October 21, 2002 - Order Of The Leech

A little over two years since their last album Napalm Death released their tenth album "Order of the Leech" on October 21, 2002. After 7 albums of the same line-up we have a change as guitarist Jesse Pintado is no longer with the band. He is not replaced as Mitch Harris takes over all the guitar duties and Napalm Death return to being a four-piece. Let's see if less is more on this latest effort!

The album begins with "Continuing War On Stupidity" and Harris leads the way with a cool sliding guitar riff while Shane Embury and Danny Herrera provide your typical grindcore rhythm section: that means they're going insanely fast and things sound pretty heavy! Barney Greenway comes in with his usual barking vocals and he is just belting his head off with tons of nice high screams. The chorus has Greenway screaming "Thatcher, Reagan, Bush - that's one three-headed beast. It's the loathing behind the eyes!" and it's a short but to the point chorus that they execute pretty perfectly. After a couple nice furious rounds they slow things down a bit with a new riff that is decent still, but I find it really takes the air out of things; I'm not ready to calm down! They do ramp back up to finish things off and aside from that one part this was a pretty cool way to kick off the album. Up next is "The Icing On The Hate" and everyone is firing on all cylinders right from the get-go in another "typical" grindcore main riff, but as I love to say, "typical" is okay when your version of it is the Insanity you hear here! Greenway hits some crazy high screams in the chorus and this song is just relentless the whole way through, sounds great to me! Track 3 is "Forced To Fear" and Harris is playing a much more technical and complicated guitar riff than normal, but he's nailing it and it's a really sweet riff, especially for the main riff of the song! Greenway belts out a typical(ly solid) verse overtop and things roll nicely into a speedy, more typical grindcore chorus. They end the song with a slower breakdown that sounds pretty heavy and cool and this was a little atypical for Napalm Death, but in a good way! The next song is "Narcoleptic" and some people might be saying "another grindcore song...", but they couldn't be proper Napalm Death fans if they did because I'm overjoyed that everything seems to be grindcore with almost no hints of their experimental era (which is a great thing!) I love that Greenway screams the final "Narcoleptic!" in the chorus super high; it's a great break from the mostly low screaming. After a couple furious rounds they shift to a more groovy riff that is our first hint of the experimental era, but isolated it sounds way better than a whole album's worth of it. Track 5 is "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" and Greenway is just unleashing some high wails right from the word go and these guys are just exploding with unique and awesome riffs as always with Herrera continuing to play some blisteringly fast drums (how have his arms not fallen off yet?!) They don't stray far from the verse and chorus on this one, but once again it's just a non-stop barrage of metal for the whole three minutes. I didn't mind one bit! Up next is "To Lower Yourself" and it's got a short but cool little intro before they move into the super speedy main riff. They nicely combine some super low screams by Greenway with some high guitars by Harris and this song definitely fits the album template, but it's a much higher bar than we've been used to recently, which is awesome! Track 7 is "Lowest Common Denominator" and Harris leads the way with some cool high guitars in this not quite grindcore but still pretty fast main riff. The ending is a bit boring, which is very abnormal for these guys, but most of the song was solid even if they stuck to the main drag. The next track is "Forewarned Is Disarmed?" and we're back to full grindcore speeds with another typical(ly furious and cool) main riff. This song is just 2:25, but they pack a ton of coo stuff into it and My head was happily banging the whole time! Track 9 is "Per Capita" and it's got a solid main riff that is almost grindcore speeds, but has a bit of groove to it and this 90/10 split actually sounds pretty cool! I like the touch of groove that gives things a bit of a bounce to to it and although Greenway seems like he's just talking loudly for parts of this song, the music was great. Up next is "Farce And Fiction" and Embury's bass shines through in a slow intro, then they SLAM into an absolutely insane main riff with everyone going seemingly even more crazy than normal! Herrera's drums are particularly impressive as he is somehow able to keep things in time while also playing like 24 beats a second! Greenway belts out some quick lyrics to match the furious pace and this is some pretty sweet grindcore, just like the old days! I could describe it just like most of the songs on this album, but they've definitely raised their game! Track 11 is "Blows To The Body" and Harris plays an interesting, slightly offbeat (but still plenty fast) main riff and Herrera's drumming continues to be out of this world fast and crazy good! The lyrics of this song are all about the abortion debate and Greenway sounds pretty good barking about how it's a woman's right to choose! Hell yeah guys; a great message, and delivered in a fantastic Napalm Death manner! The final song on the album is "The Great Capitulator" and it's listed at 11:36, but it follows the same theme as their last album and EP. Harris starts us off with a pretty awesome guitar riff for a main riff and once Embury syncs up with him on bass things sound super loud, in your face, and heavily cool! Greenway sounds pretty solid as usual and he has a nice high scream in the slightly slower but still cool chorus. The song is really just 2:51 and after about seven minutes of silence we hear a bonus bit, and it follows the recent theme of a foreign fan speaking in English at first, then translating into their native language. This time it's a man doing the English part, then a woman doing the latter half in Czech! This will be the last of these bonus bits, but I thought it was a fun little nod to their fans!

That is the end of "Order Of The Leech" and I thought it was a pretty sweet album! Napalm Death don't skip a beat with one less guitarist as Mitch Harris is more than capable of carrying the load and they continue to be less experimental and more classic grindcore, while still keeping a bit of that groove sometimes. I thought it was a great balance and not only do I think it surpasses their last album, but I give it the nod over "Utopia Banished" as well and even their second album "From Enslavement to Obliteration"! That shows the high bar they achieved, even though I don't think it's better than their wicked debut "Scum". 2nd place for your 10th album is pretty awesome though! I am now also caught up with Napalm Death, so the next time we hear them will be in their natural spot in the timeline. It also means I need to update the top 20 list for 2002!

16. MoonBabies by Planet X

17. Storaged Melodies by System Of A Down

18. Order of the Leech by Napalm Death

19. Stone Sour by Stone Sour

20. Les Nouveaux Mondes by Nemo

"Strange Beautiful Music" by Joe Satriani gets kicked out of the top 20, but the fact that this album only came 18th just shows how strong a year 2002 was!