Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)^{Release ID: 4628}

A groovier Napalm Death album that contains some great tracks, but not a lot of variety.

This is where Napalm Death really found their groove both literally and figuratively speaking. Fear, Emptiness, Despair doesn't always take the most brutal approach possible, being a much tighter, more contained album than they'd previously been known for. They added a heap of groovy riffs to proceedings without losing too much of their intensity and in the process created a unique death metal sound that they'd run with for the next few years. But I have to say that the album does tend to get bogged down in this new style with a few tracks towards the end (Primed Time, Armageddon x 7 and Retching on the Dirt) not containing enough variety to make this album a five-star release.

There are several awesome Napalm Death tracks on here with Remain Nameless, More Than Meets the Eye and Throwaway being the highlights. No track on the album goes for over 4 minutes which means the listener is constantly experiencing short, slightly different variations of the new style. Danny Herrera's drumming is exceptional throughout! The grooving riffs require a more contained and interesting approach and while the blasting sections are not as prominent as on previous albums, they are perfectly performed and have more impact for their general absence. Barney's vocals sound like...well, Barney's vocals always sound the same but that's great as his gruff death growl works nicely.

I should point out though that as much as I enjoy this less extreme Napalm Death, the track that I love the most is closer Throwaway, which is a totally blasting, shredding piece of work that shows how fantastic the band are when they let loose. All up I think Fear, Emptiness, Despair is a solid album that successfully experimented with a new Napalm Death sound. It's probably not going to please too many fans of the bands early grindcore releases, but for those that prefer the more death metal albums by these UK legends, you should check this out.