Napalm Death - Inside The Torn Apart
1997 Earache
by Skin Splitter

Quick Summary:
Having only experienced Scum and Diatribes, I have a limited sense of what Napalm Death is all about.  Granted, I loved both albums mentioned above but for different reasons.  Scum, well, if you haven't heard that then get it at all costs.  It's phenomenal.  Diatribes was a death metal album with good drumming and catchy grunt lyric style.  So, I was expecting Inside The Torn Apart to be like Diatribes or at least close.  What did I get instead?  I got the guitar sound, Barney vocals, not so good drums, and a lot of crap.  Not until "Reflect On Conflict" did this album produce a glimmer of hope.

Most of the songs are a little too slow for my liking and although it might have been considered "extreme" in it's day, it's almost tame to this point.  Pissing Razors - Fields Of Disbelief provides more enjoyable drum work than this, and for me, the drums were my favorite part of Napalm Death hands down.  The final summation of this album can only be described as Napalm Death throughout, but more experimental and not their best work by far.

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Song Summaries:

1. Breed To Breathe - Not a bad intro.  Sounds like a song straight from Diatribes.  It's a good song with some creepy guitar sounds, but unfortunately, it's limited in tempo changes.  B-
2. Birth In Regress - I'd be lying if I said I could listen to this whole song in its entirety.  Too boring, slow, and straightforward.  D
3. Section - Nice drum work in the intro, however, as the song progresses, the song tries to take on a melodic/death/creepy sense to it and it falls on it's ass.  The only thing that makes this song good is that the creepy outro goes right into the best song on the album.  D-
4. Reflect On Conflict - Now, this is the Napalm Death I know.  Fast guitars and drums with grunting vocals.  The best song on the album (not anything compared to Scum though) even if it has a weak part around 1:30.  It makes up for it later.  A- (lost points for weak part)
5. Down In The Zero - This song is what I consider to be the alternative Napalm Death.  The guitars are doing their metal thing, but the drums are doing a real drum beat that is not heard very often in death metal.  Once again, sounds like the first song off Diatribes.  The chorus has some weird drumming as well.  Nice and fast.  Good song and nice tempo changes.  B
6. Inside The Torn Apart - I expected a lot from the title track.  Too slow and too straightforward, and the vocalist in the beginning of the song sounds like Corkey (TV show Life Goes On) getting his toes stepped on.  But 2:00 minutes in, the song takes a more pleasant turn, but by then, it's too late and they go back to crap anyway.  C-
7. If Symptoms Persist - Alright, back to metal!  A slower drum song for them, but something is different.  Probably the guitar work saves this one.  Well, that is until the song goes over 1:30.  Then it's just BORING!  C-
8. Prelude - Speed, speed, and oh hell, MORE SPEED!  This is more the death metal I've come to know and love.  Very enjoyable.  Second best song on the album.  Things get slow in the middle but that first minute...  A-
9. Indispose - Some interesting guitar work, but other than that, not as brutal as the track above.  D+
10. Purist Realist - Ever wonder what would happen if punk and death met?  This would be its lovechild.  The drums do a punk beat while the guitars do death.  It's interesting and a nice change from the drab above.  B+
11. Lowpoint - Great song.  No doubt about it.  Fast, excellent snare and symbol hits and constant, too.  This song almost borders on chaos.  It seems like the drummer has a hard time keeping up with the beat.  Let's you know they're human.  Kudos.  A-
12. Lifeless Alarm - Well, it's a slow outro song.  Skip it and think of Lowpoint and being your outro.  That way you can go somewhere and still feel the speed-hate.  D

Average Song Rating:  C+
Overall Album Rating:  C

Also be sure to read:
Napalm Death - Diatribes Quick Reviews by Horatio
Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption by Horatio