Reviews (page 6 of 9)
The album cover is cool. And speaking of music well, the instrumentation is exactly what I like, fast and aggressive, distroded and noisy. However, speaking of the vocals, I have to say although I do live screams in songs, there is just too much of those in here; at least sing *something*. Or simply just make an instrumental album already! I like the album in general, it's a 3.5/5.
Early grindcore. I can admire it even if I don't like it. And you have to appreciate the vision of the band(s). [Different one on each side] Brutal.
I tried so hard to like this but idk it seemed so childish. Doesn't feel like punk. Fav Songs: Do I have to?
This was the album the algorithm decided to assign to me on Christmas Day… it was fun!
If I could rate this zero stars I would. Awful noise, the vocals are completely unintelligible (sounds like the noises I imagine a caveman would make if he was teleported into a live electric chair). It seems like the rest of the band's goal is to play as fast as possible with no regard for whether their instruments actually sound good together. If someone I knew told me this was their favourite album I'd hand them in to the police as an obvious wrong'un and wonder how my judgement was so poor as to have made this person an acquaintance
Couldn’t listen. There will need to be a compelling story in the book for me to revisit
They were one of the first to do this, and certainly the most influential, but they were not very good at it at this point. It's a mess. It's not even the same band on all songs. Two sessions with only the same drummer. Songs of the 2nd session are better, production of the 1st session is better. They got better later, when they became a metal band. This is more hardcore punk like Discharge, D.R.I. and Lärm, but there's definitely some Slayer in there as well. It was so influential, they even got to play national children's TV and all. Favorite song: common enemy.
Death metal das ist nichts für mich
bad
The two stars are for the whole tranny jumping and the wheelchair dude.
Classic sound, vind de riff game nice, geniet eigenlijk van alles behalve de vocals, die werd ik echt wel moe van tegen het einde aan en is een kort fucking album Als we het over oude extreme metal hebben zou ik 99/100 keer Kreator of Venom opzetten ipv dit Ik wil het meer geven want eerste metal album in de lijst voor ons maar de vocals maken het een 3,5
Mental
Really? This made it to 1001 Albums? This is like comparing cave art to the french impressionists, it cant be done. This group/album is a joke. Can anyone make out a word, any word in any piece. This would get zero stars if it were a choice.
Classic case of thinking it wasn't as bad as I was expecting then realising the speaker was playing stuff just 'like' Napalm Death. So double the grindcore for me. Still, there was melody, in so much as it wasn't atonal, riffs & brief. I actually listened again to decide if 1 or 2 because on first listen this was no way as bad as Throbbing Gristle or Butthole Surfers. And lol to the 1 second long song. My ears are ringing but it's not in the same bracket as the other 1 ⭐s. Wonder what the lyrics are...
It's a thing
I did not enjoy this album at all, it just sounds like an amalgamation of sounds, and the singer does not help at all as it just sounds like he is making random sounds and calling it a day.
Hugely influential for countless acts in an admittedly niche extreme genre. But borderline unlistenable today, even for the acts Napalm Death influenced? 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) Number of albums left to review: the 80-ish extra LPs listed on this app, included because different past editions of the book have mentioned albums that have since been dropped in subsequent editions. Number of albums I'll keep in my own list: half, approximately Number of albums I *might* keep: a small quarter, approximately (including this one) Number of albums I won't keep: a large quarter
-200
this is fun I had fun. grind core is a very accurate genre title for this. I don't think this will be an album I return to but what an interesting listen! 3.5/5
Feels like a parody made by somebody who hates the genre. It's what I would send a friend right as they're getting into metal to make sure they stop their pursuit. Just awful
The music was so bad that the one good thing going for them is how different this sounds than anything else on this list.
Coarse, grating, and utterly inaccessible but at least it wasn't 90 minutes of songs about women filled with endless twelve-bar blues solos.
I like the first part of the album that's more death metal like way more than the second half where they start to hone in on the grindcore.
Nice message, bad music
Fuck man. As I write this I'm teetering between a 1-2 star (or a 2/10 or a 3/10 if you will). It's funny that I love punk music but never could get into metal and this album explains why. Many of the songs sound the exact same, and the vocalists ( I know there were more than one here) are awful. The same goddamn pitch, and I don't think I understood a single word said the entire time. It's not void of musical importance and everyone and a while the drums would come through with something interesting but then that goddamn voice would come back and I'd want to stab my eardrums out. You know what? 2/10 saved only by some cool song names and the fact that they kept most of the songs (and album) short, even if this was some of the longest 33 minutes of my life.
Well, I knew this day would come so I suppose I was better prepared then most. Like any normal human I wanted to turn this off half way through the 2nd track, "Instinct of Survival". Perhaps it was just morid curiosity to see how much worse it could get had me leave it on for my entire drive to work on the first really cold day of winter 10f (-11c!). It was pretty much all the same song with the rapid drums, way to loud everything and of course there's unintelligible "singing" . "Siege of power" had a guitar solo. At least towards the end that other guy started screaming some like a weird little goblin. Deserves 1 star for being objectively awful but I made it through the whole thing, so Gott help me it gets 2 stars. Album cover is kinda cool
Not my vibe
I found it hilarious 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂
Note what I hoped for when asking for some Metal albums :')
I kinda get it, music is hard to write and sometimes you just want to scream and bang on things. My personal least enjoyed genre is hardcore punk and this is like the metal equivalent to it. Nothing interesting here, probably inspired better bands but this just extremely easy riffs over blast beats in 1 min succession's.
No idea what the fuck they're saying lol but goddamn this album goes hard \m/ Makes me wanna break stuff TIL the drummer on this record helped coin the term 'grindcore'
Extra point for the shortest track „You Suffer“ and the partly unwilling humouristic appeal.
2.1 2x catch up 12/6/24 interesting album and short
Not particularly impressive or interesting. Noise. Torrent of shit, even. Maybe if I listened a few more times, I would get it, but it would probably break me.
1000 albums + 1 cruel joke called Scum by Napalm Death.
Favorite Track: None
I might have been into this 25 years ago when I was 13. Best thing this has going for it is its brevity.
Un album où le fond et la forme ont la même fonction, soit rebuter et cracher sur tout ce qu'on tient pour acquis. La succession de pistes très courtes évoque autant d'explosion. Une réussite si on considère son but.
