Napalm Death

Diatribes (Earache)
by Tim Creter

Fresh Napalm Death is finally here, and prepare to be a little surprised. Their new material has definitely not lost its edge, but is headed down the road of traditional heavy metal. The sound has, let’s say, matured, in a sense. The opening riffs of the first track, “Greed Killing,” are somewhat displeasing to the expectant grindcore ear, as the song reeks of typical metal. But luckily, that’s the low point of the album, which really isn’t that low at all. The highly acclaimed ‘Palmers have assembled a deadly barrage of riffs and hooks that stray from their earlier brutal grind, but remain a cut above typical metal bands. Diatribes is comparable to the sound Sepultura arrived at with Chaos AD; as Sepultura was able to maintain integrity with their new direction, and judging from the sounds of this one, Napalm has done the same. For the metal enthusiast, this album is hard to ignore with cuts like “Glimpse Into Genocide” with its brutal stomp, and “Dogma” with blasts of melody. All we can hope is that Diatribes doesn’t do for Napalm Death what Heartwork did for Carcass.