February 27, 2012 • Century Media Records
Another day, another Napalm Death album. One of the oldest grindcore acts and still going strong after thirty years is nothing to sneeze at, of course, though I haven't been keeping up with them aside from hearing their debut Scum and a couple albums around 2005/2006 (The Code Is Red... Long Live the Code and Smear Campaign). In the six years since, it sounds like they haven't changed one bit; whether that's a good or bad thing is up for debate.
Admittedly, for a bunch of old farts they still have their chops; the technical aspects of the album are quite good. It may often be a bit slower-paced than your average modern grindcore and death metal, but they still play well. The drumming is nice and varied (and when it gets blasty it's very solid), the guitars are what you'd expect (kind of thrashy at times, deathy at others, with the occasional punk riff), and the vocals are the same as ever.
But Utilitarian still suffers from the same problem I had with The Code Is Dead and Smear Campaign, and probably moreso: The songs simply aren't very memorable. Perhaps I'm simply jaded, but I feel like a lot of these songs are just retreading the same stuff I've heard from plenty of other death metal bands lately. Of course there are some exceptions; for instance, I really like "The Wolf I Feed" which has this punk / industrial fusion thing going on. So it's apparent they still have a few tricks to pull out now and again and their sound isn't totally stale.
I didn't really expect to be totally amazed by Utilitarian though, and I more or less got what I thought I would: An entertaining album, if somewhat rehashed and disposable, and I'll probably forget what it sounded like in a few months. I wish they'd stick more to grindcore than death metal, but whatever makes 'em happy.
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