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WARNING: If you are my parents or future (or present) employer;  this posting is semi-gross for the first paragraph!

From Enslavement To Obliteration is sort of the gold standard for “shit-grind” (along with the first Carcass album). There’s literally thousands of horrible records modeled off the sound of this good one. It’s not that this is really truly shit grind, but taken out of context it’s really close. What is shit-grind? Unlike “Shit-Fi” which we apply affectionately around here, shit-grind is kind of like shit-punk in that it’s applied pejoratively.  Basically if the record sounds kind of like someone recorded an episode of Diarrhea over a backing track of drums, you are probably listening to shit-grind. So much grindcore falls into this trap, and has literally nothing redemptive or interesting about it, mainly because it’s a horribly executed copy of this record, and the aforementioned, “first Carcass lp (that being “The Reek Of Putrefaction”). While it’s true that part of the reason grindcore came to exist was to annoy and gross out squares, there’s also a reason why John Peel didn’t give a fuck about Agathocles, and why he did risk his rather sizable reputation as a DJ and music critic, championing bands like Napalm, Carcass, ENT, Unseen Terror, etc. The reason of course is that this stuff is ground breaking, and considering the way it sounds, actually really catchy.

FETO is Napalm Death, on their honeymoon basically. They’ve been spending, the last 20 years trying to recapture this last bit of actual magic.  Those last days of innocence and wonder, before Napalm Death became a life sentence. There’s actually a fair amount of stuff they’ve done since then that I think is good, but none came as naturally as this, and I doubt it ever will again. Their first lp, Scum is really just 2 demos, of almost 2 completely different lineups, comped together, and issued for what was presumed to maybe be “after the fact” in summer of 1987. But while some would argue it was “after the fact” as far as the band’s creative juices would extend, it turned out to be like the initial period of flirtation and infatuation, to my previously used marriage metaphor. The record got picked up by BBC radio, and by the already named John Peel (world famous DJ & record collector), who likened it to free-jazz in terms of intensity and ability to break music apart. He played the song You Suffer, which is something like 1.5 seconds 4 times in a row on the radio during that first encounter, and through persistent plugging, Scum became something of a novelty record in the UK. Though it turned a lot of people on to a new and extreme sound that had been cultivated in “the underground” it was also treated by a lot of people, like a William Hung cd. When FETO actually came out it was released to a flood of press and discussed as being the most extreme record ever, the logical end of “punk”, “hardcore” and “metal”, and all this other shit that I wasn’t really there to see, and few people remember now.

Napalm really didn’t change their attack much from Scum to FETO, but the recording process was refined, and Lee Dorrian’s voice became even more guttural and heavy. A good comparison to use would be “Ramones” to “Leave Home” (stole this from allmusic.com). There’s not really much that’s actually different about them, one is a tad cleaner, a tad more refined, but is basically just a crystalized streamlined version of the original statement. It was released to more initial fanfare, but it can never equal the kind of impact and landmark status of the original. In its’ time though the press ate it up, it was raw and bizarre and interesting after all the Morrisey and Sundays type music that was big in the indie press at that time in the UK. It’s been said that part of the appeal for music journalists of the time (aside from, or in addition to the Peel endorsement) was that Napalm Death were working class kids making a horrible ungodly racket, and it was a welcome change from all the brainy college rock that was commonly lavished with attention by the UK’s music press. Napalm were for the most part the happiest they would be for quite a while. They were cult celebrities, they were top of the heap for Earache records, and they were about to tour the world.

The next time they delivered a record (the Mentally Murdered E.P.) pretty much everything would have changed in the extreme music universe. Married life is never much like that magical honeymoon, and so they began their 20-year slog of being married to the name Napalm Death, and turning out more death metal influenced offerings every year or two, never really going back to the sound of their first 2 lps. Maybe this was something they felt had to be done. Earache was signing more pure Death Metal bands, Carcass was becoming increasingly technical, ex-member Justin Broderick’s new project Godflesh was getting ready to sludge everyone into oblivion, I assume it seemed like the natural thing for the band to do, in order to be taken seriously and stay relevant. I guess it’s a stretch to assume they should have known the only reason they were taken serious was because skill and structure were irrelevant to their music, and that as soon as those things got added they became just another metal band, although really, Utopia Banished has a lot going for it as a Death Metal/Grind hybrid album.

By 1990 the band had shed most of its members for the 3rd (or 4th depending on how you look at it) time, and had a new singer, and new guitarists, essentially becoming an entirely different band. Even with the relative triumphs of the 90’s & 00’s Napalm lineup (and really there are some), they can never escape Scum and FETO. These are the things their entire existence stands on, and these are the songs most people are waiting to hear at any of the half-full Napalm Death gigs you’ll find yourself at now. Well you probably won’t, but I do every year or two… they were really limp in Texas recently.  Sorry boys, I still love you anyway.

Here’s a first pressing copy of the album on ebay. Note that it includes the bonus 7″ which was only mailed out with first pressings. It’s kind of funny that they made this because they totally could have fit another 4 songs on the album, and it totally just sounds like 4 more songs from the same album, but I understand basic marketing principles, and this gave an incentive to purchase the album right away. By the way the bonus 7″ looks to be in above average condition as it was just issued with a thin cardstock foldover cover, and is often kind of weathered.