If four dudes who hated me decided to start a band that embodied as many things I dislike about death metal as possible, that band would probably bear a strong resemblance to Cattle Decapitation. Breakdowns? Check. Pig squeal vocals? Yup. Masturbatory “technical” guitar parts? Those too. And don’t even get me started on the pushy, militant veganism.
A word to the wise. Never forget the Angry Metal Law of Diminishing Returns™, because it’s a cold, remorseless bitch.
Napalm Death’s latest album, Utilitarian, certainly gets off to an interesting start. The opening track, “Circumspect,” is a delicate acoustic number about the inhumane treatment of stray puppies and kittens. The next few tracks follow suit, with gently strummed guitars and the surprisingly beautiful crooning of vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway.
I’d been holding off on writing this review because, well, to be frank I’m no grind expert. While I have a working knowledge of most genres and pretty deep knowledge in a several, grind is not one of them. In full disclosure, I’ve not listened to the classics (except Carcass and Napalm Death and Nasum), and I’m probably even fucking up genres when I have discussions about what I think the classics are. So, to pretend to be authoritative on the subject would be disingenuous at best. Against my better judgement, when I got Aborted’s Global Flatline I decided that I should review it anyway. But after listening to it about 10 times I realized I wasn’t quite sure how to put what I thought of it, which is kind of my.. job. So, that’s kind of awkward. I went back and listened to the band’s older material
