In Tongues We Speak split EP with Coalesce (Earache, 1997)
Inside The Torn Apart (Earache, 1997)
Bootlegged In Japan live cd (Earache, 1998)
Words From The Exit Wound (Earache, 1998)
Leaders Not Followers EP (Dreamcatcher, 1999)
Enemy Of The Music Business (Dreamcatcher/Spitfire, 2001)
Order Of The Leech (Spitfire, 2002)
Noise For Music's Sake (Earache, 2003)
Punishment In Capitals (Feto/Snapper, 2004)
Leaders Not Followers Pt. 2 (Century Media, 2004)
The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code (Century Media, 2005)