Apex Predator - Easy Meat

Napalm death delivers the heavy metal community another solid album. This album musically is mostly a nonstop assault of heavy grindcore and death metal laced with lyrical themes of social disorder, corruption and psychological unrest.

Barney Greenway's vocals on this album are very harsh. His vocals have been similar on each album in Napalm Death's discography. The guitar tone on this album is loud, heavy, and dirty. Which complements the albums atmosphere of chaos and fury. Although the bass tone is kinda quiet, it provides a nice foundation for the guitars and the vocals. The drums on this album are standard for extreme metal. I enjoyed the snare sound on this album, But the double bass patterns and cymbal crashes get overbearing at some points in the album, especially on some points on the more straight forward grindcore tracks.

The atmosphere on this album is chaotic, disordered, and frantic. This album would be a perfect soundtrack for a riot or some kind of rebellion against a corrupt authority. The composition and flow of this album enriches the album to sound more controlled and well assembled. Songs like "Hierarchies" and "Dear Slum Landlord" have lyrical themes of rebellion and anti-government ideologies, which when combined with the music, gives a very nice realistic flow and atmosphere.

I have a couple of things that I found dissatisfying about this album though. First, is the production. The production seems very clustered at some points. The clustered production is especially prevalent in the faster moments in this album, which this makes the drums sound too loud and drowns out the bass, guitar and vocals.

The other problem I had with this album was the first track "Apex Predator- Easy Meat". This song provides no significance to the album. It has these weird Gregorian chants and drum sounds which makes a really awkward industrial vibe throughout the track. I think this album would feel a lot more complete if it started with a with a strong track reminiscent to Napalm Death's previous releases.

In conclusion, I'd recommend this album to you if you enjoy Napalm Death's trademark grindcore sound. this album continues to rekindle that signature sound while throwing in a couple new stylistic elements. Although there are some problems which I stated in this review, it would stop you from enjoying this album.