Napalm Death – The Complete Radio One Sessions – Review

Napalm Death

The Complete Radio One Sessions (Fuel 2000)
by Tim Den

Even the bio can’t fathom why BBC/Radio One, the UK’s conservative totalitarian voice of broadcast, embraced grind godfathers Napalm Death throughout the years. “Hope you enjoyed that string arrangement of ‘Moon River.’ Now, please welcome our next selection, ‘Suffer the Children.'” A little bizzare, wouldn’t you say? Whatever the reason, BBC DJ extraordinaire John Peel has had Napalm Death do live on-air sets for about twelve years now, and this here collection gathers every last note. From the Lee Dorian/Bill Steer line-up of From Enslavement to Obliteration, to the Barney-fronted Harmony Corruption era, to the mechanical rhythm machine that the band is today, The Complete Radio One Sessions chronicles this musical giant’s evolution from noise pioneers to well-oiled aggression machine. A lot of classics are here, 40 percent of them played differently or altered from their studio album versions: “Prison Without Walls,” “Multi-national Corporations,” “Retreat to Nowhere,” to name a few that get a facelift. There are even four S.O.B. covers that can’t be found anywhere else! Many may realize that most of what’s here already exists on the two versions of Peel Sessions from way back, but this is more comprehensive than either of those two (hence the term “complete”). This is a must for any Napalm Death fan, and a great audio scrapbook of the band’s glorious career. I can only dream that this might inspire a label somewhere to put together all of the band’s super-rare 7″s (The World Keeps Turning), B-sides (the other side of the “Hung” single), and early (high school) demos for future release.