Not gonna listen allthat
I imagine he'll sounds like this, for some I'm sure it's exhilarating but not me
Nope. Not sure how the songs are marked as explicit lyrics when you can’t understand a single word of a song.
Um. No.
1- Stars (1/15)
okay.. instrumentals weren’t bad, but the vocals are not my thing.
01) Multinational Corporations - 1,0 02) Instinct of Survival - 1,0 03) The Kill - 1,0 04) Scum - 1,0 05) Caught... in a Dream - 1,0 06) Polluted Minds - 1,0 07) Sacrificed - 1,0 08) Siege of Power - 1,0 09) Control - 1,0 10) Born on Your Knees - 1,0 11) Human Garbage - 1,0 12) You Suffer - 10,0 13) Life? - 1,0 14) Prison Without Walls - 1,0 15) Point of No Return - 1,0 16) Negative Approach - 1,0 17) Success? - 1,0 18) Deceiver - 1,0 19) C.S. - 1,0 20) Parasites - 1,0 21) Pseudo Youth - 1,0 22) Divine Death - 1,0 23) As the Machine Rolls On - 1,0 24) Common Enemy - 1,0 25) Moral Crusade - 1,0 26) Stigmatized - 1,0 27) M.A.D. - 1,0 28) Dragnet - 1,0 TOTAL: 1,32 (13/100) Current ranking: 367/367 Hahahahaha... What kind of crap is this? This sounds like listening to my dog barking at some noise in the background. Except my beagle has a more pleasant bark than the vocalist in question. The best song is song number 12, it goes straight to my playlist and deserves the highest rating! Why? Because it lasts exactly 1,316 seconds. The album is only 33 minutes long, you should give it a listen, you will have a good laugh, I promise!
PEDRADA. papo reto nada melhor do que um grindcore de leve pela manhã pra animar o dia
ê caraio o quarto pior album da lista. ah, nem é tão ruim. grindcore é doideira mesmo, fazer o que. meu humor não tava dos melhores então caiu até bem
So with 15 albums left I finally got to listen to this, at one time the lowest rated album. Proof that this 1001 is purely comprised of incredibly niche genre groups and nothing to do with the 'best' albums. The Genres are so marginal it's amusing. I hope this stays on the chart but at the same time it's poor stuff.
Every song sounds the exact same and there are 28 of them
Comically bad. Felt like some sort of parody, tempted to give it another star for making me laugh. I’m about 150 albums in and have now had 4 of the 5 lowest rated ones. Good to get the crap out the way early.
A horrible listening experience
This was bad.
Hard pass.
Gear: Abyss DIANA MR Artwork: 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 Production: 🎧😘🤌* Music: 🤘😡🤣 Rating: 🤡🤡🤡/5
Possibly the worst 28-track love-making soundtrack ever created. Also, proof that you don't need to sound good or play in sync as long as you play really really fast. ALSO, my newborn daughter is 113 hours old, which means that I've spent roughly 0.5 % of her life listening to this dumb shit. Absurd when you really think about it.
Extremely influential metal record. You can clearly hear the difference in style between the two sides - weird that changing everyone but the drummer does that, huh? I prefer the first side where Broadrick and Bullen helps develop a sound that would later be perfected and somehow commercialized by bands such as Slayer. Another plus with these kinds of records; if you don’t like the song, a new one will start in about a minute.
While not a fan of grind core in general preferring more traditional metal and punk this is the best it has to offer. The best the genre has to offer is still not worth 5 stars however.
Too much for me.
No thank you
Too angry
A time and a place. Used to laugh at the length of these
I liked it, but I can’t objectively say it’s great music lol
Noise, just noise
Yea, this was awful. While like good hard rock/metal, this wasn’t it. Every guitar rig sounded the same, then we bang on the drums really hard and dude screams words (I think). I’m sure it is loved by someone out there. But not me.
Sounds like diarrhoea
"That's a no from me, dog." --Randy Jackson
Anyone dismissing this music as "angry noise" is missing the point. Poignant and philosophical lyrics juxtaposed by absolutely brutally simplistic music. This album turns 40 in a couple years. Sad to say that the world has just gotten worse. Fuck Thatcher. Fuck Reagan. Those of us lucky enough to be born too late are inheriting a dying and broken world. This album was ahead of it's time and seminal for tons of acts.
Can't say this was for me tbh
Oh boy, more noise. It's a bit different, I'll say that. You know things are bad when you look forward to the silence between tracks. I'm pretty sure I didn't need to hear this before I reach the pearly gates.
Every now and then, creeping through mindless haze, is a short-lived glimpse of a cool riff or drum beat, before the curtain quickly descends and the haze consumes us as we are pummelled with blast beats and guttural nonsense. Like we’re being teased with the faint aroma of something sweet before waking up chained to a post in the middle of a rubbish dump.
Im glad this exists, this should exist dammit, the purity and relentlessness is a statment to absurd fast paced nihilism. Did i enjoy it....errr
Magnificent, emotionally intelligent, delicately crafted masterpiece. No, wait, my mistake, this is pointlessly shit. Outlived it's mildly comedic value before the first (mercifully short) track ended. Pointlessly shit.
I've recently started falling asleep to a white noise machine, which is great because it distracts from the whine of my tinnitus. This helps distract from the whine of my thoughts. Some of the lyrics attempt to be address consumerist culture, whilst also glorifying death and pain in the typical (sigh) angst-ridden way that (yawn) heavy metal typically does. I'm not sure how anyone knows the lyrics without subtitles, mind. Take Caught ... In A Dream as an example, "Surrounding spectacle to occupy curiosity, Nullifies the need to face reality, Forms of escapism and entertainment, Occupy and disable thought." That's alright that is, but it sounded like, "Hrghbgt hrghbgthrghbgthrghb rghbgt hrghbgt hrghbgt! Hrghbgt hrghbgthrchbgthrghbgthrghbgt hrghbgt hrghbgt! Hrghbgt hrghbgthrghbgthrdbgthrghbgt hrghbgt hrghbgt, Hrghbgt hrghbgthrhh bgthrg gthrgh hrghbgt hrghbgt!" It would be a lot funnier if it wasn't painful to listen to.
MEIN GOTT!
This may be good for what it is but what it is ain't for me. I need more melodic variation and uhh music in my music.
