Gli anni '90 sono stati un periodo altalenante per i Napalm Death. Dopo aver fondato il grindcore negli '80 grazie a due pietre miliari del genere quali "Scum" e "From Enslavement To Obliteration", il five-piece britannico si convertì al death metal con "Harmony Corruption" del 1990, senza però dimenticare le proprie radici.
E così, dopo altri ottimi dischi come "Fear, Emptiness, Despair" e "Utopia Banished", Barney Greenway e soci decisero di puntare su ritmi più lenti e riffs quasi industriali con "Diatribes" del 1996, disco che ammorbidiva decisamente il loro sound, e con "Inside The Torn Apart" dell'anno successivo. L'esperimento però riuscì solo a metà, visto che a brani davvero ottimi erano alternati altri abbastanza trascurabili. Così, dopo aver chiuso il contratto quindicennale con la Earache, i Napalm Death pubblicarono nel 2000, per la Spitfire Records, "Enemy Of The Music Business", a un anno di distanza dall'ottimo EP "Leaders Not Followers".
Questo CD ha costituito per il gruppo una grandissima rinascita, visto constatato che racchiude tutte le formule utilizzate dalla band nel corso della sua carriera. Difatti, si trovano tantissime influenze: oltre alla matrice death metal e grindcore, si trovano elementi presi dal punk-core e per di più viene recuperata quell'attitudine industrial del periodo 96-98. Per dare un'idea, "Enemy Of The Music Business" è un disco brutale ed irruente come gli esordi del gruppo, ma con una strumentazione ed una preparazione tecnica del tutto migliorata. E così che ci troviamo di fronte a vere e proprie boccate di fuoco come l'iniziale "Taste The Poison", vero manifesto del nuovo corso intrapeso dai cinque, oppure "Vermin", brano velocissimo degno dell'hardcore metal più furioso ed intransigente. La matrice death metal del gruppo è maggiormente evidenziata in brani come "Mechanics of Deceit" e in "Necessary Evil", con un chorus quasi melodico ed un ritornello palesemente hardcore. La vena punk-core è evidente in tracce come "Can't Pay Won't Play" e "Blunt Against The Cutting Edge", dove i nostri dimostrano di non essersi dimenticati della lezione di mostri sacri quali i Discharge.
I 14 brani dell'album sono in linea di massima abbastanza corti, sui due-massimo tre minuti di durata, ma nonostante ciò riescono ad essere sempre coinvolgenti e mai noiosi, visti i tantissimi cambi di tempo all'interno di una singola canzone e la varietà compositiva del lavoro in generale; complice inoltre un'atmosfera generale davvero irrequieta e terremotante, espressa sia nella musica che dai testi, sempre politicamente impegnati.
"Enemy Of The Music Business" è quindi un lavoro irruento, aggressivo, coinvolgente ed esaltante, ricco di adrenalina come nella migliore tradizione del combo inglese, un concentrato di metal estremo del tutto rinnovato e senza compromessi. Il primo di una serie di bellissimi dischi ("Order Of The Leech, "The Code Is Red..." e l'ultimo "Smear Campaign") che testimoniano che i Napalm Death sono tutt'altro che morti, anzi, si sono rinnovati e sono tornati ancora più cattivi che in passato, una vera e propria leggenda della musica estrema alla quale le nuove leve devono fare riferimento.
Da avere assolutamente!
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Taste the Poison (01:49)
Abstinence works for me, not for them
Intolerance, far worse things? This makes no sense
Get high on me and mine
Take the poison
Raise a voice? The art of making noise
Attacking stance? Fist in face for personal
choice
So witless? self, self, self.
Take the poison
Two polluting lifestyle doctrines in defense
Re-assess the threats to well-being
Re-direct
And clear your heads
Dialogue (is a) powerful drug?
(not) verbal poison
Abstinence works for me, not for them.
Intolerance, far worse things? this makes no sense
Take the poison
02 Next on the List (03:36)
Next on the list?
Such a smug parasite
Snug in the comfort zone
We stepped back and watched while you violated
our effects, our spirits, our souls
Opportunist scum, think you're so immune?
Opportunist scum, we yearn to see you removed.
Opportunist scum, truly spineless cunt.
Opportunist scum, basks in his loathsome glow.
Where once I was passive, I'm ready to snap.
A pound of flesh for those that you've taken
That smiling surround can't shield you forever
When it slips, we'll be there to fuck your world!
A slap in the face
A slap in the face
Don't turn your back, don't lower your guard
Or assume you're safe around fellow sharks
'cause when I catch that patronizing smirk
(It) strengthens my will to smash your worthless bulk
A slap in the face
A slap in the face
A slap in the face
Goodbye to logic for this necessary justice [x 2]
04 Vermin (02:17)
The rats on/ this earth/ have nothing on you
An insult/ to those which/ crawl the sewers
Devourer, plunderer, deceptor
Sniff out a/ scheme/ and leave the scraps behind
Voracious, insatiable? A nose attuned to greed
Devourer, plunderer, deceptor
Evade all traps
and come out gnashing, snarling, gnashing, snarling!
