What we have here is a combination of death metal like vocals done by Napalm Death's old singer, Lee Dorrian and backup ones by Mick Harris, who left the band in the early 90's. I'd have to say that the older Napalm Death releases like this one are where they were at their best. I would say that this album is better than 'Scum' (1987) because the music is more catchy and the intensity of the songs are more noticable. They have all kinds of tempo changes like a slow intro and a slow outro.
The band did justice here for grindcore, them being pretty much the originators of the extreme music. 'From Enslavement to Obliteration' is an album that one can get into easily because the musical quality and production were way better than average for a grindcore act (old Napalm Death I mean). When 'Harmony Corruption' (1990) came out with Mark "Barney" Greenway, I think that all of the songs and production were superb as well. They didn't give up their roots on that one, but later play more death metal more than grind.
The compositions here by Bill Steer on guitars is filled with all sorts of original ideas based on his influences and not duplicating anything, just playing his bar chord exhibitions and shying away from any sort of lead guitars, which is different than when he was and now is again with Carcass. I think that he puts forth some sounds done like no other and intensity through the whole album except for the intro and outro guitars. He doesn't contribute anything to the vocals, Lee and Mick were on duty for that.
I'd say that this is like death metal mixed with grindcore. You can hear what Bill's playing even with the extreme blast beating. Some of the riffs are going at full speed and it's really intense to say the least. I'd really say that Mick was the best drummer for the band, I suppose that he left because he sort of lost interest with extreme music. He was one helluva grindcore drummer. I don't think that the drummer that replaced him (Danny Herrera) comes close to Mick's talent.
So hearing this album compared to the newer Napalm Death sound, they don't have really brutal vocals anymore, Lee was pure deep throat and "Barney" was better in the early 90's via 'Harmony Corruption' and 'Utopia Banished' (1992). Well, the music here is what counts the most and you can because of the production hear Bill Steer's riff outputs even when Mick is grinding out blast beats. Most songs are not extremely long, but longer than the ones from 'The Peel Sessions' (1989) compilation.
Lee and Mick kept the band brutal and insanely intense on this album. Bill had some leads here and some songs were very brief. The bulk of the grind was in the guitar, drums and vocals. The combination of the low-end grunts by Lee and the high pitch sounds done by Mick gave the band more variety. Bill does an awesome job on the guitar, even though maybe there were only 1-2 leads on this entire album. His riffs are immensely good, maybe even better than that.
For a grindcore band during the earlier days, this album sure puts a good impact on the music community because it simply uncompromising. The lyrical concepts are well thought out too and I think that as a whole, the band made an outstanding contribution to grindcore in itself. There's nothing compared to the older sound of the band, nowadays I find their albums to be monotonous and that they disbanded from their roots. Shane Embury has been in the band for the longest time still dishing out great bass guitar.
If you're looking for grindcore at its absolute finest, 'From Enslavement to Obliteration' is where it's at. You can find the full album on YouTube. It would be good to own even just the actual CD of this one because it's to me one of their best releases. With Bill out of the band and back to playing guitars with Carcass, Mitch Harris is a good fill. It's tragic what happened to Jesse Pintado, dead at 37. Anyway, for grind and extreme music lovers, this one should definitely hit home and 34+ minutes of intensity!
Rating: 10 (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Death8699
06/25/2014 22:14