I like a bit of chamber music... torture chamber music! (ba-dum tish) Not actually that awful. I was expecting something far worse. After he left the band the lead singer had quite a successful solo career in R&Bbq.
Listen, I like metal as much as the next guy (if the next guy were indifferent to metal), but even I can appreciate the catastrophe of an album that is Napalm Death's "Scum". There's not much to comment on, but I'll do my best. Scum is 33 minutes, and 28 "songs", brimming with the beautiful voices of drunken ogres crying for battle over a loud, heavily distorted, extremely crash-heavy percussion line that can't quite decide whether it wants to sound mildly professional or like some kid in a garage that's angry at his mom for grounding him. Honestly though, the drums aren't terrible, nor is the guitar - though I wish it was easier to hear the melodies and harmonies in the latter. The music is severely lacking in any kind of melody for the ear to grab onto, and this makes it horrendously difficult to properly engage with in any meaningful way. The question "what was your favourite song?" could not honestly be answered, because they're all puddles of equally unmemorable, bland, testosterone-laden mucus (or other excretions). In that regard, the songwriting is some of the weakest I've ever experienced in all my years of listening. I know I've already slammed the singing, but god, it's so terrible. Inexcusably so. Any form of singing with any effort put into it would be better. Even a regular speaking voice would've made this infinitely more listenable (though I would still give the album a 1/5 rating for a plethora of other reasons). It sounds like somebody vomiting, kicking dogs, and drinking a smoothie made primarily of braised beef and malic acid - all rolled into one miserable trainwreck of a vocal in an instrumental lineup that already didn't show much promise. I tried to enjoy "Scum". I really did. But it's unequivocally a contender for the worst album on this list. 1/5 Key tracks: none
a headache and a half but i know it's on purpose. i can still identify skill and interesting musical ideas even, just played extremely fast to the point of unrecognizability. makes sense that music like this exists but I will not be revisiting. 2
Screaming rhythmically and playing drums very fast does not result in music. Stopped after 5 tracks.
well ... why did anyone record this rubbish! No musical content, no vocals other than animal grunts, no variety ... in fact no content at all. Perhaps the worst album I've ever heard, every track sounds the same ... and they are all rubbish. Thats time I'll never get back again.
Holy hell that was an intense album. Very aggressive, very abrasive. It’s just not my thing. If it were 20 years ago I might have enjoyed this more, but it’s too much for me at my age (37). I honestly thought a lot of these songs were reprises or something, I found myself continuously checking to see if songs were repeating because they honestly blended together for me. Can’t give it a second star.
This album is just noise. It’s pretty good.
This music really spooked Peanut
This is a hard pass for me. I like a lot of the music, the guitars and drums, etc. I even like the hyper speed. But the singing style, sometimes described as puking into the mic,1 is unenjoyable in the extreme for me. I just can’t get past it. Full kudos for inventing grindcore though. https://open.substack.com/pub/richcain/p/project-1001-scum-by-napalm-death?r=4ztyq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I thought I was starting to understand metal. I was wrong. I don’t get it at all. I’m Su’s it’s some sorta technical masterpiece but it’s all moot when it’s just noise. 1/5
Not bad, but the vocal style of grindcore just doesn't suit me
My tolerance for this stuff is increasing but it was still a tough listen. Mercifully brief which keeps it from 1 territory.
The sound of dogs being beaten. Deserves 0 stars.
This was horrible. Obviously that’s the point and I’m not the audience for this but my God. Lowest rated album on this entire list for a reason.
Just noise. Shite.
What scares me is that there are supposedly three albums in this generator worse than this one.
Borderline unlistenable
Troglodytic yowls Metallic cacophony Blasted into you
I can't think of how many worthy albums were left off this list in order to put this one on. 0/7
Fast non technical metal, which is the opposite of what I usually prefer if metal. Really short tracks. Terrible vocal. The recording sounds like shit.
The screeching on track Success? is very relatable. I also want all drums to always sound like this.
Death metal was never my thing unfortunately, I did try
The instrumentals were excellent—raw, but passionate and well executed. The vocals sounded like a drunk Sylvester Stallone recorded them from outside the booth, and tbh did a disservice to the thoughtful lyrics.
Nicht mal ein Stern wert.
As I checked to see when the first song would finally end, I realized I was already on track eight...
Nice album, the lyrics are even somewhat meaningful, though not audible in music.
It's always fascinating when you are thoroughly entertained by something, but equally can't stand anything about it. Respect. 0 stars, but a higher 0 stars than Limp Bizkit. 0/5
Added a star because I like the anti-capitalist elements of the lyrics. Shame you can't understand them without reading along as you go Really not into the music or vocals at all I'm afraid
I’m an atheist but these dudes need Jesus.
This one isn't for everyone
3.75
Not interested and every song started the same. 1star
No, no, no. 1
Music for people who wear cilice belts
Powerful sludge metal but just not for me.
one of the worst things I’ve ever listened to.
1. multinational - 0 2. zurvival - 1 3. kill - 0 4. zcum - 1 5. dream - 1 6. mindz - 0 7. zacrificed - 1 8. pouuer - 1.5 9. control - 1 10. born - 1 11. garbage - 0 12. zuffer - 0 13. life - 0 14. prizon - 0 15. return - 0 16. negative - 0 17. zucezz - 0 18. deceiver - 0 19. c z - 1 20. parazitez - 0 21. youth - 0 22. death - 0 23. machine - 0 24. enemy - 0 25. moral - 0 26. ztigma - 0 27. mad - 0 28. drag - 0
Hahahahahahaha… oh it’s not a joke? Oops
Ha, it's great this is on this list. An absolute classic in pillar in grindcore. Never my favorite but it has a place.
Not an album I’d listen to often but one I understand the impact of and don’t hate
Lmao
Uhm, difficult to rate, agree with the message, very hard to discern though
My favorite part of this album is how short the songs are. It made me feel like I was getting to the end faster. However, there are like 70 goddamn songs and it just kept going. I will give Napalm Death credit though. They managed to be creative enough to come up with that many different song titles while somehow making them all sound EXACTLY the same! I find it hard to believe that even their #1 fan could correctly name one song on this album by anything other than a guess.
Very noisy
Extremely abrasive, but I managed to enjoy it after giving it a few spins. I prefer the first half of the record as it's more distinct and the sound is more akin to hardcore punk than metal. The album cover is great.
