Initial Impressions: Napalm Death: Utilitarian

I have been on a big Napalm Death kick lately.  So when I saw their newest release marked down recently, I had to get it.  Napalm Death has been consistently great for three decades now so I did not have any reservations about picking this one up.  It certainly helped that I loved their last release and of course, Napalm Death know who they are and are not likely to change drastically any time soon.

So what do we have here?  Unsurprisingly it's a Napalm Death album.  Seventeen tracks of grinding brutality.  Napalm Death pull no punches and just blast away for seventeen songs.  We do not expect anything more or less from them.

Of course it would not be a Napalm Death album without some form of experimentation or other.  While the core sound remains unequivocally Napalm Death, they do throw in some unusual moments.  We have a bit of a doomy opening, some almost chanted vocals, and an atonal saxophone thrown in at various points.  None of those moments overwhelm the rest of the music, they get put in almost as an aside.

Beyond the odd moments, this is a typical release from the band.  Barney Greenway still does his full-throated roar, and Shane Embury, Danny Herrera and Mitch Harris still blast away on their instruments.  The  band has lost none of its ferocity over the years and remains as uncompromisingly brutal as ever.