Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered (1989)^{Release ID: 4618}

The Napalm Death legacy is a weird one in which people are constantly battling over which ND albums are the best because of the various sounds they've covered in different eras, save the experimental scene in which they produced subpar albums during the early 90's.  The 1980's and the 21st century are totally different stories where most of the wars take place.  Me, personally, can't stand the fact that it took Napalm Death more than 30 years to create an album up to my standard of fine making: Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism.  This album has death, blackened crust, metalcore, industrial and more.  The problem with ND albums is that they make 40-fifty minutes of the same song on each album, usually.  And it gets on my nerves.

This EP doesn't have any of that stuff to worry about.  This is the kind of album a deathgrind album should be, not close to an hour but short and powerful.  I admit, I might've liked it to be a little longer, but thanks to the 2.5 minute average of these six songs on this EP, none of the ideas overstay their welcome.  It must also be said that the production of this album is noisy and dirty, which brings out the most of the punk attitude and the metallic vibes.  This helps make this one of their heaviest releases.  I love the fact that the percussion is so powerful on this album.  I mean, on Harmony Corruption, they were so weak I wanted to puke.  And people actually like that album.  I guess if I had to pick a favorite track, it would be Walls of Confinement.  It displays everything the albums about, fast, mid-paced, violent, hardcore and metallic.

Sometimes, all you really need is a short burst of heaviness to keep you going.  You draw that out for too long and it loses its effect.  I mean, why not?  So many punk genres along with their metal mutants build themselves on the EP instead of the album.  This is more than welcome to me.  It's got the brutality of Suffocation's Human Waste, although it could have slightly better production as it drowns in its own noise sometimes.  But 90% of the time it's very clear what's going on.  And even if it gets noisy, that's when it becomes one of the heaviest releases in either punk or metal.  A lot of lengthy ND studio albums could take a few cues from this EP.  I mean, yeah, there isn't a lot of differentiation between tracks... but this is only fifteen minutes.  And honestly, I'd scold myself for being so obsessive over fifteen minutes.  After hearing so many samey deathgrind albums, the variety-cultist in me wants more, but the critic in me won't allow that to be considered a con.

I have a massive soft spot for Napalm Death, them being a Midlands band and all, and virtually inventing grindcore gives them a lot of kudos in my book. Anyway, the Mentally Murdered EP came out slap-bang in the middle of the two year gap between the albums From Enslavement to Obliteration and Harmony Corruption. It shows a slight departure from Napalm Death's grindcore origins and their incorporation of elements from the emerging death metal scene. They were touring partners with Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower at the time and so I guess some death metal influence rubbed off on the Coventry crew. Mentally Murdered is the last recording to feature Bill Steer and Lee Dorrian, the former dedicating himself solely to Carcass and the latter forming doom/stoner outfit Cathedral (and starting Rise Above Records).

The six tracks here weigh in at just over quarter of an hour and are a blistering death/grind assault on the ears. Despite the slight change in style there is no compromise in Napalm Death's sound here, it is still as brutal-sounding as ever and Lee Dorrian may possibly never have sounded so fucking terrifying, bellowing away like an enraged bull charging at a guy in a Man United top! Despite playing so fast, Steer's riffing never disintegrates into mere noise, he always seems in absolute control with his riffs standing iconic and clear. Shane Embury and drummer Mick Harris (who apparently coined the phrase "blastbeat") make a great supporting duo, their fantastic rhythm work allowing Steer and Dorrian to indulge in such absolute brutality without worrying that things will descend into formless noise. This may still be too heavily grindcore-adjacent for some death metal fans, but for those who dig both grindcore and death metal then this is a thrilling quarter of an hour that feels like riding the aforementioned enraged bull - just hold on and hope you don't break your neck! One of my favourite Napalm Death releases right here.