While 2005 saw Napalm Death return to their grindcore-fused death metal roots with the full length offering The Code Is Red…Long Live The Code, 2006 sees the Birmingham quarter returning to their pure grindcore roots with Smear Campaign.

While The Code Is Red…Long Live The Code brought back memories of Harmony Corruption, Smear Campaign goes back even further, all the way back to 1988’s From Enslavement to Obliteration. The grindcore display Napalm Death puts on is their most vicious aural assault in nearly 20 years. That’s not to say Napalm Death have forgotten how to write a catchy tune, far from it, as when the material isn’t shredding your eardrums, the band is returning to their experimental age, but, unlike Diatribes and Inside the Torn Apart, it’s not at the expense of aggression.

The riffing of Mitch Harris on this effort is razor sharp, the low end of Shane Embury shreds throughout, the drumming of Danny Herrera is probably at the highest tempo he’s played before and the vocals of Barney Greenway and Mitch Harris is the most visceral I’ve heard either of them scream before. The songs are composed really well and are both catchy as well as ear shreddingly aggressive.

My only complaint with this effort is that I do have trouble listening to it beginning to end repeatedly because the disc does get a little repetitive at times, but that’s to be expected with a grindcore album clocking in at a whopping 45 minutes, with the digipak version clocking in at a mind boggling 54 minutes!

If you miss the early days of Napalm Death when they were a pure grindcore band releasing albums like Scum, From Enslavement to Obliteration and Mentally Murdered this is the album you’ve waited nearly 20 years for! While the effort itself isn’t a pure grindcore release, it’s the closest they’ve come in a really long time and should appeal to all fans of early Napalm Death and modern angry-as-fuck grind! Recommended!

Written By: Teufel