Is this a bit?
Absolute garbage
That fuckin ruled.
It’s crap but at least it’s short. Growling and screaming. Drums played at light speed. Terrible.
HardAF
This is dog 💩. Clearly not a 1001 album or a 5,001 album. Its just a show off of musicians just playing the same chord over and over again as fast as they can with a dog barking uninteligeble nonsense. This is a niche rock genere but very slim and small for a reason. 28 songs all about 45 seconds long. No one can withstand the accelerated pace of instrument playing for more than that amount. Still impressive speed but not impressive music. Death metal is NOT for me.
Not my thing at all.
I get why people like this kind of music, though clearly I am in the majority when I say I don’t. The singer sounds like he’s throwing up into microphone! Shoutout to the quick runtime though. It was an easy listen — didn’t even feel like 30 minutes.
Highlight of this album is a couple of songs around the middle that made me think "hm, maybe this isn't so bad", before promptly being remembered exactly why I wasn't enjoying this. It sounds like Motorhead if Lemmy was slightly more incomprehensible.
Великий альбом You Suffer>Любая песня The Beatles 8/10
Eh, some OK parts but even for grindcore a lot of this felt sloppy. Not the worst but prob wouldn't listen again even during a workout.
Fun metal album
An awesome swell of noise and chaos, that still somehow sounds like music.
An album that is actually not an album! Still this thing is one of the best things ever.
Sweet Mary mother of pearl, what is this that I just listened to??? Certainly this band is unhappy with the state of the world. How do I know? It is not by being able to understand ANY of the vocal "performance". I had to actually look at the lyrics to follow what was going on. If only fraction of the energy put into this "critique" of society was put into problem solving, the world would be a better place. This album is does not make the world a better place unless it proved to be therapy for the band. This is not required listening. For anyone.
Everyone should listen to this. It’s a seminal album of its genre. Then everyone should give it one star, because it’s rubbish
I’m sorry you had to listen to noise music for 33 minutes. I know it feels like the end of the world, but trust me…it will be ok.
Lol, what?
I had a whole story about seeing Napalm Death play at CBGB’s but am gonna skip it after reading that top review. I didn’t hate listening to this as much as I expected. “Siege of Power” kinda rules.
Thoughts before listening: You know, sometimes I open this app in the morning and I know it's going to be a good day because I get to listen to a nice pleasant album all day...and then other times you realize that you'll have to suffer through Napalm Death. Being into heavier music in the 90s, I was aware of bands like Napalm Death who had been around for a few years putting out extreme metal albums, but I just always assumed it was going to be too over the top for me. Something tells me I was right. Review: So some of this music is good. Cool metal riffs that are played at a fast pace similar to hardcore punk or industrial, both of which are genres I can stand in moderation. However, where this band loses me is when the vocals start. This style of growled, incoherent singing is just such a major turn off for me. At least it means I can't understand the lyrics. I'm sure this is a revered album to fans of this style of metal, but I'm not in that demographic. 1-star
ett plus för you suffer
I'd gladly marathon this over the likes of Adele or Taylor Swift any day of the week.
I wish I was cool enough to like this more... but I'll probably do a 2/5. I appreciate that this was genre-defining... but I don't think it came into its own yet. I might bump it up for being groundbreaking. I know people that are in grindcore bands. Never was my favorite.
Scream-o not for me
I don't mind metal, it's not my fav, but it's ok. That said, this wasn't good. The "singer" can't scream well. It's just... it sounds almost like funny animal sounds. I wouldn't have put this album on the list.
The two sides are remarkably consistent given the drummer is the only constant member, yet he does drive the show. I love many ugly records, but they need to have charisma or flourish, which this purposely eschews: grindcore is grimy and smelly, though there’s joy in this, glee too. I admire this record and probably won’t listen to it again. The toddler liked this, perhaps because I referred to it “as poo poo music”. When we had Taylor Swift on in the car later, he protested and asked for poo poo music.
Hate to go with the crowd here, but this album is pretty terrible. Tuneless noise with limited variation, although it doesn't deserve its position near the bottom of this list - not while Korn and Ryan Adams draw breath anyway. Reading the history of Napalm Death, it seems they changed vocalists between this and later work (perhaps understandably). Unfortunately, that means I don't get to share my Barney anecdote here (think "Shady Lane")
These vocals are too funny to give it one star.
Scum is the debut studio album by Napalm Death, originally released in 1987. I'm so surprised to hear these guys are English. They seem to have been very influenced by the US hardcore punk scene. The lyrics to this record are actually pretty powerful/thought provoking, although they are indecipherable without a lyric sheet. Even then, the printed lyrics sound nothing like what you are hearing. The drums are another thing that stood out to me.. holy shit are they heavy. The playing is so chaotic, aggressive, and quite frankly impressive. Blast beats are very hard to do. I give this album major credit for being different than a lot of shit on this list and being very interesting to listen to.
I didn’t understand a single lyric. I can’t remember a melody that grabbed me. I’ll never voluntarily listen to this again. Yet, I get it in the context that it’s something really different from a lot of what’s on this list.
The most romantic album I've ever heard.
The one good thing I can say about this: I was late for work this morning and listening to this on my bike made me cycle faster and get there on time. Other than that: hated every second.
I can believe that there is something worthwhile buried under the noise, as hinted at by the surprising surf rock rhythm in "Scum", but I won't be around to figure out what that is. This album is quintessentially what turns me off metal, and is everything I don't like in music. I can't think of a mood where this is anything but exhausting to me.
ARRHHHH ARRHHH *fast music* DOUAARHH DOAURR
Erm. It was ok. Wouldnt listen to again tho.
1,5
Hressandi. Frumkvöðlaverk að vissu leyti.
It's not the easiest listen, granted. But it's easier to listen to than Mariah Carey.
Obviously you have to have very specific tastes to really latch onto abrasive sub-genres like this and truly be in love with them. It isn't my personal taste, but I do recognize the appeal of this album to those who are into that style.
The album was sitting at a 1.5 and then it got worse. 1.
I liked the first half of the album better than the second. Personal enjoyment: 3/5 Relevance to this list: 5/5
You Suffer
I get it. Most will not try to because it is too challenging.
Expected this to be hard work, but got to the end wanting more.
