It's too easy to start spewing cliché after cliché when writing about a band like NAPALM DEATH. After all, musical extremity sort of started with this very band back in the 80s, and somehow three decades later the same people are still in the vanguard of this movement. Which is a paradox. The present, 15th studio album by the Birmingham band, named 'Apex Predator – Easy Meat,' however, seems to reveal exactly the reasons for it.

NAPALM DEATH's extremity doesn't come from trying to win some sort of a musical arms race in metal. It is not about being faster, heavier or making more noise than the rest. Extremity, in the case of NAPALM DEATH, is not the goal, but he artistic means to an end. And since their goal is to paint nightmares, it turns out to be just the right tool.
Yes, the base is the band's typical mix of primal hardcore-punk and death metal put in the blender – brief rounds of grindcore that drag you like an avalanche with their intensity. 'Apex Predator – Easy Meat,' though, also shows are the strains of musical avant-gardism in the band's DNA.

Take for example the eponymous... thing... that the album starts with (which I would've called an intro if it wasn't one of the longest tracks here) – some Gregorian chants that turn into twisted hisses and moans over the ambient sounds of what could only be a butchery in hell. This lasts longer than you could be comfortable listening to it – which is exactly the point – only to open he gates for 'Smash a Single Digit.' It could be the typical NAPALM DEATH track, if it wasn't for the almost clean vocals that cut through Barney Greenway's powerful growls. Such outbursts further underline the music's volatility and make it sound like a dance on the very edge of sanity.

'Dear Slum Landlord' starts with an eerie, borderline melodic guitar line with a few layers of vocals echoing over it like a ghost choir – before being cut apart by some sharp, heavy riffs and hysterical screams. 'Hierarchies,' in turn, is probably the closest NAPALM DEATH have been to a straightforward thrash song. It even has a short lead. On the other hand, the abovementioned choirs return in its chorus and drag it in a completely different direction. And then the closing track, 'Adverserial – Copulating Snakes,' breaks down the grindcore insanity to the mood of the opening track – now soaring over some crushing midtempo death metal riffs.

All of this is quite primal, yet authentically sounding for that very reason. Art for art's sake – as it has always been Napalm Death's intent. Exactly he reason why they are leaders, not followers.