Band:	Napalm Death
Album:	From Enslavement To Obliteration
Style:	Grindcore
Release date:	1988
Guest review by:	Proseac

01. Evolved As One
02. It's A M.A.N.S. World!
03. Lurid Fairytale
04. Private Death
05. Impressions
06. Unchallenged Hate
07. Uncertainty Blurs The Vision
08. Cock Rock Alienation
09. Retreat To Nowhere
10. Think For A Minute
11. Display To Me...
12. From Enslavement To Obliteration
13. Blind To The Truth
14. Social Sterility
15. Emotional Suffocation
16. Practice What You Preach
17. Inconceivable
18. Worlds Apart
19. Obstinate Direction
20. Mentally Murdered
21. Sometimes
22. Make Way

Back in the days when Napalm Death released their sophomore effort, "From Enslavement to Obliteration," the band had certainly cemented their status as the band that "invented" grindcore, a genre that will go on to change the landscape of metal music forever.

This album continues where they have left off in their debut album with a whole new set of personnel on board and these guys are no slouch! Featuring Messrs Steer on guitars, Dorian on vocals and Harris and Embury on drums and bass respectively. This lineup is a super-group of grind, if there ever was such a thing!

This album, will be a challenging listen for the uninitiated, but demonstrates everything on how a grindcore album should be.

The guitar work on this album is dizzying, and yet, it is not all about speed and shred. The flurry of chaotic riffs delivered on the guitar is purposeful and deliberate and vertigo inducing.

The rhythm section is all the more impressive. Things speed up and slow down in exact precise moments. The drums are plodding one moment and speeds up to blast-beat chaos the next. Each accentuated beat of the drums acts like exclamation to the messages delivered in the songs. The bass work adds the overall density and claustrophobic feeling to the overall rhythm.

The vocal work is extremely impressive. The strangled screams, thick growls and grunts captures the entire mood perfectly.

The best bit, in my humble opinion, is how all these elements blend together in the typically short (and I mean REALLY short) grindcore song structures. The music flies out of the speakers like fists punching into the listeners brains and then slowly sinking in. The songs are kept deliberately short to preserve the vitriol and brutality and the band has done exactly that. After the whole album has thrown its flurry of aural assaults, the listener will be left wondering what hit them and probably take the record for a second spin just to be sure.

In my opinion, there really isn't a point or single track to pick out in the entire album and it is best to suck in the album as a whole on each listen. That is how a good grindcore album should be.

The only reason I am not giving this album a perfect score, is the fact that "Scum" preceded it in terms on influence.

This album is a classic that should belong in any metal collectors collection. For grindcore fans, this is one of the best places to trace the roots of grind and be treated to an example of how things are done. For non-grindcore fans, this may very well be the album that will change your perception and open up a whole new spectrum to your metal journey.