It wasn't pleasant, but I appreciate how upset this makes everyone. 3 stars
Metal AF
decent
If nothing else, Napalm Death certainly pack a lot into this album whether they are being paid by the song or the note. Twenty eight song songs in just over half an hour has to be some sort of record, with You Suffer clocking in at just 4 seconds. Genuinely amazing. Listening to this is like standing on top of a cliff in a howling storm screaming into the wind and just as bracing. I’ve listened twice today and just put it on again for a third go.
OK it's not the easiest album to listen to, but the truth is it's an impressive album: despite the apparent chaos, it's far from a mess (actually you can't play at this speed and being messy, else it would only be a maelstrom), it's actually pretty diverse (all things considered), and you should definitely read the lyrics (yeah, I won't lie, it's hard to hear them). Face A and B are quite different (basically performed by different musicians) and I prefer the sound of the first side, but they're honestly both strong. And it's the right length to avoid to be bored. It's so refreshing, it's hard to think that this album is closed to 40 years old!
Wa wa wee wa, is grindcore not my thing!
big metal fan. FUCK death metal
It was okay. I was told that with time your brain would get used to the usual stimulation and it would force you to seek out more and more perverted genres, but it never happened to me.
and it's still better than The Beatles
something different rather than the normal copy paste rock and roll albums on here
Unfamiliar tunes Now part of classroom study. You suffer, but why? Sonically a two for me personally, but curiosity bumps it to a three.
I am 16 years old, politely waiting through six bands that sound like this to see one I like. music: hated, but not all that much. (⌐■_■)
I believe this is the first album so far, where I knew right off the bat that I wasn’t going to subject my family to it. Either way, I liked it alright, I think it’s cool that it exists, and I think every single person who one starred it is a huge nerd. I’d much rather listen to Napalm Death than another Elvis Costello.
This is definitely NOT my kind of music, Sorry
My wife says it’s not even worth commenting on. I think she’s right.
Y'all don't know. This is why we're here. Get uncomfortable.
I saw the name of the band, the name of the album, and the cover and was immediately filled with dread. Then I saw the incredibly short lengths of each song and thought, “Oh that’s not so bad. If I don’t like a song, it won’t last very long and maybe I’ll like the next one.” Yeah, no. That was a nice thought but it doesn’t apply here. I won’t say a whole lot here. How anyone can begin to understand what the fuck the lyrics are is beyond me. They clearly have a message but it gets completely lost because he sounds like he’s mumbling while constipated. At one point one of them sounds like Animal from the muppets. All the songs blend together because of their similar sound and short lengths. I can appreciate the musicianship but that’s about it. There’s a track called “You Suffer.” Yes, yes I did. First ever one star (though I would change a couple retroactively). Oof. Standout Tracks: Siege of Power
A couple decent sections here and there but at the end of the day it feels like unintelligible garbage. Did it potentially have an impact on the metal scene? Who knows, but this album simply isn't something I'd ever like to revisit. The second side seemed a little more polished and most of the band as they are known now were not involved in the record so it seems this was a discovery/concept piece.
Yep, that’s metal. I can get what they’re doing, but more than 30 minutes of this gets my blood boiling.
All the songs sound the same. With that being said, I don't hate it
The vocals get really grating after a while. I'd like it better if they were less guttural and at least somewhat intelligible. Why even bother writing lyrics if no one's gonna understand shit? It's even more annoying because I looked up the lyrics and I actually liked them I don't know if I'll be returning to this album but I somewhat enjoyed listening to it (the music, not the damn vocals)
My friend who turned me on to this project calls the death metal voice "Cookie Monster Voice". It's on full display here. I'm not a metal fan, especially all the horror and death references but if you could take the unintelligible lyrics out of this, the music is pretty cool. Punk + Cookie Monster + Death = This. Really short songs make any album easier to listen to, even if it is twice as many songs. Having some trouble discerning one song from the next though. I cannot understand a single word of these lyrics. Some of these "songs" are just noise. The longer this album goes, the less I like it...not because the songs are worse, but because they are all undistinguishable from one another. I'm only guessing that the lyrics are supposed to be more coherent than The Cocteau Twins but they are equally unintelligible. This is broken up into 28 songs but could just as easily be one 33 minute song if they skipped the breaks between tracks. "Microsongs" are stupid, the song "You Suffer" is less than 2 seconds long, it's like one note and one word.
nah.
Finally some Metal! But this album should not be on this list. I don't understand why this record. Perhaps they are on here ironically: "this record is so important. This is how you DON'T record an album." Seriously, it is so muffled and hard to hear what is going on. It sounds like they recorded everything off the floor but put the mic in a box, in a separate room. The vocals are why people either make fun of metal or have a negative view on metal vocals. Aside from some cool riffs. This record is a dud. I get it, the drummer can do blast beats. Yippee. But what else? It's so boring. Perhaps it was pushing the envelope in the late 80s. Apparently this record was recorded in 2 separate sessions with basically two separate bands. The only member that remained the same was Sir Blast Beats on the drums. I'd have left the first session too. And never return. Due to how shit this record is.
nope
well I hated that‼️‼️ i wish I could understand wtf they’re saying!!!????? Like? I looked at the lyrics and yeah so real I hate capitalism but also????? I hate this genre of music idk
33 minutes of what the fuck the saddest part is this wasn't too bad when there was no vocals, there's some great guitar work (SOMETIMES....), that sounds great put together with the drums (e.g. the tracks, Scum and Human Garbage would've been great without the vocals) i understand that grindcore is supposed to be very loud and layered and abrasive, but that also makes it hard to listen to! metal already is a largely inaccessible genre, in part due to new age metalheads who love to hate! but also because of the oversaturation and intense branching into subgenres, and it seems kind of counterproductive to put an album like this on a MUST LISTEN list the potential is there, kill the guy who's yelling over everything! i will say that i appreciate not being bored for a second of this album, i guess? i don't have a point of reference, as i'm not a grindcore fanatic, but i assume Napalm Death achieved whatever the hell they set out to do here, so good for them, but it is NOT for me 1/5
yeah, that was fun. i never really listened to them properly back then, though i was for sure aware of them. i probably wouldn't have cared for them much then, and i really don't care one way or the other now. i do appreciate just how far outside the 1987 mold they are here. props to that.
