Saturday, February 4, 2023

Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave (2009)


The crowning achievement of a decade spent getting back to what Napalm Death does best: punishing, riff-y death-grind. My introduction to the Napalm Death fold was via the soundtrack to the first Mortal Kombat movie, and that song still fucking crushes, so even after discovering the classic material, I've always been a steadfast 90s Napalm Death apologist. One of the few, the proud 80s metal bands who made it through the 90s with their dignity fully intact, they spent the decade pushing towards both more accessible and more experimental sounds that nonetheless maintained a solid through-line to their earlier material, and avoided sudden leaps into goth-rock*, nu metal, alt-metal, or whatever the fuck this was. And, questionable album art aside, they kinda just stayed cool.

That being said, all their 90s albums sag a bit. As strong as the songwriting was, and as interesting as it could be to hear them playing these unorthodox, angular guitar lines, the weaker stretches ended up feeling like a whole lot of ducking and weaving without a solid knockout punch. So Napalm Death's turn-of-the-millennium return to 'straightforward' death-grind was welcomed by all, myself included. The sixth album to spring from this resurgence, Time Waits for No Slave capped off a decade spent making some of the strongest, tightest, most effective mosh-bait ever produced, and it's my favorite of the lot. Anyone who doesn't fuck with this band is a stupid dumbass.

*Not gonna front, I like this one.

Track listing:
1. Strong-Arm
2. Diktat
3. Work to Rule
4. On the Brink of Extinction
5. Time Waits for No Slave
6. Life and Limb
7. Downbeat Clique
8. Fallacy Dominion
9. Passive Tense
10. Larceny of the Heart
11. Procrastination on the Empty Vessel
12. Feeling Redundant
13. A No-Sided Argument
14. De-Evolution Ad Nauseam


More beefy grind:

4 comments:

  1. Fuck yes. Everything released since this is perfect too. Actual best band in world

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  2. Time is a game played beautifully by children. [Heraclitus of Ephesus »Fragments« (500 b.c.)] - - - https://lianahelas.blogspot.com/2023/01/z-z-xxxix-daily-sirens-1972-2022.html

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  3. Saw them on the most recent tour- Barney's never sounded better.

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  4. Long live Napalm Death!!! I have to agree, a lot of the stuff they did in the 90's was actually pretty great. The just just chugged away, tried a few new things out and generally slammed. All good in my book!

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