I remember reading an interview with one of the members of Napalm Death back in '95 in which he said something like their new album was full of "Smashing Pumpkins beats" and expecting Diatribes to be a sell-out of sorts. Well, that was definitely not the case but the album did display the band somewhat opening up their sound.

Diatribes still has the trademark Napalm Death sound but it's more accessible and catchy. The album's opening track "Greed Killing" is a little misleading (even though I love the tune) as to what is to come from the rest of the album. It's devoid of blast beats and is way different from anything Napalm Death had done before and definitely has a "pop-y" beat to it.

The second track on the album "Glimpse into Genocide" is a little more indicative of the rest of the album. It's more of a traditional Napalm Death song but has a bit of accessibility to it.

There's still plenty of brutality on the album...see tracks like "Diatribes" and "Ripe for the Breaking", but all-in-all Diatribes was an experimental record that was a bit of a risk that paid off in the end.

Diatribes was exactly the album Napalm Death needed to write at the time to stir the proverbial pot a little even though the band was already experimenting somewhat with their critically-acclaimed previous album Fear Emptiness Despair.

As a whole, I think Diatribes is an outstanding album and quite frankly I've never been disappointed by Napalm Death.

Diatribes was released in January 1996 on Earache Records.

 

 

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