I’ve come to enjoy hardcore music more and more as I’ve aged (the reverse of many people) and I actually really enjoyed this album. On a separate note, I can definitely see why conservatives hate this now that I’ve read the lyrics. Some SUPER pointed language at consumerism, imperialism, capitalism, and modern laziness and greed. ESPECIALLY considering it came out in the 80’s.
Yeah… not my thing… but I got what I expected
Guttural and grotesque. Also deadly dull. After painstakingly close listening one was able to discern some English language lyrics: it was something to do with wanting pancakes rather intensely. One will round up to a 1 because they were likely LA's most punctual band.
Absolutely not.
Yep that’s a grindcore album. I wonder if this is what two robots having angry sex sounds like.
HARD...NO. I can't even put into words how out of my wheelhouse this is. Obviously this is for some people or it wouldn't be on here. But it's not for me.
Not a genre I am into.
Not for me.
not good 1 star
Fav: N/A Least Fav: Literally everything about this
I might actually agree with their socio-political points, but it’s rather hard to say. It would help if they just took a deep breath and tried again to articulate why they’re so upset. It’s almost like a toddler babbling about an injustice on the playground, which undermines the legitimacy of their complaints against multinational corporations and such. At least the tracks were kept to a tolerable length.
Was it really 28 songs or 28 variations of the same song? Like a child’s tantrum, thankfully it was over quickly.
That one part in the song where he said, "Borogoroga waagaja!" Man! It really hit me in the feels. Such tender restraint. And then there was that other song where they all thrashed on their instruments for a minute or so, melodically. Just wow! Jesus Christ. This is why Animal isn't the lead singer in Electric Mayhem.
Yeah, nah.
Terrible. Could only handle the first few tracks of unintelligible screaming.
It's a 7/10 for me, but I have to give it five stars. This pushes metal music to the extreme. You need to hear it to believe it. This is very much an album that everybody should experience at least once. Sheer brutality and madness. I love it.
The beginning of grindcore, and I love grindcore.
The singer sounds like he is barking
Important as a historical artifact and it's influence, no fun to listen to (and I like Napalm Death in general)
Not for me - sorry
Noisy and unintelligible it may be, but it's still less irritating than the Pet Shop Boys. Respect the chops!
I like the music but the singing is the funniest here. Why do they even write lyrics? They could just shout lalalalalala or woooouuurrragh!
-Wow this is definitely one of the albums of all time! -First of all I’m not gonna be one of those people who blindly shits on “hardcore” music or claims it isn’t music but… yeah. Get these men some lozenges! Props to making the world’s shortest song and some cool guitar/drum work though -Favorites are Instinct Of Survival and Scum
Mindblowing in its time, and the themes of the record are still very relevant today.
As someone who’s heard a lot of dudes death growl the sentence, “I wanna see you open this fucking pit up!!” in her lifetime, I was already primed to love Scum, an album I somehow just never got around to, despite the infamy of “You Suffer” and the overall short runtime of this album. And yeah, it’s fucking incredible! If you hate extreme music genres in general, yeah, you’re not going to like Scum or any grindcore for that matter, or even anything lighter, like death metal. But thankfully, I like extreme music, and this album hits a sweet spot for me, mixing my love of punk and death pretty evenly. Side A alone would warrant Napalm Death’s deserved placement on this list, as it includes insane blast beats, infamously short songs, and insane shreds that pushed extreme metal to its breaking point. Side A also shows so much variety, and just picking up my favorites of “Instinct of Survival,” “Scum,” “Siege of Power,” and “Born on Your Knees,” you can clearly hear the diversity of their sound, as long as you don’t walk into this listen looking to mock this album for sounding the same. But then, Side B takes everything from Side A and makes it look like doo-wop music by comparison, increasing the speed and making the guitars lower and nastier. But there’s still great songs in that space, like “Success?,” “Common Enemy,” “Moral Crusades,” or even “Parasites,” which somehow fits a guitar solo in there! Scum incorporates every vocal technique, every blast beat, every downtuned guitar style – everything you could imagine wanting from extreme metal, and hands it all to you in a tight 33-minutes, and it’s amazing. Sure, it’s abrasive, and you’re certainly allowed to not enjoy extremity in music, but if you like or even desire extremity, Scum is a pinnacle, a high water mark. While I think other bands took what Napalm Death did here and added to it, but very few have done *all of it*, especially in one record, and even fewer have done it with this level of expertise. A pure game-changer, and an essential listen.
Fkn joises
Kind of just hit me as a worse version of thrash metal, though I know that this is influential.
This is not what I usually listen to, but there's some interesting musicianship here. You Suffer is a great song! I like how they can pack so much into a 45-second song.
Awful
That was horrible.
A master class in drumming! Palpable aggression and impressive energy.
absolutely not
Not one damn clue of a single word said during this entire album. GREAT for going on a run
2.5
I like heavy, but nah - this one is just not for me.
Interesting, like a dog barking
Not for me, I think you have to be in a certain mood, or of a certain mindset to listen to this... maybe back when it was released I would have listened more.. but not to my taste now.
Not a fan. As I was trying to get through the album , I kept thinking I am definitely not the target audience and was glad the songs were brief.
Firstly, I am not a metal fan but have heard things I like. Second, my words will fall utterly short and should multiplied by a factor of 100. Third, I am proud to say I listened to the whole thing apart from the many moments I needed to take the earphones off to wipe the blood off. This is pure noise of the highest and most extreme order. It is the sound of a 1000 trainwrecks crashing into exploding space shuttles that are filled with all manner of life earthly and otherwise. It is the soundtrack of a horror movie that should never ever be made. In its best moments it was disturbing but mostly it was painful and I am concerned it left me with a distinct craving for human flesh.
I didn't know what grindcore was before this album, and I still don't, but this was pretty interesting overall. The weird setup for the album, with essentially different bands making the two sides of the album, is unique in my experience. Weirdly, I'm not sure that I heard a huge difference between the punk and metal halves of the album, but TBF I'm also a cretin 3/5
Excruciatingly horrible/awesome music AKA Grindcore. I love it, I love the brutality and total disregard for anything that anyone at the time would have considered musical. I love the artwork and I love what some of these musicians went on to accomplish, especially Bill Steer (listen to Carcass).
