NAPALM DEATH - "BOOTLEGGED IN JAPAN" (EARACHE)

 

I don't like Earache. They are rapidly moving away from their - and my - roots with bands that my aural tastebuds have no affinity with whatsoever. Also, they seem to make a habit of pissing off ex-Earache bands such as Bolt Thrower and Entombed by releasing substandard "compilation" albums at the same time the bands release a "full" product on their new label. Well, got that off my chest.

"Bootlegged in Japan" was released last year, to seemingly universal disclaim. I don't know what the heck they were going on about. The snare drums may have a bit of an echo to them, and Barney may be a bit in the back of the mix, but there is basically nothing wrong with this. Indeed, I would claim that in fact this was never a bootleg recording at all.

Much as I'd been looking forward to utterly slagging off this CD, in fact it's rather a good document of recent Napalm Death at 70+ minutes, nicely complimenting the bonus live CD that came with a limited edition version of "Diatribes" (recorded in 1990).

RK

 

Written March 1999

 

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