Utopia Banished

Follow-up from the supremely monumental "Harmony Corruption" release, Napalm Death seemed to have a more polished production sound quality to this one, but fell a little bit short in the musical department. Since we're talking death metal/grindcore here, I'd say that this album was mostly a death metal type of release with grindcore mixed in with the music and the riffs were not as noteworthy as their predecessor. The music didn't stick as well, a combination of bar chord licks mixed in with heavily tremolo picking as they're so well known for, but this one kind of dragged on with nothing really flying in at a "utopian base."

With Mick no longer behind the set, Danny's 1st full-length attempt to match Mick fell somewhat short on the set. The music was to me B- material, nothing that Mitch and Jesse (RIP) could really come up with that really baffled me. Barney's vocal outputs also were a bit different, a sort of echo to his burley vox, they weren't as deep. That's why I don't like much of the more recent material since he doesn't have that same burley sound as he did on his debut. The nickname Barney doesn't fit to him anymore because of this reason and I think Napalm Death fans would have a similar opinion of his sound is especially in the more modern releases.

There were just a few leads, but well composed, however they've never really emphasized them mostly just rhythms. I think it's better that they don't since the grind is enough tremolo picking in itself you don't want to have the music muddled out with blast beats, tremolo pick, leads and vocals all at once. You do get some of this here, so it sounds more like just noise. If I really wanted true noise, I'd revert back to "Peel Sessions." In any case, the album had a big emphasis on lyrics, their anger and rage is brought on by the hatred regarding politics as well as other views, so yes, the aggression stood forth strongly and managed to be a decent listen to.

I would have to say that the music was the highest emphasis on the release and some of the riffs were really catchy. The production wasn't flanked with much reverb as it's previous and I think that it seemed to have a fresher sort of composition as opposed to a sort of "fuzzy" type of tracks. In that sense, this album is strong, though the last track should've been omitted. It didn't really suit the intro, kind of like it should have been. I'd say that it did fall short in that aspect, but there is so much good to say about the album despite its imperfections. I sort of lost interest in the newer material not only because Jesse and Mick aren't in the band anymore plus Barney is not sounding like himself anymore.

Despite what I threw out there as a follow up from the classic "Harmony Corruption", this one is good, but not nearly as good as that one. Just YouTube both albums and compare, you'll see that I'm not wrong in saying that "Harmony Corruption" way surpasses this one by a bunch. I sort of got the vibe that they went downhill from here and the earlier grind days with Mick in the band are a thing of a distant past. A tragedy to lose Jesse forever on 2nd guitar and that Mick going his own way and done with the band completely after "Harmony Corruption." So listen to both and I don't think I'm wrong in saying yes this one is good, but nothing outranks it's predecessor.

After releasing the now considered classic "From Enslavement to Obliteration", Napalm Death definitely showed a new style in music in which they obviously were so influenced by the rising Floridian death metal scene that they released "Harmony Corruption". Ditto on that one too. By that time Napalm Death were not only progressing as a band but starting to show that they can hang with the big boys in terms of spear-heading the extreme metal wave of the 90's and rightfully so. But along the way Napalm Death started to receive flak from their original fan base which consisted of mainly crust punks and hardcore punks that were fans of their original grind core sound. Unflinching from the flak, Napalm Death said to hell with those cries and went back in the following year and released a compilation called "Death By Manipulation" which showed an even more Floridian death metal influence than before, which sadly was whirlwind drummer Mick Harris's last output with the band due to musical differences and stress from the road. Napalm Death kept pushing forward and with their fourth album "Utopia Banished", they had started to show their weary eyes for all to see.

"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 and two steps back. 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, it does just that, but it does so in an unfocused way that the band threads on water that keeps it from reaching a certain level of kill ratio. The sound production is obviously much more clearer than on "Harmony Corruption" which was too bassy and thick. Here Napalm Death show a sound production that would actually be perfected with their next album "Fear, Emptiness, Despair". It's a distorted, static-like fuzziness that gives the album a more industrial overtone much like "Fear, Emptiness, Despair" but not as depressing or bleak sounding.