Tavallaan hauskaa, kun ei tätä kuunnellessa tiedä, mitä seuraavaksi tulee, mutta aika samaa sieltä tulee. Ero vain, onko lyhyt vai pitkä biisi ja muutetaanko rytmiä jossain vaiheessa. En inhoa tän kuuntelemista missään nimessä ja arvostan konseptia (sekä kasarikaikuja).
Kahden vokalistin yhteispeli toimii. Musiikissa myös johtomotiivin kaltaisia elementtejä. Valitettavasti tuplabasari ja blast beat vaikuttavat tylsistyttävästi. Levyyn puutuu ainakin vain pari kertaa kuunnelleena.
Reminds me of the time I got stuck in the back of a bar in Dresden in my wheelchair waiting on the accessible loo while a couple drunk lads were banging away on a horrid young lass while this shit raged on in the bar. Don’t think they even realized she was a tranny, the drunk buggers.
One of the most bizarre and schizophrenic things I've ever heard. This is what metal sounds like to people who don't like metal. It did actually win me over a little bit just because of how absurd it was. Unfortunately so far the metal representation on this list has been awful
I've listened to a lot of albums in my life and I think this is the absolute worst one I've ever subjected myself to. Fair play.
This was a tough listen but I do think it has some merits
3 1/2 Armotonta.
Innovative for its time
Lots of noise for no reason. There were brief moments of clarity. Lyrically, couldn't understand a thing. Sometimes you connect to the lyrics or you connect with the music. Very difficult to make a connection with either.
Can't really tell one song from the next. I don't know what we're yelling about.
1.5. I don't really like/get blast beats or grindcore in general.
As a metalhead I feel very comfortable in saying that this is utterly ridiculous, but it's so unique I have to rate it.
love how bad it is. just screaming. great
28 canciones, 33 minutos. Sacrificed suena como cuando me baño con agua fría en invierno. Y bueno, los amigos que fueron a Dresden a divertirse merecen este disco.
I mean, at least it has the world's shortest song. Other than that, I hated it.
God I hated this album. I won’t say any more about it. It sucked
28 songs in 33 minutes and nary an intelligible work to be heard. Honestly - this wasn’t as terrible as I expected. It sort of became white noise after a bit and I didn’t hate it.
I like metal and sometimes death metal but there’s a mood and when you’re not in it this just doesn’t hit right. For what it is and how short the album was I wasn’t too harsh in my ratings.
Scum It's just fast and shouty. I was expecting something so aggressive and abrasive that it would be shocking. But it's just fast drumming and unintelligible shouting, and it just feels silly. If you are sad and/or angry then I can see the appeal in making and listening to this type of thing, and good on them for doing it and hopefully it is cathartic. Clearly it's not made for me, and I dislike just dismissing stuff that isn't my thing, but I'm struggling to work out the point of this - at least with other metal we've had I can work out the intent and it doesn't sound as daft as this does. Maybe its that with Iron Maiden or Metallica, even though I'm not into it or them, I can see their contribution to the lineage of metal, building on what came before, but this feels like a logical end point, a musical cul de sac of 30 second songs, super fast with no melody and incomprehensible shouting. I still loath to give it 1 though, it doesn't annoy me in the way Xtina does ⭐⭐
Shit. Didn't even listen cause reviews were so bad.
I listened to this while playing Mad Max and it fit pretty well. This is abrasive, nasty grindcore before there even was such a thing. It isn't the best ND album but listening to it again I have to say it isn't as bad as most reviews will say it is. My neighbours probably hate me because I liked it so much I also listened to the Full Dynamic range version to see if I noticed a difference. I didn't but this is a great album.
Extreme, heavy, influential, based 😎🤘
I suppose your hands and arms get fatigued after about a minute or so of thrashing. I've often wondered about albums that seemingly don't have a melodic (seemingly) flow to it, how the musicians can remember which song they're playing or are about to play. A real testament to their brilliance! Are sacrificed and polluted minds songs, or are they like pallet cleansers? Like when a musician needs to clear his head by playing just random stuff until he frees himself up? In seige of power, I thought they were going to end the song at the 1:40 mark... but not! Even after reading the lyrics, I couldn't make out what they lead singer was trying to say. Must be French.
Okay, that was quite an adventure, but in the spirit of art and attitude, i'm not entirely without appreciation for this. The more it sounds like music, the easier it is to appreciate. Certainly Siege of Power is a pretty strong song.... part of Scum and M.A.D. also are enough tone and mood that are done with the instruments. Much of the rest is aggressive crazy energy. Just wild to have songs that are less than a minute, including one that is less than 2 seconds. The Side One band is my favorite... the little gremlin voice the dude uses (especially at the end of Divine Death) don't make the music better. I chuckled to myself quite a bit while listening. Quite fun.
1/5 Just because the noise that comes from the flat below mine from a noisy fan is considered noise.
Interesting album. Early thrash. 28 songs in 33 minutes is a crazy approach.
Well... It does (did?) push the boundaries of what music is. By reading some of the reviews, it also elicits a lot of different emotions, you don't forget this album even if you don't enjoy it. Perhaps why it's on the list.
I remember at the time thinking that this was the last stop on the punk rock train. Where do you go from there? Which was kind of the case. I’ve listed to this a few times and am maybe oddly attracted to it because it’s on the hairy edge of just completely terrible. It belongs on the list because it should be experienced.
Fast and loud. Not bad. Not my first choice for something fast and loud.
I hated this album. Hated, hated, hated it. At least it was short. I guess the drums were okay. But good god, when the best songs are 45 seconds long and the singer doesn't sing, it's just not good.
A full on assault and I mean that in the best way. This is like adrenochrome for ears. Can’t say this is something I am always in the mood for, but it’s great for what it is.
0 stars I was unable to locate the 0 stars option.
Some good thrashy riffs, and some crazy drumming, but I didn't exactly enjoy listening to it. I tend to like heavier music / metal in general, but this is a bit too much.
Couldn’t understand one lyric. Didn’t enjoy but if I was into heavy heavy heavy long hair jamming metal I might enjoy.
This is some real demonic depths of hell type shit. Not the vibes I anticipated jamming out to today but, when in Rome, I guess. The drums on this album are absolutely mind boggling. Guitar hits pretty hard too. I'm typically not a fan of screemo just because the vocals get tiresome. I prefer a mix of singing and screaming. Could do without the gurgling. But if you just focus all your attention on the drums and let the vocals fall to the background, this album gets a lot better. I will say, I did not enjoy the band switch up halfway through the album. I felt the first half was a lot stronger on the guitar and just had a more aesthetic, less goofy sound.
