:: Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave

Napalm Death

Legendary grindcore/death metal pioneers Napalm Death have certainly had their fair share of highs and lows throughout their long running twenty year career. Having founded the early grindcore movement in the latter half of the ‘80’s with their first couple of albums, the Birmingham based act continued to push the boundaries and experiment more with their take on extreme music with each successive release. But for all the experimentation and pushing of the envelope Napalm Death attempted, there’s no denying that the band’s output for the most part was inconsistent, and continually overshadowed by the mark left with their first three efforts. But against the odds, the four piece act again managed to find the right balance of old and new influences, with 2002’s ‘Order Of The Leech’ marking a slight return to form for the veteran act. Since then, Napalm Death’s output has only improved with time, with their three albums that followed earning unanimous critical acclaim, and thrusting the band back into the spotlight. Now returning with their fourteenth studio effort ‘Time Waits For No Slave’, it’s clear that Napalm Death are still mining from the same creative pool that has produced their most recent classics, with their new album every bit as brutal, experimental and consistent as you could ever hope for. The opening double act of ‘Strong-Arm’ and ‘Diktat’ is nothing short of pure adrenaline fuelled aggression, with the speed and tightly knitted riffing combined with Greenway’s fierce presence proving that Napalm Death seem to get heavier and more violent sounding with age. Despite their Swedish death metal influenced like framework and sounding absolutely crushing throughout, ‘Work To Rule’ and the stunning ‘On The Brink Of Extinction’ are just a few examples where the band are able to inject a touch of melody within the songs without compromising on their all out assaulting sound. The punk-like ‘Passive Tense’, ‘Life And Limb’ and the intricate ‘Downbeat Clique’ are all mid-paced numbers that offer up a bit of a breather around the middle of the album, while the clean choral vocalised title track ‘Time Waits For No Slave’ and the harmonised ‘Procrastination Of The Empty Vessel’ and ‘Larceny Of The Heart’ maintains some of the experimentation explored on the band’s last couple of releases. Of course, there are still plenty of the band’s old-school blasting efforts, with ‘Fallacy Dominion’, ‘Feeling Redundant’, ‘A No-Sided Argument’ and ‘De-evolution Ad Nauseum’ bringing the album to an impressive and exhaustive close. Overall ‘Time Waits For No Slave’ is another in a long line of strong releases from Napalm Death. And while I would hesitate to claim that their latest album is stronger than their last couple of efforts, I’ll concede that it’s certainly of the same high standard, making it an absolute must for fans.