Majority of the songs presented on "Utopia Banished" are sadly filler. I mean, a lot of them run back-to-back at a speed to where it blurs to the point of stupidity. Songs like "Idiosyncratic", "Aryanisms", "Judicial Slime", "Upward and Uninterested" just sound like one long grind fest. I am not doubting these songs and calling them bad or horrible by any means, I mean some of the riffs are great and seeing how far the brummies have progressed is great, but it's too many ideas being thrown around and too fast for the sake of speed and extremeness. Then there are songs which by themselves have their own identities and completely stand-out amongst the blast beats and growls; "Discordance" opens the album up with nothing but noise, pulsing distorted arpeggios and industrial-like samples which reminds us how dark the world can really be at times. "I Abstain" is a song that has more tempo changes and drum rolls than the entire album put together. "Dementia Access" has a scream that still commands me to completely wreck everything around me. "The World Keeps Turning" is the 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 a breath of fresh air amongst the filler songs surrounding it. "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 song is total Godflesh/Swans worship and is an extremely agitated doom and dread-filled song. The lyrics is five or so lines that perfectly sums up how depressing life can be at times; "Sadness, despair/Sometimes the things I cherish, sometimes that all I've got/And that's enough/Bitterness, anger/Man made torture, not to be shared."

It's obvious the album is the source of great and well thought-out lyrics that put things into perspective. Vocalist Barney Greenway and bassist Shane Embury's lyrics should be the best reason to own any Napalm Death album as a way of showing the more intelligent side of such hellish noise. The album's artwork done by Napalm Death's long-time friend Mid, also helps the album put it's venting, and cathartic release of anger to a certain level where it more than just mere noise. Again a simple outcry of all that is hypocritical and downright stupid and unnecessary in this world. If I had to point someone in the right direction to listening to Napalm Death for the very first time, I would start with "Fear, Emptiness, Despair" for obvious reasons. "Utopia Banished" is like a an athlete in his prime running a marathon as fat as humanly possible, but doesn't hold as much excitement as the other releases. I would only recommend this release to people who are just starting to get used to ND's blinding sonic terror.

Like for lots of other bands, I’ve always thought that the central part of Napalm Death’s career has always been a bit overlooked. They are so famous for having put out the seminal grindcore album, Scum, but the albums after are not as famous as they deserve to be, especially if compared to Scum itself. I’ve never loved that album and I’ve always loved the death metal period instead, that sounded far more mature and competitive. OK, the grindcore on Scum was something revolutionary but we must be able to understand that even the central part of the career of this band was so important to forge the modern Napalm Death sound we all know. The violence of the early days was filtered down through the death metal and now with a touch of groove, a groove that was in bigger quantity on the album after this Utopia banished, that gloomy Fear, Emptiness, Despair.

1992 Napalm Death was always bound to that grind/death formula that worked so well on the previous Harmony Corruption, one of the best efforts by this band. A young Danny Herrera took place behind the drums to replace Mick Harris. We begin with the gloomy, distorted sounds of the introduction, “Discordance” to continue with the ferocious drums rolls and blast beats of the following “I Abstain”. Greenway is always the man behind the microphone and he’s always able to transmit pure energy through of this growl, a truly hard thing to do in death metal. The first groove elements already start to come out during the mid-paced parts but the restarts are just savage death/grind ones with always the deserved intelligence to create always catchy and never chaotic sounds.

