Post by thesoundmonitor on Sept 19, 2004 5:11:45 GMT -5
NAPALM DEATH
Leaders Not Followers 2
(Century Media)
Reviews of covers albums are in some ways more difficult than a regular CD, and in other ways somewhat redundant. Firstly, as the material isn't original the does one judge the band on their ability to cover the material perfectly or praise them for playing around with the song a little bit?”<br>
Secondly, covers albums are so commonplace nowadays that a lot of people are sick of
them. In some cases listeners never really bothered with the concept to begin with, which is a shame as they can make a good listen. The third problem facing cover and compilation albums is that the material tends not to flow like an album of original material. It was with these pre-disposed notions that I first listened to Napalm Death’s new album, and first for Century Media, Leaders Not Followers: Part 2.
First off though, I must say a great selection of songs are chosen here. The cool thing about the song selection is that most of these bands are usually the ones DOING the covers for the bigger bands. In other words, ND picked a lot of smaller, more obscure bands to enlighten us and pay homage to. Sure, there's a few bigger bands like Sepultura and Kreator here, but honestly these bands are more part of the metal underground than it's more influential acts like Metallica or Slayer.
Almost all of these songs are as good as you'd expect from a band that've picked their favourite songs of an entire decade. Standouts for me were the Massacre and Attitude Adjustment tracks but it truly is a VERY hard pick. I could have just as easily said the Dayglo Abortions, Master, Anti-Cimex or, of course, Discharge tracks were the best without sounding odd at all.
As you can tell the album jumps around a little bit covering influences from the early punk and metal scenes, which the band manage with aplomb. Despite vast differences to song and riff structure between these genres the album does have a nice flow to it which can be put down to the production and, lets face it… Barney must have the most distinguishable voice in death metal today.
Finally I must say that ND cannot really be flawed and should not put any fans offside with the way they handed the dilemmas mentioned at the beginning of this review. For instance the band had stated that they wanted to recreate the feelings they had when they first listened to these songs, which is why they chose to play the songs as close to the originals as they could. In fact the band used some of the same recording settings that the original songs were recorded in. This not only helps to keep it true but also gives that
timely feel which once again gives it the feeling of solid studio album.
Sure this album might not get listened to as consistently as their classic albums but it's still a great thrill. At 19 songs in somewhere around 40 minutes it gives you that feeling you have just after stepping off a roller coaster - sure it was short but what a rush!
By Paul Irwin
www.enemyofthemusicbusiness.com
Leaders Not Followers 2
(Century Media)
Reviews of covers albums are in some ways more difficult than a regular CD, and in other ways somewhat redundant. Firstly, as the material isn't original the does one judge the band on their ability to cover the material perfectly or praise them for playing around with the song a little bit?”<br>
Secondly, covers albums are so commonplace nowadays that a lot of people are sick of
them. In some cases listeners never really bothered with the concept to begin with, which is a shame as they can make a good listen. The third problem facing cover and compilation albums is that the material tends not to flow like an album of original material. It was with these pre-disposed notions that I first listened to Napalm Death’s new album, and first for Century Media, Leaders Not Followers: Part 2.
First off though, I must say a great selection of songs are chosen here. The cool thing about the song selection is that most of these bands are usually the ones DOING the covers for the bigger bands. In other words, ND picked a lot of smaller, more obscure bands to enlighten us and pay homage to. Sure, there's a few bigger bands like Sepultura and Kreator here, but honestly these bands are more part of the metal underground than it's more influential acts like Metallica or Slayer.
Almost all of these songs are as good as you'd expect from a band that've picked their favourite songs of an entire decade. Standouts for me were the Massacre and Attitude Adjustment tracks but it truly is a VERY hard pick. I could have just as easily said the Dayglo Abortions, Master, Anti-Cimex or, of course, Discharge tracks were the best without sounding odd at all.
As you can tell the album jumps around a little bit covering influences from the early punk and metal scenes, which the band manage with aplomb. Despite vast differences to song and riff structure between these genres the album does have a nice flow to it which can be put down to the production and, lets face it… Barney must have the most distinguishable voice in death metal today.
Finally I must say that ND cannot really be flawed and should not put any fans offside with the way they handed the dilemmas mentioned at the beginning of this review. For instance the band had stated that they wanted to recreate the feelings they had when they first listened to these songs, which is why they chose to play the songs as close to the originals as they could. In fact the band used some of the same recording settings that the original songs were recorded in. This not only helps to keep it true but also gives that
timely feel which once again gives it the feeling of solid studio album.
Sure this album might not get listened to as consistently as their classic albums but it's still a great thrill. At 19 songs in somewhere around 40 minutes it gives you that feeling you have just after stepping off a roller coaster - sure it was short but what a rush!
By Paul Irwin
www.enemyofthemusicbusiness.com