Napalm Death
Apex Predator - Easy Meat

At the beginning of 2015, Apex Predator - Easy Meat, the sixteenth album of the legendary grindcore band Napalm Death, was released.

But before the review, a premise: who are Napalm Death nowadays? None of the original lineup remains. Are they still able to make good grind records or are they recycling themselves, mimicking the times of "Scum" and "From Enslavement to Obliteration"?

After the interesting doom title track (I recall that grindcore bands have often wanted to move towards doom, like ND themselves with "Morale" or in the more recent discography episode of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, "Arc"), there is an alternation of tracks more minimal and close to the hardcore punk of their beginnings with others that sound more like death metal, a genre that characterized a period of the band in the early 2000s.

Notable in particular are the tracks "How the Years Condemn", "Dear Slum Landlord" (which starts with Harris's guitar almost stoner-psychedelic), "Hierarchies" (another peculiar song, where classic growls alternate with more melodic and clean sounds) and the concluding track "Adversarial / Copulating Snakes". Tedious tracks like "Bloodless Coup" and "One Eyed" give the impression of being episodes that are far too classic and uninspired. To delve deeper into the album and the lyrics, I recommend watching this track-by-track video interview with leader Mark Greenway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZEApwLTI0A

In conclusion, a good record, not great, 3 and a half stars would be ideal but I generously give it 4 for the band that gave birth to grindcore and after 30 years, even with different members, they do not ridicule themselves like many metal bands.