The production is fuzzy but dark as hell. Not that dark like the one on Fear, Emptiness, Despair but absolutely amazing. “Dementia Access” is a kick on the teeth for speed and brutality. The band plays at the speed of light and the dynamism is something enviable. The tempo changes are numerous and they contribute in creating always mature and brutal compositions. The riffs are crust-like or death metal. No matter where the influences come from because the important thing is to create an impenetrable wall of sonic violence. All hail to Jesse Pintado. The distortion of the bass is something great because it conserved that primitive distortion (a way between Repulsion and the very first Napalm Death) and it fits perfectly for this dark and violent sound.

The fast songs run after each other in an infernal assault based on grind blast beats, punkish up tempo and grooving mid-paced sections. Everything is fucking catchy and made to snap tour head from your neck. The fury of this band knows no limits and to the punk elements of “The World Keeps Turning” with those simple but devastating up tempo sections, we remark the iconoclast grind fury of that “Exile” that pays tribute to the very first wave of this genre. One thing is evident: the coming of Jesse in the Napalm Death line-up was a revolutionary thing. His way of playing brought the perfect combination between death/grind and hardcore. Inevitably Terrorizer threw big shadows over the more recent Napalm Death production (post 1990).

Well, all things considered, this is an album to appreciate for its sheer intensity. Maybe Harmony Corruption displayed more catchy sections with more standout riffs but my personal idea is that Napalm Death here really wanted to create a longer bridge with their past, with the experience they’ve acquired along these years and with that new line-up. The intensity is the strongest point of this album, without shadow of a doubt. Once gain, I praise the post-From Enslavement to Obliteration era. It definitely gives me more satisfactions since I’ve always preferred the death/grind combination, instead of the pure grindcore.

This is a bit of a curiosity in Napalm Death's discography. The band's career followed something of a bellcurve, starting with sloppy, punk grindcore, evolving into an experimental death metal sound, and then turning back towards a more pure modern grind sound, but this album immediately following 'Harmony Corruption' sounds much more like 'From Enslavement To Obliteration' than its much more death metal inspired immediate predecessor. It was something of a step down in my opinion; I felt that 'Harmony Corruption' was one of Napalm Death's best albums and I generally prefer their tighter, more mature death metal work to the frantic bursts of anger of their earlier career, and 'Utopia Banished' firmly leads on the grindcore side of their musical spectrum. It's a good album that avoids many of the pitfalls that plagued 'Scum' and 'From Enslavement To Obliteration', but I still would have probably preferred another more straightforward death metal album in its place.

Were you to read this review before ever hearing the album, you would likely be surprised by that description when confronted with opener 'I Abstain', a very modern (for its time) death/grind track that hints extensively at the band's future direction. Its array of dogmatic opening groove riffs almost sounds like another band entirely, at least before it erupts into grinding chaos. After that, it all comes together: the following tracks are for all intents and purposes long, somewhat technical grindcore tracks with a pinch of death metal influence. Oddly enough, it feels sloppier than 'Harmony Corruption', both in instrumental performances and production. The hellish yet tight guitar tone of 'Harmony Corruption' is replaced by a sloppier, crustier one, and the drum sounds seem a great deal more rickety, probably due to being mixed a bit overly loud when compared to the strings and vocals. The cymbals in particular can be annoyingly obvious during some of the blast passages, but it's a relatively minor complain all things considered.

The songs are good, and unlike albums like 'From Enslavement To Obliteration', the whole album can be listened to in one sitting without boredom setting in due to the sameness of the group's early works. The death metal influence, while smaller than the previous album, does a great deal to enhance the songs beyond their traditional grindcore roots by adding a layer of technicality and intricacy to the riffing which makes the songs exciting and listenable. Without the complexity and sheer number of riffs, these songs would probably collapse under the weight of their length and somewhat more reserved performance than what was heard on 'Scum', but instead they're held together pretty well by the chaotic sense of melody that Pintado and Harris hold. Almost certainly virtue of Pintado's contribution, a great deal of Terrorizer influence can be detected in these tracks, particularly in some of the slower breaks which sound much more American than anything Napalm Death had done previously.

