While a band like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks may have been one of the first one to strike concern in your brain and leave you questioning the brevity and shortness of its songs, Napalm Death is unquestionably the original purveyor of speedy grindcore. And when I say "speedy", I'm talking about songs that are over in a whopping 17 seconds. More than 14 years later, what once could have been brushed aside as a sensationalist attempt at doing hardcore differently has become a hardened institution of uncompromising intensity that can whittle the skin off of your bones in a split second.
Like a good pair of concrete shoes, The Complete Radio One Sessions will leave you standing with a look of bewilderment and hopelessness as your surroundings quickly engulf you. Recorded during four different visits to the BBC (three on the John Peel show), several of the tracks here are actually multiple songs fused together. For instance, track 1, "The Kill / Prison Without Walls / Dead Part I" has the band blasting through three songs in 59 seconds! You'll feel physically drained as light-speed drumming and guitars rake through brief, yet very distinguishable melodies, while guttural, filth-spewing vocals usher forth unbridled anguish that'll tear straight through your fragile frame.
What keeps this CD from becoming a half-assed attempt at capitalizing on the band's name is its utterly raw nature. Save for a couple of tracks at the end of the CD, the majority of songs here sport a level of "polish" akin to having the band playing in your living room at maximum volume and full throttle. There aren't any fancy, post-production back masking tracks here -- only the band pumping out its own patented brand of extreme grindcore. Personal favorites include the blistering versions of "Deceiver" and "Social Sterility", as well as the sinister "From Enslavement to Obliteration", which will absolutely disturb anything that's remotely conscious and in the vicinity of your stereo (including you).
If you've ever pondered the beginnings of today's death metal or speedcore, here's a CD for the musical history buff inside of you. If you've never heard Napalm Death, this release is a great opportunity to check out the band's beginnings as it continues to scratch out its own niche in the tome of musical immortality.
