BBC Radio 1 Sessions, The

Of all the few truly innovative bands in the realm of extreme metal, few are as exciting to follow from a chronological standpoint as Napalm Death. Beginning with their roots in the mid-'80s as a mutated hardcore punk band with a tendency to detune their guitars, growl their vocals, and play at apocalyptic levels of intensity, the band soon went through many phases that have been nearly as influential: by the late '80s they were the world's definitive grindcore band; at the dawn of the '90s they integrated the complexities of death metal into their grindcore; then in the early '90s they began experimenting with different mutations of post-grindcore metal; and finally in the late '90s they began playing a unique style of metal that blended together the best elements of grindcore, death metal, and mainstream metal. This long story gets chronicled on The Complete Radio One Sessions, an album that is actually an updated version of the group's now hard-to-find Peel Sessions record. The four sessions featured on this album date from 1987, 1988, 1990, and 1996, which happen to represent three distinctive phases in the group's career. The first two sessions feature the group's classic lineup of future bandleaders -- featuring vocalist Lee Dorrain (later of Cathedral), guitarist Bill Steer (later of Carcass), and Mick Harris (later of Scorn) -- blasting through many of their early hardcore punk-meets-heavy metal grindcore anthems. The second session features the revamped '90s dual-guitarist lineup playing some of the early grindcore and the signature tune from their eyebrow-raising death metal album, Harmony Corruption. The final session finds the '90s version of the group playing material from their innovative Diatribes album, including the amazing "Greed Killing," a song that is essentially accessible heavy metal as played by a grindcore band. Sure, these three different phases sound fairly incompatible, possibly resulting in an inconsistent album, but oddly enough, no matter how much Napalm Death change their roster or their formula, they always seem to retain their trademark stamp of apocalyptic extremity. ~ Jason Birchmeier