NAPALM DEATH: Time Waits for No Slave

Produced by Russ Russell and Napalm Death

Released: 2009

It's not for nothing that Napalm Death are still the masters of grind after so long. Time Waits For No Slave is another example of why these guys are one of the greatest and most important metal bands of all. This is almost an hour's worth of relentless ferocity, a trademark never-ending assault of sonic obliteration.

Since returning to their grindcore roots following their departure from Earache, Napalm Death has released consistently strong and powerful volumes of unadulterated chaos. Time Waits for No Slave is no exception, opening with the punk-flavoured attack that is "Strong-Arm". After that, Mitch Harris throws down some catchy technical death metal riffing for "Diktat", without doubt this album's stand out track. Then come "Work to Rule" and "On the Brink of Extinction", two more all-out grind assaults that make the opening third of Time Waits for No Slave a memorable one. After this, Napalm Death gets both a little experimental and downright gloomy, reeling in the pace almost to a drone in the title track, with Barney emitting a refrain that's almost partly sung. The dalliance is only brief and actually a little odd. "Limb From Limb" follows in the same dark vein before the surprisingly technical "Downbeat Clique", a strangely rigidly-structured track from Napalm Death.

The second half of Time Waits for No Slave isn't quite as engrossing as the first. The contrast between Harris' death-metal flavoured tracks and Shane Embury's hardcore-styled ones keeps things from getting boring but there tends to be a feeling of sameness about it as it crashes to an end. At 14 tracks and 50 minutes in length, this does start to wear out its welcome a little. Both Napalm Death's previous studio albums were shorter and had more songs, making this release something of a real endurance test, especially the digipak version with two bonus tracks that takes the playing time up to a minute shy of an hour.

When all is said, however, this is still Napalm Death. It pummels and pounds from the moment it begins with a ceaseless noise terror and is easily as good as anything they've done in the last ten years.

1. Strong-Arm
2. Diktat
3. Work to Rule
4. On the Brink of Extinction
5. Time Waits for No Slave
6. Life and Limb
7. Downbeat Clique
8. Fallacy Dominion
9. Passive Tense
10. Larceny of the Heart
11. Procrastination on the Empty Vessel
12. Feeling Redundant
13. A No-sided Argument
14. De-evolution Ad Nauseum

Rating: 82%