Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism

Modern Napalm Death has been a stainless grinding powerhouse since 2000's "Enemy of the Music Business", an album that backpedaled to the "Utopia Banished" sound while not forgetting some of the noisier, more experimental elements of the band's 90's era. The difference between modern Napalm Death and other "experimental" grind acts of today (see: Wormrot's last two albums) is that Napalm Death is still in touch with those same musical roots that gave them their noisy/experimental edge since the beginning (those being, post-punk bands like Killing Joke and noise/industrial acts such as Swans and Throbbing Gristle) - therefore, they've always been far from sounding too emo or too hipster-ish in any way compared to newer bands in the genre, and have always opted for implementing their non-metal influences in the most confrontational, abrasive way possible. The apex of this modern formula was 2012's "Utilitarian", a masterpiece of blasting, intense, overwhelming grind benefitting from its external influences to the highest degree possible: without a doubt, one of my favorite Napalm Death albums ever, to the point of going head-to-head with their early classics. After this peak was reached, 2015's "Apex Predator - Easy Meat" kept offering more of the same stuff, albeit not quite as intense and memorable. And then, a few years later, Napalm Death promised a "more experimental" new record, less concerned with just blasting and grinding all the way through. And, as a matter of fact, their "Logic Ravaged by Brute Force" single, released in early 2020, was highly promising in that regard, sounding just like a Killing Joke tune soaked in an immersive, dystopian vibe. And then, later that year, Napalm Death's highly anticipated new record "Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism" was finally released.

I still don't understand what all the fuss over this album was about, back when it came out. It seemed like people had realized, all of a sudden, that Napalm Death are indeed influenced by industrial, noise and post-punk, and made a big deal out of the fact that "they had turned into Swans and Killing Joke". Honestly, if you never caught these influences before in the band's sound, I think you never got what Napalm Death is and has always been about in the first place, even going through all their countless lineup changes since their earlier incarnations. The only difference between this record and previous Napalm Death records from their 2000-and-beyond era lays in the degree and the way these influences are integrated in the music, and that's the most interesting part to discuss for me: some people complained about this album being "all over the place" stylistically, decrying its supposed "lack of cohesion" compared to previous works. Well, guess what: that's a plus for me. I never had any big complaints with metal as a genre (of course), but one thing I never quite understood is the way the audience and reviewers alike seem to dread heterogeneity, eclecticism and stylistic jumpiness within a record. The unwritten rule that all songs on a metal album have to be pretty much in the exact same musical style, with only minor variations allowed, has always been a load of crap to me: I've always loved records that take bold risks, alternating different ingredients between each track so that you never know what to expect next; bands like Annihilator, Hypocrisy, Edge of Sanity, Uncanny and Brutal Truth are masters of this rather divisive formula, and "Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism" falls into that same category.

Opening track "Fuck the Factoid" is a perfect summary of the album's essence: it starts like a standard modern Napalm Death tune, blasting viciously with their typically eloquent, long-winded grind riffage and Barney screaming his head off, only to abruptly switch to a dissonant interlude with warped vocals that sounds way too alienating and jarring even when measured against the standards set by recent albums such as "Utilitarian". The feeling of weirdness is only enhanced by the following track, lead single "Backlash Just Because", torn between uneven grooves and unsettling arpeggios/tremolos that will remain stuck in your head long after listening, conjuring the freakiest dystopian visions in your thoughts just like the "Logic Ravaged by Brute Force" single did. These are both very intense openers and, in spite of their immediately apparent uncanniness, are enough to reassure you that Napalm Death's trademark sound has not disappeared for good: the album is still filled with tons of standard punky deathgrind numbers such as "The Curse of Being in Thrall", "Zero Gravitas Chamber" and the title-track. The amount of warped dissonance and experimentalism with riff texture on these songs is not any more pronounced than it was on "Apex Predator" or "Utilitarian", even though the dissonant blasting of "Acting in Gouged Faith", the memorably warped chorus of "Contagion" or the infectious cyber-grooves of "Fluxing of the Muscle" might already sound a little bit out there to some people. But, if that was all, this would just be "another" Napalm Death record and my review would already be over. And yet, you're in for quite a few shocks.

These relatively normal tunes are interspersed with a handful of tracks that would be a euphemism to deem unusual. The Killing Joke comparisons do easily come up on the slow, martial, uneasy number "Invigorating Clutch" and, most notably, on the spastic rocklike lead single "Amoral" that made everyone freak out back when it was first released; if it wasn't for Barney's vaguely recognizable timbre, these songs would bear no resemblance whatsoever to Napalm Death - not even to the "Diatribes"/"Inside the Torn Apart" era, whose Godflesh-inspired grooves don't have much in common with the bare 80's post-punk elements that constitute the bulk of these newer tracks. However, as I stated earlier in this review, Napalm Death remains an extreme band, one that aims to attack us listeners by weaponizing noise, chaos and dissonance and doesn't resort to emo/indie bittersweet sappiness like a lot of "experimental" grind does nowadays - so you can rest assured that even these out-of-the-box experiments maintain a harsh, abrasive edge that is entirely in character with the band's spirit, even when there are no blast-beats to be found. These guys still carry the legacy that inspired their predecessors to write an album like "Scum", and that same mentality informed by the likes of Throbbing Gristle and Swans is way more apparent on this album than it ever was on any of their other modern-era records. It's no coincidence that my absolute favorite track on here is none other than the noisy, absurdist, spastic experimental number "Joie de ne pas vivre": no guitar riffs, no grindcore blasting - just steady hardcore d-beats with random distorted noises/echoes and some absolutely wretched vocal lines following no recognizable metrics whatsoever. I'm gonna say it out loud: while not being a proper grind piece, this sweet little tune is more in line with "Scum"'s radical, naive, genuinely anti-musical spirit than this incarnation of Napalm Death has ever been. I could keep praising this track for other three entire paragraphs, but let's just move on.

Perhaps the only experiment on "Throes" that leaves me a bit perplexed is the album's closing track "A Bellyful of Salt and Spleen": it starts with some clanging, harsh-as-fuck slow beats accompanied by an equally clanging bass line (basically following the early Swans paradigm that's always been so dear to the band), and Barney's vocals going all-out as it is the norm with Napalm Death's typically slow outros such as "Morale" or "Atheist Runt", but then... some other weird sounds I can't quite identify are added to the mix. And well, I don't think they really fit in: they feel way too blissful and "happy" compared to the rest of this bleak, unabashedly industrial soundscape, which is basically as heavy-sounding as albums such as "Filth", "Cop" or even "Streetcleaner". The whole thing comes off indeed as rather pretentious and hipster-ish in nature - which, as said earlier, is something modern Napalm Death manages to generally avoid when doubling down on their non-metal inspirations. I hope this remains an isolated case, but it still doesn't detract too much from what I consider to be an excellent record I would gladly take over the more recent works of Wormrot and other bands that are generally considered to be the boundary-pushing geniuses of modern grind. I love how, after decades of albums featuring the most disparate sonic experiments (both inside and outside the band, with the countless side-projects each member is/was involved in), Napalm Death still finds more ways to catch us by surprise and divide the audience by making bold stylistic choices that are however still mostly coherent with their original spirit. Listen to this album with an open mind and no preconceptions, especially if you have a soft spot for old school noise/industrial/post-punk anti-musical terrorism: the gods of grind might still have a few surprises in store for you.