Gruesome growls, splattering beats

Napalm Death, the godfathers of grindcore, have been going strong for 23 years.

Apart from one chap in Napalm Death who has an extremely thick neck and a big afro, the band look pretty normal in their jeans, trainers, and T-shirts. But the band known as the godfathers of grindcore are not normal. Especially frontman Barney Greenway.

The band started way back in 1982, and after a few line-up changes, Greenway eventually joined in 1990. His growl remains one of the most gruesome in metal history. That vocal quality, along with the band's extreme and sonic take on the genre, has set Napalm Death apart from the rest after 12 albums and 23 years.

And their latest album, The Code Is Red ... Long Live the Code, is another stormer. From the imploring title track, to the tight and punky metal of The Great and the Good (featuring the Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra), to the big beat grind of All Hail the Grey Dawn, this album breaks away from thudding normality and escalates as it evolves.

That's what makes Napalm Death so good, their confidence to constantly produce barraging and unrestrained metal.

Swedish band Meshuggah are special simply because they sound unlike anything else you'll ever hear. Catch Thirtythr33 is the band's fifth album and proves they are the current innovators in extreme music.

Angular and seething guitars, mangled bass riffs, and flailing and splattering beats that dislodge cartilage at will combine to create an album of unrelenting and uncompromising brilliance.

Add to this Jens Kidman's fiendish monotone scream, which surges in and out of songs, and this is easily one of the albums of the year so far.

The 13 tracks - the longest being the 13-minute onslaught of In Death - Is Death - are mixed continuously to give the effect of one long 47-minute metal opus. Some might find Meshuggah indulgent, but the only thing this band is, is ambitious. This is power music.

Keeping things more basic, but no less intense, are Terror and Throwdown.

Listening to the brutal hardcore of Terror you can't help but want to gallop merrily into a staunch, fist-raising crowd of their loyal devotees. Lowest of the Low is a re-issue of the band's 2002 EP, a few B-sides, and a ripping 10-track live set recorded in Tokyo in 2003.

The band's love of old-school hardcore veterans such as the Cro-Mags comes screaming through but the striking thing about Terror is their catchy, foot-planting break downs in tracks like Keep Your Distance and Push It Away. This 22-track album is a value-for-money catch-up with a band we'll be hearing more from soon.

After Throwdown's last album, Haymaker from 2003, they were branded the new Pantera. After Vendetta, and especially after hearing the single Burn, they could be the new Slipknot.

Throwdown's circular riffs are like a skillsaw, conjuring up similarities to some Slipknot anthems. But Throwdown are more believable and far heavier because there are no gimmicks in their sound. Plus, there's just four brutes making this noise and keeping it real, not nine masked men.

New York noise core band Unsane have been keeping it real - off and on - since 1991.

The cover of their new album Blood Run is so sick it is covered by a black cardboard sleeve. In the past their artwork has featured a decapitated body on railway tracks and a blood-splattered car grill. This one has a bloodied body sprawled on a bathroom floor. Charming.

But the real-life gore in these images sums up their tortured, down-tuned, and murderous music.

In 1995 Unsane released the excellent - almost poppy - Scattered, Smothered & Covered. But be warned, there is nothing quite as polished on Blood Run, because this new album is more reminiscent of their dirgey, grimey and classic self-titled debut. This is the sound of back alley New York and it's a nasty place.

For Obituary fans - who would say 1989's debut, Slowly We Rot, was a landmark in death metal - their new album Frozen In Time is a must-have. But it was always going to be, as it's their first studio album in eight years. However, and the fans will lynch me for saying this, Frozen In Time has a tendency to plod. Sometimes it's as brutal as a butcher's knife, but the interchanges between fast (thrash) and slow (death), are often messy, blunt and lacking execution.

There's always been a slack, jam-style freeness to Obituary, but on instrumental opener Redneck Stomp and the laboured Blindsided, the songs seem empty. There just needs to be more flourishes like those on the moochy metal of Stand Alone and the more flamboyant riffs and showmanship of Slow Death.

Now that song would make a fitting soundtrack to any Obituary fan's obituary.

Napalm Death: The code is red ... long live the code
Herald rating: * * * *
Label: Century Media/Shock

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Throwdown: Vendetta
Herald rating: * * * *
Label: Roadrunner/Trustkill

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Meshuggah: Catch Thirtythr33
Herald rating: * * * * *
Label: Nuclear Blast

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Unsane: Blood Run
Herald rating: * * * *
Label: Relapse

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Terror: Lowest Of The Low
Herald rating: * * * *
Label: Roadrunner/Trustkill

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Obituary: Frozen In Time
Herald rating: * * *
Label: Roadrunner