Rotten Sound - Napalm

Inspiration can come from the unlikeliest places. Take Napalm (Relapse, 2010), for instance. It’s an EP of six songs, three of which are Napalm Death covers. Not much to it, right?

It was everything I needed yesterday. After a day on the ragged edge, I needed a release. I put on this EP for work purposes. It ended up smoothing out my edges, albeit violently and abrasively. I needed ARRRRRRGH, and I got it.

Yet for its immediacy, it’s hung around. Almost half a day later — an eternity for grindcore — I’m still listening to it. I find myself appreciating it in deep and fond ways I do not usually lavish upon grindcore. Nasum is the only grindcore band of which I’m deeply fond. With its micro-songs and splits, the genre is inherently disposable. It is not meant to grandstand; it is supposed to split your skull open.

Yet that slightly annoying modern distortion is carving trenches in my mind. I want to lie in them. Drums rumble over me. I want more. The sound is exfoliating. It strips away dead skin and leaves open wounds. Of course, with my addictive personality, I pick at them. I want more.

But it’s just music. I’m not resorting to literal or figurative ways to put holes in myself. I let sound do that for me. It guts me and leaves me clean and empty. Well, not completely. Listening to this EP is like drinking gravel from a firehose. A few pebbles will stick around. They’ll build calluses. I’ll get tougher.

The best part is that this music is there for me. It doesn’t even have to try. It’s just there. I can call on it whenever I want to. In this way, it’s better than most people.

Relapse
Willowtip
Record Shop X
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