Customer Reviews

Code Is Red: Long Live the Code (Bonus CD)

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Napalm Death is the only band around who is writing some of their very best material after almost 20 years in the scene. All of ND's stuff is good, but since they left earache the material has been phenomenal. This is no exception. "The Code is Red...Long Live the Code" is one of the best napalm albums yet. I can't see any fan being disappointed by this.

The departure of Jesse Pintado makes this the first album since "Harmony Corruption" to feature a different line up. Thankfully, ND have not let it slow them down one bit. Mitch Harris carries the guitar duties just fine without the aide of Jesse. Barney's vocals are as vicious as ever, with some of the best and most intelligent lyrics yet. Danny Herrera's drumming is terrific with plenty of variety but also plenty of blasting! The drums also sound much better than they did on "Order of the Leech". I'm not sure if they are triggered or not, and that's a good thing. the drums on OOTL were triggered to the point of sounding mechanical. On TCIR...LLTC the drums sound much more natural and blend well with the music. And what can be said for Shane Embury? He is a grindcore legend.

The songwriting on this album is much more varied than OOTL. As one previous reviewer said, we are seeing an integration here of the many styles of ND. This album has a greater variety of song lengths, with 3 songs clocking in over 4 minutes and 3 under 2 minutes. One of these actually speeds by in under a minute, a real treat for old school grind fans! There are a number of lightning fast grind songs but this time we also have a couple slow tracks ("Morale," "Our Pain is their Power") in a style that has not been heard since the diatribes era. A couple songs also feature guitar riffs that sound reminiscent of "Words from the Exit Wound's" more melodic style of playing. The guest vocals from Jamey Jasta (hatebreed), Jello Biafra, and Jeff Walker (ex-CARCASS, of course!) also add character to a few of the songs.

Also noteworthy are some of the background vocals. Mitch Harris adds some ear shattering highs to a few of the tracks which make a great contrast to Barney's gruff vocals. Some of the tracks (if I'm not mistaken) also feature barney's funny high screams that he first performed on "Leaders Not Followers: part 1". A nice addition.

All in all, this is one of the BEST napalm albums and an essential grind record. The music is brutal and the songwriting is top notch. Napalm Death are truly the kings of this genre and they have proven themsleves yet again.

Coming on the heels of one of the best cover albums of all time, The Code is Red...Long Live the Code does not disappoint. Napalm Death is back minus one. Jesse Pintado left the group after the LNF 2 album for a variety of drug/alcohol related issues. He is missed on The Code is Red, but Mitch Harris carries the load admirably. Barney is in top form (as always) and his voice dominates tracks like Instruments of Persuasion (w/Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed). Instruments works well vocally with the call and response between Jasta and Greenway. Musically this album is just as brutal as Order of the Leech and Enemy of the Music Industry. Harris, Embury and Herrera meld their madness perfectly. Danny Herrera's drumming is evolving into legendary status with his breakneck speed and blast beats, this album is a large step forward for him. What makes this album stand out from the other Napalm Death offerings is the guest vocal appearances. Jello Biafra pops up on The Great and The Good but his vox are severely overpowered by Barney, still it is one of the stronger tracks. Some of the other standouts here are Silence is Deafening, The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code, Striding Purposefully Backwards, Vegetative State and Climate Controllers. Overall, this is another must-own album from Birmingham's finest. Highly Recommended.

There could be many reasons why Barney and the gang chose to make their eleventh full-length release, 2005's "The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code," the heaviest of their twenty-plus-year career. It could be they did it simply just because, well, they could. Or, it could be that since this was their first studio effort in three years, the band was hungry to mount a comeback that would take the world by storm. But the most likely reason is that this is Napalm friggin' Death (darn it!), and they've never been known to take the easy way out by going soft or opting for an even remotely accessible sound.