'Utopia Banished' is a rather underappreciated album, though I'm not entirely sure why; the songs are strong and though this isn't the masterpiece that was 'Harmony Corruption' it's certainly worth the time of any death/grind fan. It's in the second string of Napalm Death albums I'd recommend purchasing, but it would still be difficult to go wrong picking this one up if you enjoy oldschool death metal and grindcore.

Utopia Banished is one of the odd albums in my collection. When I first bought it, I was rather disappointed. There was something missing. Eventually I discovered I was mostly missing Mick Harris’ typical drums. His hyperactive approach on kick and cymbals were missing here and replaced by the much tighter and more organised sounding Danny Herrera. Which resulted in the music sounding less manic and more death metal orientated. So even though compositionally on paper Utopia Banished was more brutal than Harmony Corruption, it sounded a bit too polished and tame for me at first.

But when further analysing the material here it becomes obvious the album is more grindcore than meets the eye. Yes, it has a certain death metal atmosphere but this is mostly because of the guitar sound, Barneys vocals and as said the tight performance on drums. The songs and riffs aren’t really that different from Napalm Death during their Mentally Murdered period and, more notable, Terrorizer. Yes, you’ve heard me. Terrorizer. Especially when listening closer to a song like “I Abstain” one can hear those typical World Downfall-ish riffs and breaks. It’s just that Pete Sandoval is missing to complete to comparisson.

A lot of the more grinding songs on Utopia Banished are mixing the Mentally Murdered and World Downfall styles. “Dementia Access” being one of the most catchy stand out songs here. It is hard to say if Utopia Banished was a step back compared to Harmony Corruption but it sure as hell sounds a lot more like Napalm Death than 'Harmony...' did if one takes the time to listen more closely.

It’s songs like “The World Keeps Turning” that build a bridge between their death metal-ish Harmony Corruption/Mass Appeal Madness era and their rediscovered grindcore approach. The result is a catchy song with lots of dynamics, changes in pace and a furious attitude. Closing song “Contemptuous” is a wavy industrial song with the remembrance of Justin Broadrick surrounding it but fails to be as dynamic as for instance their earlier “Evolved As One” (F.E.T.O. 1988). Not a bad song though and a great way to cool down after this grindcore assault.

As said, this album is not a Napalm Death album I would advise to anyone discovering the band and most of the time I myself pick a different album when I’m in the mood for some Barney-era ND. But each time I play the album once in every two or three years I like it better than before. Over the years it has grown on me. It’s actually pretty good!

I’m generally reluctant to play the part of philosopher when scrutinizing an album, of any kind, for review purposes. Though the lyricist may have a very specific point to drive home or a particular emotion to evoke from his carefully written lines, I still maintain the stance that any lyrical excellence is for naught if the instrumentation with which the words are coupled is tepid and uninteresting. I’d like to believe that the average listener agrees with me, with evidence being that instrumental albums sell considerably better than spoken-word albums do. So no matter how compelling the lyrics are, I’m never going to grant mercy upon a musically-flawed album. This leads me to my review of Napalm Death’s Utopia Banished.

One thing I’ve always liked about Napalm Death are their lyrics. Since the band has grown from humble punk roots, they’re socially-minded: an attribute that separates them from the brunt of death metal bands they’d be endlessly compared to by the mid-90’s. But unlike many of their grindcore contemporaries (or even many of their hardcore ones), Napalm Death were incredibly well-versed. This was beyond tongue-in-cheek ranting; this was futile, satirical poetry at a pace best described as blistering. Utopia Banished does not fail to deliver in this department; in fact, it might even be their masterwork. This is fatalism at its most cynical: ND crafting a not-so fictitious tale of humanity squandering in reckless abandon, at the mercy of our own social institutions. Reading along with this album was surprisingly engaging and even now I can look back on the album’s lyrics with fondness. While this isn’t a particularly unique emotion to have towards an album, it carries a certain weight when it’s taken into consideration that I find the album musically unremarkable.

