Customer Reviews

Harmony Corruption

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the most intense slab of metal to hit the streets since Slayer's "Reign in Blood". A mandatory for any metal fan. If this is the only album you buy this decade, you won't be sorry! This is the only album I know of that can go from killer groove to sonic meltdown and back before the listener can reattach the missing limbs due to uncontrolable moshing frenzy! A must for anybody into thrash/death/black/power/etc. metal. I totally recommend this for all.

This is not only the very first metal concept album, it is quite possibly the greatest metal album of all time. The album runs together in a way that is just incredible. Staggeringly simple and yet it draws you in. I have to say, I've read a lot of really dumb lyrics, especially in the metal genre, but Barney's lyrics are wonderful, addressing the issues of creating such music without any real audience, all conveyed by the most powerful human voice ever and backed by one of the noisiest, ridiculously detuned great bands of all time. Especially amazing when you consider the fact that this band never made anything good before or after this album. If you're interested in getting to know Napalm Death, this is the only place to look. Everything else, as I've clearly stated, sucks.

This album is probably the crowning jewel of this legendary grind band.The music is extremely heavy and the drumming is some of the best that I have ever heard on an album.Barney greenway's vocals are at their peak here and the guitar work is excellent.If you are a fan of this band then you must own this one in your collection.METAL RULES!!!

Still one of the finest Death Metal albums ever. Fast, brutal, busy drumming, guitars tuned nice and low, and those deep growling vocals we all love so much. I especially like the tunes written by hook-master bass player Embury. I've always prefered brutal intensity over a contrived "dark" sound.

This is easily one of the top two or three metal albums of all time. This is the Reign In Blood of the Death Metal/Grind Core genre. Amazing lyrics, written with sheer honesty and brutality. As far as the music and songwriting goes, its furious and relentless. Pintado, Harris and Embury are songwriting gods. They combine speed, grind and crunch like no other. Support the mighty Naplam and buy this and then go see them live. If you get a chance to hang with them, I assure you, you won't be disappointed. The eternal Gods of Grind!!

Perfectly executed Grind-Death metal, a bit overproduced but very good songs. Barney is at his best, while ex-Terrorizer J. Pintado, and Ex-Rightous Pigs M. Harris provide a wall of guitar madness....very pleasing indeed. While it doesn't have the agressive signature of songs like 'Rise above' or 'Mentally Murdered' it still can intimidate with songs like: Mind Snare, Suffer the Children and Malicious Intent. Classic death metal album.

This review is well and truly late as this album has been around a long time. Metal is not the same as it once was Harmony Corruption will stand in time as a great example of death metal. If you want a gutsy industrial sound that only the likes of poms such as Napalm and Carcass can manage this is one of the best. With chunky churning riffs, tub thumping from hades and Barney's soothing growls this is a ride worth taking from start to finish. The songs blend in to one album long story rather than just being track 1, track 2 etc in a way which works well and seems to suit this album. Favourites however include Unfit Earth with snarls that sound pleasant and timely, Suffer the Children and The Chains That Bind Us which reaches a crecendo with the line "the chains that bind us grooow strooonger". All in all Napalm's best easily.

This record marked Napalm's Death transition from a pioneer Grincore masters to a not-so-standard Death Metal 5-piece.

It is an important record because the band faced many inward - and outward pressures.

Napalm Death's classic line-up had just collapsed. Lee Dorian went on the form doomsters Cathedral. The joke at the time was that Dorian went from the fastest to the slowest band in the world. Bill Steer decided to stick with his original band, Carcass (he joined Napalm Death when Justin Broadrick exited to form Godflesh). It was good that he quit the band, because Napalm's songwriting was suffering. Just compare the "Mentally Murdered" EP with Carcass'es "Symphonies of Sickness", released on the same year (1989). The impression you get is that Steer's best songs went straight to Carcass.

So, the surving members, Mick Harris and Shane Embury, went on to recruit top talent from the scene. Jesse Pintado, from the defunct Terrorizer, coupled with Mitch Harris, from Righteous Pigs, two of the best Grindcore guitar players America had to offer. The third recruit, "Barney" Greenway, came straight from UK Death Metal upstarts Benediction. With this "stellar" - undergroundwise - new line-up, they released the controversial "Harmony Corruption" (1990).

But, why "controversial"?

It was deemed too "clinical", even by band members, and too many people accused them of "selling out". They even went to Morrisound Studios, to record with the infamous Scott Burns, which added some substance to the latter accusation.

But why such a carrer move?

Just a year prior Tampa Bay metal masters Morbid Angel and Obituary had released "Altars of Madness" and "Slowly We Rot", to great underground acclaim. In the same year Napalm Death released "Harmony Corruption", Deicide unleashed their debut, Entombed spewed forth "Left Hand Path" and Obituary released their sophomore effort, "Cause of Death".

Also, the "blast-beat-you-'til-your-ears-bleed" gimmick was already becoming stale... they just had to move on. So, all in all, "Harmony Corruption" was necessary, though doomed, release. They tried to ammend that with "Utopia Banished" (1992), which was faster and harder... but not necessarily better...

My suggestion? Stick to "Scum", "Death by Manipulation", "Fear Emptiness Despair" and all the records they're releasing nowdays!

A masterpiece of brutality and mayhem!! Listening to this will leave you bleeding in a corner begging for more, kinda like being molested by a supermodel with a chainsaw, except better!!

Good song structures, very intelligent & socially aware lyrics, and it's a total guitar riff-fest! Fun to growl along with. A must for metal fans.