Utopia Banished
| Utopia Banished | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 18 May 1992 (UK) 23 June 1992 (US) | |||
| Studio | The Windings, Wrexham, Wales | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 39:04 | |||
| Label | Earache, Relativity | |||
| Producer | Colin Richardson, Napalm Death | |||
| Napalm Death chronology | ||||
| ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  Half star [1] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 4/10[2] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
| Select | [4] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 5/10[5] |
Utopia Banished is the fourth studio album by the British grindcore band Napalm Death. It was released in 1992 by Earache Records.[6] It is the first album featuring Danny Herrera on drums following the departure of Mick Harris. Metal Hammer ranked it as one of the 20 best metal albums of 1992.
Release history
[edit | edit source]A limited edition of this album included a 3" bonus CD; the vinyl release included a bonus 7" containing the same material.[6] The 2007 re-release came as part of Earache's Classic Metal series with The DVD as bonus disc. In 2012, Earache Records released a remastered edition on limited edition coloured vinyl and CD digipak.[7]
The EP "The World Keeps Turning" was released in July 1992 on vinyl and CD and contains two non-album tracks, "A Means to an End" and "Insanity Excursion".[8]
Music
[edit | edit source]Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic characterized Utopia Banished as "stylistically veer[ing] somewhere between the grindcore noise assaults of their early, seminal albums" such as Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration, and the "straightforward death metal" of releases such as Harmony Corruption.[9] The album's instrumentation is said to be more precise and "more confident" than on Harmony Corruption, and the music has been noted for its increased experimentation. Some of the material has drawn comparisons to shoegaze music, such as the track "Contemptuous".[10]
Napalm Death make use of samples in some songs on Utopia Banished. The tracks "Discordance" and "Awake (To a Life of Misery)" sample snippets from 1988 science fiction film They Live while the track "Contemptuous" takes a line from 1987 war film Full Metal Jacket.[11]
Critical reception
[edit | edit source]Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic gave the album two and a half stars out of five and said: "The album is a step in the right direction for the band after the straightforwardness of Harmony Corruption. Here they've found an interesting style to explore, a synthesis of their grindcore past and their death metal present that they'd soon refine on subsequent albums, to much success. Consider Utopia Banished, like Harmony Corruption before it, to be a passingly engaging transition toward the fruitful harvest that is Fear Emptiness Despair."[12]
Invisible Oranges called the album "a superior version of Harmony Corruption—which is to say, what Harmony Corruption should've been."
In 2023, Stephen Hill of Metal Hammer said: "Utopia... is the best death metal album Napalm ever made. The sickening riffs mixed with that punk pace is unstoppable, it gave us the band's '90s high point."[13]
Track listing
[edit | edit source]| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Discordance" | 1:26 | ||
| 2. | "I Abstain" | Mark Greenway | Jesse Pintado | 3:30 |
| 3. | "Dementia Access" | Shane Embury | Mitch Harris | 2:27 |
| 4. | "Christening of the Blind" | Embury | Embury | 3:21 |
| 5. | "The World Keeps Turning" | Greenway | Pintado | 2:55 |
| 6. | "Idiosyncratic" | Greenway | Embury, Pintado | 2:35 |
| 7. | "Aryanisms" | Greenway | Embury, Harris | 3:08 |
| 8. | "Cause and Effect (Part II)" | Greenway | Pintado | 2:07 |
| 9. | "Judicial Slime" | Embury | Embury | 2:36 |
| 10. | "Distorting the Medium" | Greenway | Pintado | 1:58 |
| 11. | "Got Time to Kill" | Greenway | Embury | 2:28 |
| 12. | "Upward and Uninterested" | Greenway | Pintado, Harris | 2:07 |
| 13. | "Exile" | Embury | Harris | 2:00 |
| 14. | "Awake (To a Life of Misery)" | Embury | Harris | 2:05 |
| 15. | "Contemptuous" | Embury | Embury, Harris, Pintado | 4:21 |
| Total length: | 39:04 | |||
Personnel
[edit | edit source]Napalm Death
[edit | edit source]- Mark "Barney" Greenway – lead vocals
- Jesse Pintado – guitars
- Mitch Harris – guitars, backing vocals
- Shane Embury – bass
- Danny Herrera – drums
Technical personnel
[edit | edit source]- Colin Richardson – production, engineering
- Pete Coleman – co-engineering
- Matt Anker – photography
- Mid – cover art
- J. Barry – layout
Chart positions
[edit | edit source]| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] | 60 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[15] | 77 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[16] | 58 |
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Birchmeier, Jason. Napalm Death: Utopia Banished > Overview at AllMusic. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
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- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Napalm Death – Utopia Banished" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
- ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
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