“Discordance” begins the album with 1:25 of static and distortion (oh lord, it’s “Meat Hook Sodomy” all over again) before segueing into sonic crusher “I Abstain.” This track can be considered an archetype for the rest of the album because every other track insists on sounding just like it. There’s a combination of thrash-like breaks, mid-tempo stomp riffs, and insanely fast grind passages, all of which feature the band playing at their full capacity. Barney Greenway then proceeds to roar the words over top, occasionally screaming them in a way that surely inspired a Bleeding-era Chris Barnes. This is a basic synopsis of “I Abstain,” as well as pretty much every other song on the album. Yeah, there’s a few nice solo moments and a few notable memorable riffs that stick out in spite of the album’s monotony, but otherwise this is a one-trick pony of sorts, pounding out a good message through a single dimensional wall of sound. I’m not discrediting the band’s musicianship; on the contrary, they navigate tempo changes and blazing riffage at an expert level. But their songwriting sucks to put it plainly, and I’d have a hard time recalling any memorable passages outside of the first track or two. The bonus tracks on the reissue make it more difficult still, as they’re no more striking than the rest. If you’ve heard anything from the genre before, you’ve heard this.

Grindcore has never really been the best medium for expressing one’s political discontent in a meaningful fashion. It works if you want to spout a bunch of surgical misanthropy or bludgeon your listener with rage, but it’s not really the best genre for getting across a valid (and fundamentally serious) point. But maybe I’d be singing a different tune if Utopia Banished wasn’t so musically inept. Uncompromisingly heavy and fast, perhaps, but mindless nonetheless. And it’s really a shame, because the lyrics are so damn good. Too bad the best lyrics in the genre couldn’t keep this from tragic mediocrity.

Note: This is a review of the original 15-track album.

A promising start to Napalm Death’s fourth studio outing, as first proper song “I Abstain” creates a comfortable parallel between their grindcore roots and more recent death metal flourish. They have an operable sound, (at initial impressions) sound songwriting skills, Barney Greenway’s distinctive roars and an individual character that could surely make this one hell of an album. The album that this might have unfolded into is quickly thrown out of the window as a spreading lack of variety loosens the album’s tight grip. They concentrate on trying to be as relentless and favourably inaccessible as they could and create instead a monotonous flop, where they have three songs’ worth of material mixed and matched into thirteen (not including the take-it-or-leave-it style intro and closing track).

It’s a common problem, repeated much by Cannibal Corpse and co. and thankfully avoided by many others. Sound-alike songs for a whole album really dampen the appeal when they invariably have no standout qualities from the next. Bolt Thrower could pull it off alright by maintaining the energy and grinding out the hooks, but Napalm Death here didn’t. It ends up becoming a decidedly faceless album, which is a shame given their reputation. When they try to be different right at the end, they just fuck it up. Poor Napalm Death…

The meat grinding ”Dementia Access” along with “The World Keeps Turning”, “Aryanisms” and “Distorting the Medium” are the other ones that do sound pretty good off the shelf, but only there. All I recall when I think about the album is that it generally has itself a strong sound, but no individual songs come to mind otherwise. The rest is just tedious full stop. The longest track on hand here is to finish. “Contemptuous”, I hoped would come full circle with electrifying velocity and fresh bludgeoning riffs to make a dramatic and forceful close. What it is instead is akin to Slipknot’s “Iowa” reduced to a merciful 4 minutes, but still being a seemingly endless hulking mass. Sure it breaks away from the stony template of all the other stuff, but annoyingly doesn’t move onto anywhere just as it seems like it might be about to get going. It starts with a cool fitting sound clip from “Full Metal Jacket” but the heavy, clanging ambience never really develops.

While this album is hardly total cack, it could have definitely been a lot more given the more than capable abilities of the five musicians here who pour it all in for a few brief moments of glory.