Customer Reviews

Napalm Death: Scum

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

 

 

An album like Scum, a pioneer release in grindcore, is an acquired taste, not something most people will hear and immediately love and want to listen to again and again. At first, it can sound like pure noise, just a bunch of guys flailing on their instruments with reckless abandon and a vocalist murmuring gibberish. But a closer examination shows, in my opinion, something that is more art than music.

The songs on Scum are not meant to be considered within traditional conventions of music. They aren't concerned with verses, choruses, or song structures at all, but are intended to make the listener feel something. They collectively create a bleak soundscape that captures the hopelessness and frustration of expecting fairness or equality. The stark guitar tone and selectively enunciated, barking vocals create an intense, smothering anxiety consistent with the lyrical content. And I think all of these elements are enhanced, not weakened, by the raw, low-fi production. After listening to Scum, I feel like I just walked through a decaying, condemned building wallpapered with The Scream. It's an unsettling, yet somehow necessary, experience.

At high volume, you can feel the better riffs on the album grind through your brain, manifesting the genre's namesake. And while there are superior individual tracks like Instinct of Survival, Sacrificed, Control, Prison Without Walls, M.A.D., and several others, Scum is best when listened to straight through. Which is ultimately why I give it five stars. There's no time for anything boring or filler; so many songs fly by in under a minute or just over that you're left with more an emotional impression than a memory of a particular riff or hook. Napalm Death evolved later into a potent musical force, but on this first offering, they weren't as much playing music as creating decadent art with musical instruments. This album is not for the uninitiated.

As for the DVD, the documentary is great. Mick Harris is a nice, very humble guy with interesting insights and opinions. He's highly complimentary of his past involvement with Napalm Death, but also honest and straightforward, as when discussing Nick Bullen's drinking. It was cool to walk with him through the original locations that inspired and influenced the Napalm Death sound. Getting a first-hand account of the early days from a true legend of metal is a treat.

Also, seeing him get behind the kit for, what he says, is the first time since 1998 to demonstrate the blast beat gave me chills. Like any Napalm fan, I've seen this guy give some of the most manic, insane performances of all time. I mean, I love Danny Herrerra's work with the band, but if Mick were to come out of retirement to do one last Napalm album? I don't think I'm the only one who would run to the store the day that came out.

I'm not an expert on the subject, but this may be the first grindcore album. Whether it is or not, its one of the better of the genre to be sure. I've listened to later albums by ND and was suprised at how much their sound progressed. Back to the subject of this album, it is fast, brutal and gives metal fans what they want and then some. Gotta love You Suffer, which is all of five seconds long, haha.