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Rating: Released in 2002, "Order Of The Leech" is the tenth album by the now unyielding Napalm Death, the well-known British founders of one of the most raw and vicious musical genres ever: grindcore.
"Order Of The Leech" comes after the success of "Enemy Of the Music Business," a masterpiece of 2000 that marked a rebirth of the band's pure grind spirit, after the experiments of the '90s when Barney and his companions were more aligned with death metal than their original sound, yielding good results especially in the amazing "Harmony Corruption," "Utopia Banished," and "Fear, Emptiness, Despair," while the three works following those were less exciting.
This is the first album recorded by the current four-member lineup, given that the good Jesse Pintado (R.I.P.) is credited but it seems he never actually recorded anything for this album. So all the guitar work is attributed to Mitch Harris, who also contributes with tearing backing vocals.
"Order Of The Leech" consolidates the new death-grind formula of "Enemy Of The Music Business." While it loses a bit in terms of production which almost puts all the instruments on the same level (whereas in the previous album each instrument had its own relevance that contributed to making "Enemy Of The Music Business" one of the best works by Napalm Death, also one of the most raw and powerful), it certainly doesn't yield an inch in songwriting and execution: with Barney and his increasingly aggressive deep vocals, the prizewinning Herrera-Embury partnership that takes no prisoners, and guitar work as usual abrasive and shattering.
Between almost thrash forward accelerations (the pairing "To Lower Yourself (Blind Servitude)"/"Lowest Common Denominator"), hardcore refrains (the anthemic "Forced To Fear"), death metal outbursts ("Narcoleptic" and "Farce And Fiction"), grindcore intolerance (the hammering and excellent opener "Continuing War On Stupidity," the rhythmic "Per Capita" and the ultrafast "The Great Capitulator" concluding track which features a sort of ghost track that seems to consist of a speech about metal by a fan of the band, similar things had already appeared on the EP "Leaders Not Followers" and on "Enemy Of The Music Business"), the tenth chapter of the Napalm Death saga proves to be a fully satisfying album that confirms the capabilities of these legends.
However, it's a shame to note that it is so infrequently cited within their discography, both by critics and the band itself, who rarely includes it in the setlists of their mind-blowing shows, a real pity. Yes, it is inferior to various "Enemy Of The Music Business," "The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code," and "Time Waits For No Slave" (speaking of relatively recent productions), but that doesn't mean it's an album to snub. Revisit it.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Narcoleptic (02:27)
In a dayz for days
Let normality blur the vision
Perseverance in trauma
I falter though I ought to take it in my stride
See the bitter narcoleptic
Sperma-downer - Narcoleptic
I'm bursting with intention
'til the cause hits the horizon
The buck's too hot to handle when it's there to be passed
See the bitter narcoleptic
Dead-eye, red-eyed narcoleptic
Constructn a weightless world to hold
Aloft my shoulders
Actions do speak louder than words
But inaction leaves me undisturbed
Free the embrace the finer trappings of a
Barely functioning being
Constructn a weightless world to hold
Aloft my shoulders
09 Per Capita (02:53)
Countless opinions - a hotbed of riches
Last remaining entitlement
Feeling valued?
Or devoutly subdued?
Per Capita
All placated and humoured
A billion voices shall all register - they say
Diversity for the diverse
Feeling valued?
Or devoutly subdued?
Per Capita
All placated and humoured
The movers, the shakers - largely abjecy fakers
Scale their ivory towers
Democracy sours, peasant
Democracy sours, peasant!
Self-interest in the pure sense is pushing for the privilege
Not to be undervalued or singled out as surplus - dead weight
Democracy sours, peasant!
Per Capita, you are entrapped...
...Away from their precious glass houses
Which you'd shatter with stones of just justice
Exposing the power base for all its filthy favouritism
Per Capita, they've got your number...
...Turning the rest against your so-called reprehensible deviance
Setting new precedents for crass behaviour
And so persists the untouchable elite
Scale their ivory towers, peasant!
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