There are a few surprises to be heard on this album. For one, whereas 2000's "Enemy of the Music Business" and 2002's "Order of the Leech," were more along the lines of being death metal albums, "The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code" features a much stronger and more pronounced grindcore influence. Next, quite a few of the songs possess fairly strong doomy undertones. And finally, several guest vocalists make an appearance over the course of these fifteen tracks, including The Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra, Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta, and Carcass' Jeff Walker.

But all the usual Napalm Death hallmarks are still firmly in place here, including head-spinning speed, skull-crushing heaviness, and impeccable, airtight musicianship. Longtime axeman Mitch Harris unleashes one scalding riff and steamrolling lead after another; frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway's foaming-at-the mouth bellows have never sounded this visceral or ferocious; and Mitch Harris' drumming - an incessant stream of raw, chaotic, impossibly tight, and relentlessly jackhammering blast beats - is classic grindcore. When all of these things are combined, the result is a devastatingly brutal, 45-minute long onslaught which effortlessly crushes the listener like a tank as soon as he or she presses the PLAY button, and just keeps piling on the layers of sonic violence. Indeed, the pain and carnage induced by this record are positively pleasurable!

The ironically titled opener, "Silence is Deafening," is a complete trainwreck of blazing guitars, cracking drums, a doomy breakdown, and Barney's full-bodied roars accented by shrieking, Black Dahlia Murder-esque refrains which are downright catchy (who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick?!) Back on more familiar ground, "Right You Are" and "Pay for the Privilege of Breathing," are two vicious, blindsiding sneak-attacks which evoke Napalm Death circa 1987 (the "Scum" era) almost to the tee. And the assault never lets up - even when you're already lying on the ground in a bloody pulp, along comes a track like the pummeling "Diplomatic Immunity" to kick you in the head and elbow you in the ribs.

Tracks like the title cut and "Climate Controllers" are more mid-tempo and groove-oriented, and have undeniable punk edges in their arrangements (a trend Napalm Death started on "Enemy of the Music Business"). Elsewhere, see "Instruments of Persuasion" and "Sold Short" for some absolutely top-notch and rapid-fire trapkit battery ("Instruments of Persuasion" also highlighted by memorable, call-and-response hardcore vocals from Jamey Jasta); "All Hail the Grey Dawn" and "Vegetative State" boast killer, ginormous, scorched-earth riffs.

Lastly of note are the two terrifically ominous set closers, "Morale" and "Our Pain is their Power," which are straight-up doom metal with trippy vocals, gnawing guitars, and (in the case of the former) strong, grumbling bass lines. These are two very strange and out-of-place songs, but at least give them props for keeping things interesting and somewhat unpredictable.

It could be said that "The Code Is Red" is a fairly safe-sounding album, because it will sound familiar to anybody that has been exposed to ND's back catalogue. Nonetheless, it is still better than anything the band had released in recent memory (including all of their stuff from the 1990's), and also takes its place right alongside their all-time best works.

Napalm Death play harder than bands half their age. These guys have to be pushing 40, but "The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code" is lean, mean, and easily one of the best metal albums this year. The raw but huge production perfectly captures the band's fiery performance. The drum sound is natural, in contrast to the sterile sound of some of the band's past albums. Danny Herrera plays like a man possessed; his drums practically double this album's intensity. Long-time guitarist Jesse Pintado isn't around this time, but Mitch Harris more than picks up the slack, adding dissonant, abstract chords to detuned and tremolo-picked riffs. The guitar tones are crushing, and singer Barney Greenaway sounds as ferocious as ever.

Best of all, the band has picked up the pace. After seemingly setting into death metal in the latter half of its career, the band returns to its grindcore roots (it invented the genre, after all) with the jackhammering blastbeats of "Right You Are" and "Diplomatic Immunity." At the same time, the album mixes up death metal, thrash, and hardcore punk for a varied, brutal listen. "Climate Controllers" stands out with its mosh-inducing odd meters, while "Morale" is a doomy industrial stomp with eerie guitars. Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed), and Jeff Walker (Carcass) contribute guest vocals. There's not a single weak moment in this album; to quote Phil Anselmo, "It's goddamn electric."

