Scum (CD - 1987)

Legendary grindcore godfathers Napalm Death left a scorched path on the English countryside immediately upon the release of their debut album, SCUM. So volatile that they had two different lineups appearing on the same album (with Justin Broadrick and Nick Bullen leaving before recording the rest), Napalm Death took hardcore punk and shifted the focus to ungodly speed and brevity at the expense of everything else. Twenty-odd-second blitzes such as "The Kill" and "Deceiver" rush by like the contrail of a nuclear warhead, and the longest song, "Siege of Power," barely breaks three minutes. In fact, "You Suffer," at four seconds long, has to hold some kind of record. But blinding speed alone can't hold a listener's interest, and Napalm Death kept listeners in the seats with innovative, low-fi takes on Motörhead's black tar rumble and Discharge's bilious punk screeds. Surprising melodies bubble up through the blur and skitter of drums, chainsaw guitar, and croaked, unintelligible vocals. It's challenging stuff, and the uninitiated would not be scoffed at for calling SCUM "noise," but that was the point. Such a rebellion against traditional musical values was almost unheard-of when SCUM hit in 1987, and it still sounds positively corrosive today. minimize