Extreme metal royalty in their own right, the twenty five year and counting career of Napalm Death has been astonishingly consistent. With such genre defining releases as 'Scum' and 'Fear, Emptiness, Despair' shaping what we will come to know as grindcore, the bands fearsome, blugeoning wall of noise sound may have remained unrelentingly vicious, yet it is mabye for this reason that it is easy to forget that the Birmingham quartet have always found room to embrace the leftfield. This is no more apparent than on the bands quite exceptional fifteenth effort 'Utilitarian'. What is so remarkable here is how Napalm Death are continuing to redefine what can be perceived as 'extreme'. Of course, the album contains a glut of the trademark bile spitting intensity, such as the ravenous 'Errors In The Signals' and some skin flaying riff work of 'Quaranteen' or 'Orders Of Magnitude's punkish snarl. There is certainly no lack of the sonic violence that the band has always served up so vehemently, indeed at points they sound more irate than ever.
01 Circumspect 02 Errors In The Signals 03 Everyday Pox 04 Protection Racket 05 The Wolf I Feed 06 Quarantined 07 Fall On Their Swords 08 Collision Course 09 Orders Of Magnitude 10 Think Tank Trials 11 Blank Look About Face 12 Leper Colony
13 Nom De Guerre 14 Analysis Paralysis 15 Opposites Repellent 16 A Gag Reflex