‘Apex Predator’
Napalm Death
Grade: A-
Thirty years is a substantial portion of time in one’s life.
With an endless amount of opportunities to be had, there also lies an equally bottomless chasm — the foreboding threat of the unknown — waiting patiently like a silent predator.
One English band learned that the hard way.
The band is Napalm Death, the godfathers that gave birth to grindcore metal, and they are veterans of the community in the purest way possible.
Formed in the early 1980s, Napalm Death underwent a ludicrous amount of lineup changes before it recorded its debut album, “Scum,” in 1987. In addition, the band’s drastic interest in experimentation infused within later albums was greeted by a largely dismissive audience, and founding members of the band resigned as a result.
Three decades and 14 albums later, without a single original bandmate and suffering the loss of genius friend Jesse Pintado, Napalm Death still marches diligently through the trenches of the battlefield.
“Apex Predator — Easy Meat,” the band’s 15th effort, is convincing evidence that it still has plenty of adrenaline shots left.
Though Napalm Death released albums through the millennium ranging from good to decent, “Apex Predator” showcases the band at not only its angriest and most relentless but at its absolute best.
On a good day when listening to any Napalm Death album in this new century, the most you’ll get is a pummeling and a loud ringing in your ear.
In this case, it’s a severe beating by fists covered with barbed wire and doused in pure alcohol. After you get hit by a semi traveling at max speed, of course.
And you’ll revel in every second of it.
The band has never sounded this consistently amazing and brutal in years, delivering an atom bomb of an album that ruptures your eardrums even when it’s not playing.
“Apex Predator” is not only the best metal album of the year by far, but one of the best releases of 2015, period.
Napalm Death is the jackhammer, you’re the pavement.
Enjoy decimation.
