Napalm Death – Scum (1987)
[Album 698/1001]
Averages can be misleading.
For example, when talking about the songs Siege of Power and You Suffer, the average track length is exactly 2 minutes.
Most would assume that the songs were both hovering around the 2 minute mark in length, give or take a few seconds.
But that would be a dangerous assumption* to make.
As in this case, Siege of Power was a veritable marathon track, clocking in at 3:59.
And You Suffer, with its track length of 0:01 (!) was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s shortest song!
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Luigi: Hey, Krusty, hey. Beautiful date tonight, huh? And such lovely children you have now.
Bart: I’m more striking than lovely.
Luigi: You come with me. Come with Luigi. You don’t want to sit with the rest of the scum.
Crowd: Hey! What’s going on?!
Luigi: I only consider you scum compared to Krusty.
Crowd: Well, I can see that.
Luigi: Yeah, you see how you scum.
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Do you have a favourite ‘Grindcore’ artist?
Thanks to the wikipedia, I learned this week that Grindcore is “an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk.”
And the cheerfully-titled Napalm Death was at the forefront of the musical movement.
Like Bart in the quote above, most would agree that their album, Scum, is considerably more striking than lovely.
But how does Napalm Death appear when compared to Krusty the Clown?
Are they considered scum?
I’m not sure if Napalm Death would have enjoyed much success as children’s entertainers.
Then again, they likely didn’t bet all their money Against the Harlem Globetrotters!
…..
Verbalize the Positive
*I’m sure I’ve shared this clip before – but I was a huge fan of the teacher/coach character on Fresh Prince & I’d say he sums up the perils of making assumptions quite effectively!
1001albumsin10years 
I love Napalm Death but this album is overrated nonsense and they didnt really get good until the 3rd album, but this one is too famous due to novelty
Good to hear, Jimmy – ‘grindcore’ wouldn’t be my usual musical wheelhouse, so I appreciate learning more about them from someone who knows!
Probably top the list of “Bands I’ve Never Considered Listening To, Based On Their Name”.
And probably near the top of the “albums i’ve never considered listening to, based on the less than appetizing name” list too!
From Blue Cheer to Naplam Death in back 2 back posts! What the hell is going on in the Stephens residence in Kingston! haha
Haha – just an average week with the Stephen family!
And as I’m racing to get to album 701 by December 1st, the genre-hopping will probably continue!
Oooft. I feel queasy just thinking about listening to this!
It wasn’t exactly ideal background music for dinner with the family, J!
Haha! I don’t imagine so!!
I had to check out the one-second song on youtube and google auto-filled “Napalm Death you suffer” before I could finish typing death. The comments on it are of course the best.
Somebody generously synced it up with the Hans Moleman football clip!
Perfect!
World Downfall by Terrorizer is my favorite grindcore album. I had no idea this Napalm Death album was in the 1001 Albums until yesterday, so I had to see if you’d written it up yet. It’s the weirdest one I’ve seen included yet.
Full credit to the editors of the 1001 list – I used to say it covers everything from ACDC to ZZTop but the better description is likely Nina Simone to Napalm Death!