Another great release from Napalm Death. This one's more varied than any of their releases since 2000. We get a range of tempos and styles that highlight bits from across ND's entire catalog. I think we're seing a kind of integration of the various faces of the band, with good results. The quality of the songwriting is excellent, and the lyrics are more intelligent than most death/grind.

But, of their recent releases, I prefer Order of the Leech to this one. That disc was unbelievably ferocious and pummelling, if kind of one-dimensional. Consider that The Code is Red has 3 songs longer than 4 minutes! Fans should have them both, + the earache releases, of course.

Napalm Death is an institution, having been around since the early 80s and considered both genre creators and leaders. The band's sound has varied throughout the 20 something years of their existence, ranging from pure grindcore, solid death metal, punk rooted grooves and finally a mixture of all three. But throughout all this time, they've never really dropped the ball (except maybe a little during the mid to late 90s) and have remained genuinely extreme and relevant. Personally, while I've always been a fan, they were never completely my thing until 2000s "Enemy of the Music Business", with its combination of brutality, groove and production values impressing me greatly. 2002s "Order of the Leech" was really just a successful continuation of this sound without really setting the world alight. Which brings me to "The Code is Red...Long Live the Code".

Let's get one thing straight, this is Napalm Death's best album. Ever! It has everything a great album should have. There's a fantastic production with a real live feeling without losing any of the clarity. Unlike some of the band's previous releases, this album has great variation with short brutal tracks juxtaposed by much longer, more detailed tracks. Some tracks have more of hardcore punky feel ("The Great and the Good"), while others much more grinding ("Diplomatic Immunity"). "Morale" has an almost doom like momentum and is a definite highlight for me. The point is, I never get bored listening to this album. There's always something different and fresh around the corner, yet everything fits together beautifully.

"The Code is Red...Long Live the Code" has amazing riffs in nearly every track and jaw dropping drumming to match. I also don't think I've ever heard Barney's vocals sounding this awesomely brutal and pissed off. As usual the lyrics are of a political nature, which in this day and age, gives him infinite targets in which to get all nasty on. There are a few celebrity guests involved including Jello Biafra from Dead Kennedys and Jeff Walker from the just as important Carcass, which is fun but not that noticeable. Napalm Death continues to be extremely relevant in terms of both content and quality, which is just incredible for a band of such longevity. They seem to have many good years left it them too. Napalm Death are Gods...long live Napalm Death.

The Gods of Grindcore return with this instant classic. "The Code is Red...Long Live the Code" is just about everything longtime fans of Napalm Death would come to expect: machine gun style drumming, razor ripping guitars, and Barney's trademark gruff vocals are here as the band seems to be attempting to incorporate their various styles (the band's early punkish sound is apparent on a few tracks). Standout cuts include the instant classic title track, "Instruments of Persuasion", and the excellent "Morale" which finds the band taking a bit of a more melodic turn, for a while anyway. With guest vocals by Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta and former Dead Kennedys' frontman Jello Biafra, this is grindcore at it's very best, and despite the negative reviews here, this is essential listening for longtime fans of Napalm Death, and it is absolutely a grindcore masterpiece.

Even with the loss of guitarist, Jesse Pintado (Who allegedly left the band last year for unknown reasons), Napalm Death still have the same power as they have ever had before. Vocalist, 'Barney' Greenway, has only gotten more hoarse and more powerful with this excellent release. Mitch Harris, now the sole guitarist, plays so tight that you'd never know that Pintado even left the band.

Napalm Death as a whole have come together on this album, and produced a crushing Grindcore experience. This is great on so many levels. This CD also has a video for "Morale", the nearly 5 minute slow to mid-tempo song which is different for Napalm Death, although they pull it off very well and it's one of the coolest songs on this CD. The video for it is pretty cool.

