I know nothing about grind, that is an honest fact about my life. I don’t really listen to the genre but the band Napalm Death stick out to me. Mainly because the stuff I’ve listened to is more metal than their earlier works. The Code Is Red… Long Live The Code is Napalm Death’s new album which is a step up from Enemy Of The Music Business which I can not dig at all. This is enjoyable though, it has the same old stuff. Blast beats, grinding guitars and death metal grunts and screaming.
The album follows the same formula as I described but they are darn good at pulling it off. The songs are fast and the energy is pumping. Usually an old band like this seems bored on their later albums. Not here, these guys are full of life and kicking it 80s grind style! The Code Is Red… Long Live the Code is Napalm Death in 2005 with almost 25 years of chaos under their belt. They have been a humongous influence in the grind scene and probably still have the throne to most definite grind band.
Fun Fact: There are no original members in Napalm Death now.
The band is definitely talented and it shows on this album. I was amazed at Mark’s vocals since I thought no human could make such a low voice. He proved me wrong and his grunting and screaming is deep from his stomach. He also makes the songs more heavy and angry. Shane is nice at what he does, his bass adds a nice chunkiness to the music and it adds to the music like most grind bassists do. Mitch is not technically advanced as a guitarist but, he is great at just adding spicy treble oriented chords to the chaos. Danny is cool at drums using blast beats and technical beats and rhythm and it adds speed to the music. He is great at what grind drums are supposed to do, keep everything flowing.
For some reason I dare to say it, some of the music is catchy in its own sick, sad little way. Opener “Silence is deafening” is short bursts of pure mental energy. Though it was an ear-bleeding experience for me the first time I listened to it, it soon evolved to some weird catchiness which just stays in my head for ages. Once you get into it, it’s hard to get it back out. The title track “The Code Is Red… Long Live the Code” also has a weird catchy anthemic chorus which is a bitch to get out your head. This is definitely not for a casual listener as it might be too extreme and brutal. You need to pay attention to this music as everything might blend together if you don’t listen properly. This could be a turn-off for the album considering that the album can get very repetitive but what would you expect from grind?
This album is 16 (or 15 if you have the normal version) tracks of chaos, no cheesy acoustic ballads here just strong force. Every track follows the same formula of blast beats, raging guitar and deep death metal style vocals. When listened to in 2005, this band would seem just like any other grind band but think of this band in 1985 where glam rock and thrash reined the music scene. The band where out of place but certainly not for long as they started a new scene when grind was becoming explosive and I’m sure every grind band has been influenced by them one way or another. Napalm Death has changed from before albums though:
The songs are longer, while albums such as Scum had one minutes songs and the infamous “You Suffer”, Napalm Death have now stretched the songs to 3-4 minutes with some short songs to show they haven’t ditched the old formula completely. Also, instead of a big 40 tracks on an album, they can now put it down to a normal 15 track album. The production is definitely different. Earlier albums has a two zero budget while in the 21st century you can hear everything perfectly without the lack of production to bring you down. There is a newer more modern sound on this album. The production is well better with a bigger budget and there are slight hints that modern day grind bands have given them some ideas. The circle of grind goes on!
Fun Fact: The Code Is Red… Long Live the Code is a play on the phrase ‘The King Is Dead… Long Live the King’
So the main question is, with so many classic albums under there belt, is this still as good as previous albums? You betcha!
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Recommended:
Silence Is Deafening
The Code Is Red… Long Live the Code
Instruments of Persuasion
