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| Buy this album |
This is the year that Earache Records signed a license deal with major label Columbia Records (Sony America), and a few bands on Earache released an album through this collaboration. Along with Napalm Death; Carcass, Godflesh, and Fudge Tunnel all released an album that year. Carcass then signed with Sony. Sony even went as far as asking that Jeff Walker (Carcass singer) get singing lessons, HA!! The deal with the two labels was short lived, because the mainstream radio didn’t pick up on the extreme metal, and was happy staying with the money making “grunge”.
Now onto “Fear, Emptiness, Despair”. With this release Napalm Death strayed away from the straight forward grindcore which they had recorded on “Scum”, “From Enslavement to Obliteration”, and even “Utopia Banished”. Instead Napalm Death recorded a corrosive LP in Fear, Emptiness, Despair (F.E.D.). It has the elements of fast grind, but its used sporadically and only when needed. Napalm Death combines the elements of brutal grind with the dark heavy riffing of Industrial. Which makes for a perfect match. This album is heavy and extremely harsh. Barney’s vocals are at their most powerful. The lyrics however are structured strangely, and can be hard to comprehend at times. Mitch Harris, and Jesse Pintado’s dueling guitars are seamless, and bring a groove to Napalm Death’s music that hasn’t ever been present before this release. Danny Herrera proves why he is the right man to batter the skins for Napalm Death. His talent is unmatched, and this LP just proves how innovative he is. His timing is absolutely fucked. He’s definitely one of the best drummers in metal yesterday, today, and in the future. At the time when this LP was released it didn’t get the recognition that it deserved. Only now does it seem to be accepted. Even though it doesn’t have the blinding speed through out every song, it is more of a grind album than Scum is. Yeah, I just said that. Sure “Scum” defined the genre, but it doesn’t set an atmosphere like F.E.D. does.
Napalm Death has always set the bar higher and higher with every release they put out. F.E.D. is a chance they took. They progressed into uncharted territory with this release. Maybe they didn’t know where they were going musically, because after this release they seemed to progress even further away from their initial sound, but it’s all coming together now with their most recent efforts in Enemy of the Music Business, and Order of the Leech. The “Fear, Emptiness, despair” that I own has two bonus tracks: “Truth Drug” and “Living in Denial”. “Living in Denial” kills!! One of my top ten Napalm Death favorites of all time. Other notable tracks on this LP are: Hung, Remain Nameless, Plague Rages, More Than Meets the Eye, Throwaway, Fasting on deception, Primed Time, and Twisting the Knife (Slowly). The later appeared in the movie “Mortal Kombat”.
One last interesting fact about this LP is that it was originally mixed by Pete Coleman. The band then wasn’t happy with the mix, and had Colin Richardson re-mix the whole album. That’s how it was released. Only recently has a couple of the original mixes by Pete Coleman seen the light of day, and they were included on “Noise for Music’s Sake” a collection of Napalm Death’s best material during their days with Earache Records.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Twist The Knife (Slowly) |
| 2. Hung |
| 3. Remain Nameless |
| 4. Plague Rages |
| 5. More Than Meets The Eye |
| 6. Primed Time |
| 7. State Of Mind |
| 8. Armageddon x 7 |
| 9. Retching On The Dirt |
| 10. Throwaway |
| Bonus tracks: |
| 11.Truth Drug |
| 12.Living In Denial |
: 50.14
| Buy other Napalm Death albums |
