EXTREME EXTREMENESS

From the archives

This, my last and best negative review, appeared in the OC Weekly, March 2006. I used to think critics had a duty to eviscerate art they didn’t like. I tread more carefully now. It’s one thing to have band members mad at you, quite another thing to enrage an entire fandom. Although this mode of writing was never popular, it has gone completely out of style in this century.

EXTREME EXTREMENESS

Napalm Death brutalize the very concept of brutality with crushing, brutal crushingness

Perhaps you are confused about Napalm Death. Maybe you forgot that this British band has been pounding away since 1982, that their 1987 debut Scum set a standard of brutal grindcore for an entire generation. Perhaps you mistook the band for some sort of Dr. Demento novelty without taking the time to appreciate their artistry. Perhaps you were aware of their Guinness World Record for shortest song—the 1.316 second “You Suffer,” sharing that Guinness glory right alongside the world’s largest accordion and Radhakant Bajpai’s 5.19” ear hair—without really appreciating the creative toil that goes into such an accomplishment. Possibly you knew about the band’s unlikely alliances with John Peel and John Zorn, but were unaware that both Jello Biafra and Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta appeared on 2005’s The Code Is Red… Long Live the Code (Century Media). Think about that for a moment; Jello and Jamey united in the studio, arm in arm, sharing a microphone for one brief moment of unity. Who else could have brought these two together? Are you so jaded that you cannot appreciate the triumph of this moment?