Disguises are many
Media pawn or man on the street
They'll scavenge your emotions
and leave you diseased
They'd steal a last possession
And smile as you concede
Devourer, plunderer, deceptor
05 Volume of Neglect (03:20)
Mitch Harris, Jesse Pintado
Speculate freely
Begrudge me intensely
Lacking a conscience
Lacking intelligence
Lesser than nothing
Lower than everything
As you drain our vitality
to a mundane reality
A form of therapy
without compensation
A vague psychology
Free from obligation.
Intercept the negligence
Accept the consequence
Amongst Barbaria
Mass hysteria
Opposite in a sign to abide
when the future is ours to decide
We continue to watch and observe
Just to find out what purpose it serves
Paralysed ? A spectacle / for all to see
Hapiness within our grasp, but out of reach
Volume of neglect
forcibly expressed
Volume of neglect
forcibly expressed
Devastate a silhouette ? Calm and serene
Abandon / a systematic insane routine
Volume of neglect
forcibly expressed
Volume of neglect
forcibly expressed
Opposite in a sign to abide
when the future is ours to decide
We continue to watch and observe
Just to find out what purpose it serves
08 Blunt Against the Cutting Edge (03:03)
Blunt/ on the cuttong/ edge!
This is stylistic disaster
Or so I'm told
Won't meet your estimations
Do well to fold
Can't keep up
to the dummy run
Am I redundant?
Nice and neat
(with a) sideline in grief
I'll stay unkempt
A real cutting edge is th scourge of the norm
For all the angst, you're tantrum-fuelled dolls
Abrasiveness a convenience
Sell for a score
Come up clean doing the dirty
Cut and run, then dissolve
Mould in motion
See straight through
Transparent you
A real cuting edge is the scourge of the norm
For all the angst, you're tantrum-fuelled dolls
I'm blunted, I'm blunted on the cutting edge
Sharpness diminished through truth to myself
I'm rusted, I'm rusted on the cutting edge
Sight-lines cloud over when met with pretence
Together.
Drop the act!
Drop the act!
I'm blunted, I'm blunted on the cutting edge
Sharpness diminished through truth to myself
I'm rusted, I'm rusted on the cuting edge
Sight-lines cloud over when met with pretence
Drop the act!
Drop the act!
12 Mechanics of Deceit (03:21)
Cloaks of sickness/ keeping us sweet
Delusional blackness/ fictional madness
Visionary blackness/ traps are set
Revolving mind-doors/ conspiring our downfall
Which came first? The lies or deceit?
Why did the suffering cross the divide?
The dealer sold his soul/ to hide
And left us on the other side
The business lessons for which we burn
Desolate loops in which we turn
Saga of fools, a voyage of trust
No contracts bound
Gathering dust
Which came first? The secret or the crime?
Where does the loyalty cross the line?
The dealer sold his soul to hide
And left us on the other side
Tranquilize our denial
Vengeance is mine
Capitalize/ on regret
Kick aside what aspires
Vengeance is ours
Our defence won't expire
Eat the shit with a smile/ don't be frail
Our word is bound
Face the wall; fill the mould that we take
And break with our hands
Sign the line; it's your life
Don't be squeamish
Take the time, taste the sweat
Choke back your tongue
Mechanics, mechanics, mechanics of deceit
Glorified, butchered, bathed in malice
Sign the line; it's your life
Don't be squeamish
Take the time, taste the sweat
Choke back your tongue
at the shit with a smile, don't be frail
Our word is bound
Face the wall; fill the mould that we take
And break with our hands
Mechanics of deceit [x3]
Tranquilize our denial
Vengeance is mine
capitalize on regret
Kick aside what aspires
Vengeance is ours
Our defence won't expire--so beware!
13 (The Public Get) What the Public Doesn't Want (03:14)
Jesse Pintado
Name your price for progress
Impoverished settle the bill
Clear a path - coming through !
Clear a path - coming through !
Stylise
Make it easy / on the eye
Keep our distance -
too under-formed to grace the 'sublime'
Flatter to deceive
Building arthouse cosmetics
Like a mismatched prosthetic
Like a mismatched prosthetic
Spreads llike wildfire
Burgeoning yuppie nirvana
Highbrow aesthetics
Decadents always crave more
Marvel at / the sleek design
The wilting talk / of curves and lines
A piece-de / -resistance
To Banish my pig-ignorance
The public gets / what the public doesn't want
What use is this / to man or beast
It glosses over / basic needs
The public gets / what the public doesn't want
Access denied ? we're utter philistines
Access denied ? we're utter philistines
Caged in / the exclusion zone
Pass away / in sepia tones
Access denied ? accept we're cultural slime
Access denied ? accept we're cultural slime
Carico i commenti... con calma
