Personally, I've never had any problems with Napalm Death's newer records. Some say they aren't as brutal or as good as the first three. My first contact with the band was their fifth studio album 'Fear, Emptiness, Despair' in 1994, so I guess I'm a new wave Napalm Death fan. I never found much meat on 10 second songs, anyways.
At first 'Words from the Exit Wound' was an uneasy album. It was very hard to get into, but when I played it enough, it blasted my world. It still does, even more. I never get bored with the band's "weirder than usual" time signatures, sick riffing or Barney Greenway's dry throat, which clearly shouts for more beer. Colin Richardson's heavy and powerful, yet clean (everything's well audible) production is manna for listeners' ears. And there's some extremely meaty riffing on offer, thanks to Mitch Harris' and Jesse Pintado's marvelous fretwork! Danny Herrera beats some very groovy and individual (I really mean individual) rhythms out of his drum kit, so maybe some can't take this. But believe me, there's a lot of blast beat (or whatever fast stuff) coming your way. Shane Embury's bass does devastating work on lower levels. Even though this album's musical yield doesn't differ a lot from a couple of previous records style, it is more refined and certainly sounds different enough.
Barney's throat is in a good shape and he gets more varied grunts, roars and shouts out of him than usually. Just listen him spitting out his anger on 'The Infiltraitor', for example. He also sings a few lines with his clean voice, too, but thank god not many. Guitarist Mitch Harris' uglier than ugly shriek is also present, of course. Lyrics are aimed towards society's crap. The usual Napalm Death stuff all the way...
I must say I simply love this record. There's no "just okay" songs, every one of them is great. Give this enough time, because I certainly needed it. At the first material sounds a bit one-dimensional, but just wait! Napalm Death have their own sound and style. Maybe not as much grind than on the first few records, but there's death metal, industrial edge and well... Hmmmm... Metal!!! This is heavier than previous, say, two albums, and mauls like hell so get wasted.
Rating: 8½
Reviewed by Lane
09/26/2002 19:53
Old Napalm Death is dead, long live old Napalm Death. As much as I like this album, nothing equates to 'Harmony Corruption' (1990) or even 'From Enslavement to Obliteration' (1988). The early grind days were great, so was 'Scum' and 'The Peel Sessions' (both 1987). I mean if you want chronic crazy blast beating with grind/noise, then old Napalm Death is for you. But here, they take on much more of a death metal oriented style, which isn't bad, just don't expect to hear any of what was featured on the early grind years. There are some blast beating going on, but it's solid musically and they've definitely progressed, but lacked the extremity that was retained on older stuff.
I'd have to say that I was expecting to hear just utter crap on this album, but I was sadly mistaken. ND really delivers with the riffs here and keeps you interested the whole way through, even though it is slower. I still think that it ranks in a good rating despite what other critics of the band think. I think that this is a really solid put-together and everything seemed to flow fluently on here. No real objections, just the intensity. The music is way slowed down and definitely a more solid production than earlier days. It's good that Jesse Pintado was on this one too along with Barney Greenway, Mitch Harris and the newer drummer Danny Herrera.
Definitely think that if Mick Harris was still with ND, I don't think that he'd let them slow down. But Mick doesn't even play the drums anymore and only owns a pair of drumsticks. If you caught 'Live Corruption' (1993), he said that their musical ability was getting better which it was, but why did he have to leave the band? That really created a lot of turmoil between him and Mitch. I doubt that they even talk anymore. I remember them having a quarrel about a year and a half ago on Facebook. It wasn't pretty. Mick kept them extreme and I think Mitch wanted a more death metal oriented ND which is what's featured here.
Not saying at all that the band members slacked off on their musical performance here. They captivate the listener with pure in your face death metal. I really like this album because it's just different. Somewhat groove oriented with the riffs, not a whole lot of backup screams by Mitch here, and good that Jesse was still alive to keep them doing what they do best - kill on the guitars. There aren't a lot of tremolo picking on the riffs here, there's more chords and fast picking, kind of like some groove thrash. Barney displays a little bit of clean measures here, but really brief. The production quality was really really solid.
No complaints on this one, just don't expect that much fast blasting. Expect a more death metal ND, not grindcore or even death/grind. Just mostly death metal. It's really noteworthy and the music really sticks. Awesome what they were able to produce here. There is some tremolo picking going on, but not blasting. I think Mick was the fastest blaster ever. Those were the glory days, now onto a newer type of ND, something that I thought would never happen, but it did. They put on one helluva live performance though, even with the newer material and Jesse no longer with the band and living period. Expect diversity.
Rating: 8 (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Death8699
08/01/2014 14:26