The opening song "The Silence is Deafening" is straight-up brutal. It's a song that i first heard on MP3 somewhere on the Internet, and i thought "I've got to get this CD". "The Silence is Deafening", "Right You Are" which goes for 52 seconds, "Diplomatic Immunity" and the title track, are all very fast and give the listener a full blast when first listening to it. I think all Napalm Death fans would be expecting that though, as Napalm Death are pretty much THE Kings of Grindcore.

"Climate Controllers" and "Instruments of Persuasion" are very heavy tracks, with Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed appearing on "Instruments of Persuasion" and "Sold Short" too. Also, Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys and Jeff Walker from Carcass appear on this album too. Biafra on the song "The Great and the Good", and Walker on "Pledge Yourself to You". All guests take nothing away from Greenway's amazingly brutal vocals, but instead add their own kind of aggression to the songs.

"Morale" is a real highlight on this album, and is one of my favourite songs on here. It's different for Napalm Death, as it's a pretty slow to mid-tempo song. I'm not sure how well long-time Napalm Death fans will take it, but i think it should go over well, as it's a great song. Also, the bonus track you get with this CD is "Our Pain Is Their Power", which basically is an extended 2 minutes of "Morale" that finishes off the CD alot better than if the bonus song wasn't on here. It's nothing to get excited about, but it's a good addition to this excellent album.

All Napalm Death fans should get this simply because, for one, it's Napalm Death. And two, this CD is a great addition to your Napalm Death collection. This did for me, and surely will to others too, live up to expections. I expected something very brutal, unrelenting and aggressive..and i got it and so much more.

I think that the last 3 albums. Enemy of the music business, Order of the leech and the code is red... long live the code... are all napalm death classics. Too bad that Jesse is gone, but hey change comes to all of us for good or bad. These guys are awesome. The code is red long live the code is a napalm death classic. Napalm Death is still true to their fans and music.In my opinion people who have nothing good to say about this album or Napalm Death should keep their opinions in a place where the sun will never shine. Up their rotten brainless arses. Long live Napalm Death and grind. Hoya!!!

Napalm Death have had a great career; but even at that, their last two studio albums 'Order Of The Leech' and especially 'Enemy Of The Music Business' were truly great albums, arguably two of the best metal albums ever made though they will never receive the credit coming so late in the band's career after over two decades of varied and influential releases.

How could they ever follow up the high standards that they had set for themselves with the aforementioned albums ? Somehow, the band might have actually managed to pull it off with 2005's 'The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code' record, which if I was being hyperbolic I would simply call one of the best albums by anyone ever. This is certainly an album which can evoke strong positive opinions upon listening to it, even if you may be forced to tone down the praise later in the name of objectivity.

Standout material includes 'Morale' as well as the explosive, awkward and very catchy 'Climate Controls' and 'The Great And The Good' which features guest vocals from Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedy's fame. The album features two more guest stars in the from of Carcass's Jeff Walker and Hatebreed's Jamie Jasta both of whom perform well and add a nice extra little touch to an already rock solid album.

Musically; The album is very technical compared to most of their work, although settles into the usual Napalm Death groove with furious blastbeats and intense high speeds throughout but occasional doomy slow tempos for variety. The guitars and bass deliver the band's trademark post millennial sound that mixes classic death metal, grindcore and hardcore punk.

Of course, there will always be people who just want the gimmick of Scum, especially 'You Suffer,' and may be disappointed by this album which sounds very different to what they will be expecting. However if this was your first test of Napalm Death and you were interesting in buying into something exciting and relevant rather than just a nostalgia act, you will most certainly not be disappointed. The production job is perfect, there are memorable songs, the drums are the most impressive they've ever been (checkout the fills in 'Losers' and the title track) and Barney's voice has never sounded better.

To summarize; The Code Is Red' is a brilliant album from Napalm Death, a must-have for fans of the band and something interesting to try for fans of modern extreme music.