NAPALM — Cruel Tranquility (review)

NAPALM — Cruel Tranquility album cover Album · 1989 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Vim Fuego
It's surprising what bargain bins will turn up sometimes. Take Napalm’s ‘Cruel Tranquility’ for example. While not a sparkling missing diamond from the crown jewels of thrash or anything, it's a metal curio, giving a hint of what metal was like in a different time. Think back before the dreadlocked, baggy trousered whinery of nu–metal, back before the plaid clad slacker grunge revolution, back to a time when poodle perms and spandex were king. In garages and toilet–sized venues around the world, bands like Napalm were threatening bloody revolt due to their disgust at the glam world. Some bands made it, like Metallica and Slayer. Others didn't, like Napalm and, well, anyone remembering the time could probably place hundreds of band names beside them.

So what did they sound like? Well, in a word, thrash. Not particularly well executed or ground breaking thrash, but still the band flew the flag for the music they loved. There are a lot of mid to late 80s thrash reference points here. Metallica is the most obvious, but the bass and vocals hint at the likes of Nuclear Assault and sometimes D.R.I., and the riffing has definite hints of Sacred Reich and Death Angel. It's great stuff for mindless headbanging while wasting a lazy afternoon, but also reinforces a few of the "dimwit metalhead" stereotypes some people hold prejudices against. Song titles like "Combat Zone", Gag Of Steel" and "Mind Melt" don't exactly inspire thoughts of reasoned intellectual debate or philosophical discussion. Then again, these guys weren't trying to be Bob Dylan or Tool.

The Edward J. Repka illustrated cover looks the part of the typical thrash album, as the artist was also responsible for covers for Death, Nuclear Assault, Atheist, and even Megadeth. Thank you lists in the liner notes of old thrash albums were always a bit of a laugh to read. Here, Napalm have thanked the dozens of other bands they played and worked with, including leading lights like Kreator, COC, Death and Possessed. Then there were the other bands in Napalm’s own league, like Teste Fungus, Bong Water and In Your Face. Further down, the band thanks their favourite wrestlers (The Road Warriors, The Legion Of Doom), movies (H.P. Lovecraft's Reanimator, Evil Dead Parts I and II) and even porn stars (Traci Lords, Missy Hyatt, Justine the Girl Next Door 1987). Next came thanks to a lot of individual people they had worked with, and finally thanks to: "…death metal weenies everywhere, all our friends we didn't thank, thanks, to our fans bang till ya bleed, fucking thrash…" This album is a reminder of what it was like to thrashing till you bleed, simply for the fact this album is a reminder of how straightforward and fun things used to be.
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