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V/A: Grind madness at the BBC

10/06/10 || Khlysty

First of all, I want to say that, wherever John Peel is now, I hope that he’s listening to great music and that he ignores the mess our beloved F.C. Liverpool’s in. Second of all, I want to say that if you have a band and you’re given the chance of doing a BBC session –go for it without a second thought. This session’s gonna probably be the best thing you’re gonna ever record and it will make you proud until the end of time. Third of all, for those unenlightened few –I hope and pray that they’re few…-, during its early days, grindcore found in John Peel and his late night show at BBC Radio 1 a great champion: Peel not only played, during his show, bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Sore Throat, Extreme Noise Terror etc, but he also invited them to do his famous sessions, which the bands recorded at the famous Maida Vale BBC studios and he played a few days later during his show.

Now, the Peel Sessions, as they became known, was one of the best things that ever happened to a young band: the BBC studios were extremely well equipped, the sound comes of as lively and in-your-ass as possible and the almost-live-in-the-studio recording process captures a band in clear Technicolor display. To make it simple, even if you suck, a BBC session will make you sound good. What does this mean for a fledgling grindcore band like, say, 1989-Napalm Death? It means that the production values of such a session give to your sound a heft and a presence that the small-beans production money that you have for your records cannot ever do. Again, to make it simple: Napalm Death’s Peel Sessions are the best things –aurally speaking- that the band recorded during its early days.

From 1987 to 1990 many a grindcore band passed the holy threshold of the Maida Vale studios for a Peel Session. And, while many of them bands never did anything significant during their –sometimes pretty brief careers, John Peel treated them all fairly, giving them a chance to become a known entity in the pop music world, through his show. Not because he could, mind you, but because he genuinely liked this kind of music (Peel also went to early grind shows, sometimes with his wife and kids, and from what I’ve read, he enjoyed them profoundly). And, now, almost twenty years later, the much-maligned Digby and his cohorts acquired the rights for many of these sessions, gathered them into a gnarly three-disk, 118-song package –and a pretty budget-friendly deal, I must add- and unleashed them to the unsuspecting public.

The three disks contain three Napalm Death sessions (from 1987, 1988 and 1990), three Extreme Noise Terror ones (1987, 1988, 1990), two Carcass sessions (1989, 1990), three Bolt Thrower sessions (two from 1988, one from 1990), one Godflesh session (1989), one Unseen Terror session (1988), three Heresy sessions (1987, 1988 and 1989) and one Intense Degree session from 1988. With the exception of Godflesh –whose sound is a tiny little bit muddy-, every other band here sounds as great as it’s humanly possible. Even lesser bands (lesser in that they didn’t achieve the longevity and success of, say, Carcass or Bolt Thrower) like Heresy or Unseen Terror enjoy the spa-like treatment of the BBC, coming out of the speakers with a fresh and deliciously vicious sound. As for the performances, I will say one thing and one thing only: if you haven’t heard this version of “Exhume to Consume”, you’re missing a real treat. And don’t even start me about “Like Rats”, okay?…

Also extremely interesting is how different the bands sound, although they’re supposedly coming from a similar musical environment (that is, a nuclear-strength, hypervelocity combination of speed metal, early thrash and different strains of punk –crust, d-beat anarcho-punk and hardcore). Carcass sound almost completely death metal, while Bolt Thrower are shown to slowly shed some thrash-isms and going for a loud-and-proud death sound. Godflesh sound even more vicious and out-there than on their proper records. Unseen Terror, Heresy and Intense Degree sound like hardcore anarcho-punk on steroids, while Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror seem to be the only bona fide grinders here. But, y’know what? This is shit-nitpicking. Everything here sounds fucking great and, besides being a great document on the evolution of grindcore, is immensely fun to listen to.

The packaging contains a booklet with a long and very interesting interview with Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Scorn, Lull, Painkiller), plus info about when every session was recorded and broadcasted by John Peel. Look, for the third time during this review, I’m gonna make it simple for you: you need this, regardless if you like grindcore, or, for that matter, Digby. If you like metal, you just need this, to cherish and adore. Earache made good this time. So, go buy and off me back already.

9,5

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Earache
Website: Grind Madness MySpace
Bands
Napalm Death
Extreme Noise Terror
Carcass
Bolt Thrower
Godflesh
Unseen Terror
Heresy
Intense Degree

Tracklist
DISK 1
Napalm Death:
01. The Kill
02. Prison Without Walls
03. Dead
04. Deceiver
05. Lucid Fairytale
06. In Extremis
07. Blind To The Truth
08. Negative Approach
09. Common Enemy
10. Obstinate Direction
11. Life?
12. You Suffer Pt.2
13. Multinational Corporations
14. Instinct Of Survival
15. Stigmatized
16. Parasites
17. Moral Crusade
18. Worlds Apart
19. MAD
20. Divine Death
21. CS
22. Control
23. Walls
24. Raging In Hell
25. Conform Or Die
26. Napalm Death – SOB
27. Unchallenged Hate
28. Mentally Murdered
29. From Enslavement To Obliteration
30. Suffer The Children
31. Retreat To Nowhere
32. Scum
33. Deceiver
34. Social Sterility
Extreme Noise Terror:
35. False Profit
36. Another Nail In The Coffin
37. Use Your Mind
38. Carry On Screaming
39. Human Error
40. Conned Through Life
41. Only In It For The Music Pt. 2
42. Take The Strain
43. Murder
44. No Threat
45. Show Us You Care
46. Propaganda
47. System Enslavement
48. Only In It For The Music Part 3
49. Work For Never
50. Subliminal Music (Mind Control)
51. People, Not Profit
52. Punk Fact Or Faction
53. I Am A Bloody Fool
54. In It For Life
55. Deceived
56. Shock Treatment
DISK 2
Carcass:
57. Crepitating Bowel Erosion
58. Slash Dementia
59. Cadaveric Incubator Of Endo Parasites
60. Reek Of Putrefaction
61. Empathological Necroticism
62. Foeticide
63. Fermenting Innards
64. Exhume To Consume
Bolt Thrower:
65. Forgotten Existence
66. Attack In The Aftermath
67. Psychological Warfare
68. In Battle There Is No Law
69. Drowned In Torment
70. Eternal War
71. Realm Of Chaos
72. Domination
73. Destructive Infinity
74. Warmaster
75. After Life
76. Lost Souls Domain
DISK 3
Godflesh:
77. Tiny Tears
78. Wound (Not Wound)
79. Pulp
80. Like Rats
Unseen Terror:
81. Incompatible
82. Burned Beyond Recognition
83. Oblivion Descends
84. Divisions
85. Voice Your Opinion
86. Strong Enough To Change
87. Odie’s Revenge
88. It’s My Life
Heresy:
89. Flowers (In Concrete)
90. Belief
91. Network Of Friends
92. Sick Of Stupidity
93. Too Slow To Judge
94. A Sense Of Freedom
95. Consume
96. Face Up To It
97. Into The Grey
98. When Unity Becomes Solidarity
99. The Street Enters The House
100. Cornered Rat
101. Open Up
102. Everyday Madness Everyday
103. Break The Connection
104. Ghettoised
105. Network Ends
106. Release
107. Genocide
Intense Degree:
108. Hangin’ On
109. Vagrants
110. Skate-Bored
111. Intense Degree
112. All The Guys
113. Daydreams
114. Take No Chances
115. Future Shock
116. Politician
117. Allegiance
118. Bursting

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