August 29, 1989 - Mentally Murdered

Just under a year since their last album, and their last EP "The Curse", Napalm Death released their second EP "Mentally Murdered" on August 29, 1989. This is the first release to show signs of moving away from their grindcore style as Napalm Death dabble in a more standard heavy metal style at times. Let's check out another EP!

This EP kicks off with "Rise Above" and it begins with a solid metal riff that is still decently paced, just slow by Napalm Death standards until they eventually shift into a more typical, furious style. Lee Dorrian goes really low with his vocals on this one and my head was banging the whole way through this pretty heavy tune! Words will continue to not do proper justice as all these "typical" riffs are unique and pretty sweet! Up next is "The Missing Link" and Bill Steer plays an interesting stop-and-start riff in between all of the constant Insanity and Mick Harris's drums are just batshit crazy as usual. They slow things down a little once again, then Steer explodes into a guitar solo! It sounds pretty insane and is a decent length as well, easily the highlight before they close it out with a final furious verse. Track 3 is the title track "Mentally Murdered" and it's a similar but not entirely the same version of the same song off "From Enslavement To Obliteration". Or so the internet claims, it sounds pretty damn similar to me! The next track is "Walls Of Confinement" and it's got a typical(ly lightning fast and insane) main riff with everyone playing unbelievably fast with Dorrian sounding solid yelling in a low voice overtop. After a couple furious verses and choruses they nicely break things down with a slower, groovy new riff and this leads into a really epic and awesome solo that reminds me of Slayer, which is obviously a good thing! This is definitely my favourite song on the EP and possibly by Napalm Death so far! They really combine their typical grindcore style with some epic heavy metal very nicely! Track 5 is the minute and a half long "Cause And Effect" and words keep falling short because this is a typical Napalm Death song that they race through and it's over, but as usual their combined harmony of chaos is quite impressive. The last song on the EP is "No Mental Effort" and at 4:08 it's the longest song in their discography so far! That makes this song almost like a prog song for these guys! After almost a minute of instrumental madness opening Dorrian finally joins in and we get another almost minute of typically cool stuff, then they segue quite nicely into a new riff! It's slower and groovier and pretty cool, then there's one super distorted and insane-sounding guitar solo by Steer! They segue from here back to the main riff nicely as well and this is a close second for favourite on the EP, it's also a unique and new spin on Napalm Death, and they killed it!

That is the end of "Mentally Murdered" and I thought it was a pretty sweet EP! It still has plenty of grindcore, but each of their attempts to branch out and experiment a bit worked out really nicely! It's easily better than their first EP "The Curse" and it's a great way to wrap up 80s-Era Napalm Death!

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