Honestly not as bad as I was expecting given the review. Much better if you imagine it's being performed by a small dog. Still better than Korn
Þetta var hræðilegt.
Svakalega þétt en of þungt fyrir mig.
More grindcore and less boomer rock please and thank you. This album rules, and is only like... the 6th or 7th best Napalm Death record. The review section for this one is awesome, ya'll are a bunch of full on dweebs
Mossels, mossels, mossels... Grappig om dit extra zacht te draaien, dan wordt het een soort brullende kabouter op de achtergrond.
Wiki meldt dat het album uit twee delen bestaat. Voor beide delen werd een andere line-up neergezet. Alleen de drummer doet op beide delen mee. Ik neem aan omdat hij volgens wiki de enige muzikant was. Wiki laat nog even weten dat er in 1986 geen enkel label geïnteresseerd was. Tot zover de reclame. En eerlijk is eerlijk. Ze maken die beloftes toch waar. Alles is gericht op de snelle drums. Er is totaal geen aandacht voor andere muzikale aspecten, zoals overgangen. (O, wacht. Het zijn gewoon heel korte 'nummers'). En de zang is gewoon belachelijk. Het eerste deel is wat die 'zang' betreft het ergste. Eindoordeel: kinderachtig
We hebben weer een voorloper, maar dan van een genre dat op zichzelf sowieso al kut is. Ik was vooraf van plan om een rits bands op te zoeken, dat wel de moeite van het luisteren waard is. Maar dat zou weer een project worden ter grootte van mijn Taylor Swift project en daar kreeg ik ook al weinig mensen warm voor. Dus we houden het hier gewoon bij een recensie van dit kutalbum. Het geschreeuw is lachwekkend. De drums is gewoon zo snel mogelijk op die vellen rossen. Alleen de gitaar wil af en toe nog een beetje grooven, maar meestal doet het simpelweg mee met het armoedige minuutje geluid dat de meeste nummers ons bieden. Pak hem beet 30 nummers in even zoveel minuten, die ook nog eens allemaal op elkaar lijken. Ik heb al meer inspiratie in deze review gestopt, dan die gasten in hun 'muziek'.
felt like I was back at a basement show in junior year. not my favorite
You know, based on the album cover, I probably would agree with what they're singing about if I could just understand what they were saying.
I was intimated at first at the 28 tracks then realized it’s only 33min! I listened to it low. This is less the type of vocals I enjoy in metal/hard rock. It’s also monotonous- I can’t tell songs apart especially when some are so short. Siege of Power was the only one I could hear a semblance of musicality. Hard time getting through it.
There are brief glimpses in here of cohesive riffs like on the title track Scum, but it's just so muddy throughout. I cannot connect with singing like this, even though I know it's the desired effect. 1.5/5
Yesterday’s music was kind of like fairy music, very ethereal and fun and light. But today’s music was like the devil’s music, crazy headbanging screaming music!
I have no problems with really heavy music. Watain is one of my favorite bands. With that being said: this was shit. It sounds either like a demo or a parody. The A-side was slightly better but still not an album I enjoyed.
what a load of shite 1/5
Not a metal fan, but one thing I do like about this album is that it was short. Only 2 songs were longer than 2 minutes long, and it meant nothing I listened to became stale or boring. Didn't like it at all, mostly for the unintelligible and monotonous lyrics that all sound exactly the same, but I'm so thankful that the experience was over in under 35 minutes.
I liked it I just would’ve liked to have been able to know what they were saying a little better.
Nope. This is what a garbage truck on fire filled with drunk rats sounds like.
Not a huge fan of this particular metal sub-genre. I appreciate the energy from the frenetic rhythm, but nothing else.
I can appreciate the musical talent but the vocals are incomprehensible unfortunately
Not the first time I've heard Napalm Death, but definitely the first time I've actually listened to them. I actually like some (but definitely not all) of the instrumentals, but the vocalist sometimes sounds like Randy Marsh having a psychotic meltdown.
Sorry. This isn't for me.
Greatest soundtrack to comedy movie about metal music yet to be written.
I listened to my share of thrash back in the day in junior high - Metallica, Slayer, COC, DRI, Celtic Frost. Somehow I missed this one since it may have come right after. I rent a rehearsal room in a warehouse, and now I know the influence of what I hear ad naseum for the last 25 years where I live. My wife says zero stars but I’ll give it one for its influence :)
I like metal, but not like this. Not. Like. This.
I think this album’s biggest flaw, if I could pick only one, would be that there are almost 30 songs on the album in about 30 minutes. This doesn’t give the listener any time to get invested in the music. Feels like right when it gets going it stops. The shitty production and lackluster writing don’t help. Instrumentation is the only thing here that feels inspired. Like the album cover though. 2/5
A little goes a long way here
For a metal album, it's not bad. It's just not my style.
This album seems to be pretty infamous and I didn’t really get anything out of it. I think I zone out a lot when listening to metal. Not my genre, but also nothing stuck out to me, so I’ll give it a 2.
Grindcore. Historical importance aside, this album is pretty messy. Sometimes in the good sense, sometimes bad. It's fast, heavy, chaotic, noisy, aggressive, and even political. I love grindcore usually, this was no exception. I really did like most of this album, but it lacks any kind of focus. I get that both halves have different members and one is basically a demo and blah blah blah. But it really slumps after the first half for me. It got a bit too samey and production differences were not in a direction I liked. However, the whole album is kickass blas beats and loud shitty vocals and fast riffing. It rules even when it loses focus. Might revisit, I should listen to their other stuff some time. 4/5
Turn the hardcore dial up to 11 and keep going. Noisy brutal and short. Probably the only appropriate aesthetic response to the nightmare global political economy consolidating itself in the late 80s: the real grindcore was going on in SE Asian export processing zones. Some really good chugging riffs, some blasted to hell beats, some ghoulish screaming. Not your sunny Sunday morning coffee and toast music, but when your in the mood to rage, it's hard to think of anything going harder than this. Plus, I heard Ian Napalm and the rest of the fellas are big into orienteering.
Oof
Meh