October 25, 1999 - Leaders Not Followers

A year after their last album "Words From The Exit Wound", Napalm Death released their fourth EP "Leaders Not Followers" on October 25, 1999. This is a cover EP with all six songs being covers of punk or metal bands that inspired Napalm Death. Let's check it out!

The first song is a Raw Power cover called "Politicians" and it's got some slower but loud and heavy guitars overtop some nice fast drums by Danny Herrera. The guitars quickly shift to a fast punk-rock main riff and Barney Greenway sounds pretty sweet when he goes insane on the high end, barking some nice high screams! This song is just 1:45, but it's a solid little punk cover that I'm not surprised these guys would have liked! Up next is a cover of Slaughter called "Incinerator" and it's got a fairly simple and repetitive main riff that is pretty bland sadly. Greenway sounds decent yelling overtop, but this is just plain boring considering what we're used to from Napalm Death! There's a guitar solo at one point that sounds fairly epic, but it too is pretty simple. Track 3 is "Demonic Possession", a cover of Pentagram, and it's got more of your typical thrash metal style with Herrera playing some decently fast drums and Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris playing some cool guitars that aren't grindcore speeds, but it's definitely closer to their norm. After a couple solid rounds they speed things up even more and this could easily be a Napalm Death song, and I mean in their earlier style, it's pretty cool! This song is way better than a lot of their more recent stuff, but I guess it's not surprising I'm liking the throwback covers more than their experimental style. This one was great! The next track is a Repulsion cover called "Maggots In Your Cofffin" and it's at grindcore speeds with everyone going nuts right from the get-go! This song is a mere 1:36 long and Herrera is playing some seriously fast drums the whole time! After a couple furious rounds there's a super distorted guitar solo and I'm not sure who is soloing, but it's a pretty wicked little solo! This song is Insanity the whole.way through, I love it! Track 5 is a Death cover called "Back From The Dead" and it's got a pretty sweet hardcore punk main riff that stops and starts, and they fucking go when they start, and they stop on a dime! After a furious start they shift nicely into a much slower but distorted and cool new riff for a bit, then it's back to the stop-start madness! Another pretty short but pretty cool cover! The final song on the EP is a Dead Kennedys cover with the great name "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". It's listed at 6:40, which would be Napalm Death's longest song, but most of that is silence. The song itself is only just over a minute, highlighted by some great drumming and a pretty sweet final scream by Greenway. After almost five minutes of silence we get a short little bonus where a fan of theirs from Wales briefly talks about how much he loves the band, then repeats everything he said in Gaelic/Welsh/something?! and that part sounds pretty funny honestly! What a strange way to wrap up this little cover EP!

That is the end of "Leaders Not Followers" and I thought it was a pretty cool little EP despite not knowing any of the original songs! Napalm Death sounded more like their old selves for the first time in a while and it was a welcome return to form. I think it's easily better than their last EP and their first one, but their second EP "Mentally Murdered" was also pretty solid so I think this cover EP will take second place amongst the EPs. I look forward to hearing some more throwback Napalm Death soon!