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Fear, Emptiness, Despair

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Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Studio album by
Napalm Death
Released9 May 1994 (1994-05-09)
RecordedOctober–December 1993
StudioParr St. Studios, Liverpool, England
Jacob Studios, Surrey, England
GenreDeath metal[1]
Length38:53
Label
Producer
  • Pete Coleman
  • Napalm Death
Napalm Death chronology
Utopia Banished
(1992) 		Fear, Emptiness, Despair
(1994) 		Greed Killing
(1995)

Fear, Emptiness, Despair is the fifth studio album by British grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 9 May 1994.[2] Napalm Death's inclusion on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack brought significant exposure to the band and this album, alongside the fact that the band's label Earache had formed a partnership with Columbia Records which allowed the album to disseminate to a wider audience.[3] RAW magazine listed Fear, Emptiness, Despair as one of the essential album of the 1990s.[4]

In a 2017 interview, bassist Shane Embury listed the album as his least favourite of Napalm Death's discography, citing the division between the vocalist Barney Greenway and the remainder of the band, and the high corporate influence over the band during the album's production as factors that undermined the final result.[3]

Musical style

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Originally titled Under Rule,[5] the album represented a stylistic transition for Napalm Death.[6] Fear, Emptiness, Despair maintained the complex music structures of their previous albums Utopia Banished and Harmony Corruption,[1] but there was a greater emphasis placed on incorporating elements of groove into the band's style, resulting in a wider use of mid-paced music.[7] The group experimented a new compositional style: they started off with the drum beats and then layered the guitar riffs atop of the drum patterns.[8] Bassist Shane Embury claims that Helmet and their album Strap It On influenced the band's style on this album. Other alternative rock groups that shaped Napalm Death's music during this transitional period were Soundgarden, Jane's Addiction and Sonic Youth, plus old favorites such as Discharge and Death.[6]

Jem Aswad and Ian Christie of Trouser Press, deeming Fear, Emptiness, Despair to be "Napalm Death's major-label experiment", comment that the album blends the group's English punk rock roots with "the progressive metal aggression" of the three American band members, with the group's dissonance becoming "a conscious effect, not a side benefit of chaos".[9] AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier describes it as the culmination of the direction foreshadowed on Harmony Corruption (1990) and Utopia Banished (1992), namely "unrelenting grindcore as played by an experienced, technically advanced death metal collective with the guidance of a professional producer (Pete Coleman)".[1]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Boston Phoenix[10]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal8/10[11]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[12]
Kerrang![2]
Metal.de9/10[13]
Rock Hard9/10[14]
Spin Alternative Record Guide6/10[15]
Vox5/10[16]

In its first week of release Fear, Emptiness, Despair reached No. 22 in Billboard's Heatseekers chart.[17] The inclusion of "Twist the Knife (Slowly)" in the Mortal Kombat soundtrack brought the band further acclaim.[18] The soundtrack scored a Top 10 position on the Billboard 200 chart,[19] and went platinum in less than a year.[20] In 1995, RAW featured the album in its list of the 90 essential albums of the 1990s.[4] In 2011, it was included in Kerrang!'s list of the "666 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die!".[21]

In 2013, Andrew Earles of Spin ranked Fear, Emptiness, Despair at number 29 in their list of the "40 Weirdest Post-Nevermind Major Label Albums".[22] He believed the "overlooked extreme-metal classic" was recorded at the "experimental highpoint" of the band, noting that it is famous for featuring no original band members. He continued that the album "was the band's grand gesture of cycling through riffs that remotely nodded to art-punks like Sonic Youth and Swans. But with Columbia's marketing muscle focused on Entombed, Napalm Death's only venture into major-label territory alienated long-time metalheads and failed to net new fans on the alterna-kid axis".[22]

Track listing

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No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Twist the Knife (Slowly)"Shane EmburyMitch Harris2:52
2."Hung"Embury, Mark GreenwayHarris, Embury3:49
3."Remain Nameless"EmburyJesse Pintado3:33
4."Plague Rages"EmburyEmbury3:51
5."More than Meets the Eye"GreenwayEmbury3:55
6."Primed Time"GreenwayHarris, Embury3:28
7."State of Mind"EmburyEmbury3:32
8."Armageddon X 7"GreenwayHarris3:16
9."Retching on the Dirt"GreenwayEmbury, Harris2:59
10."Fasting on Deception"EmburyPintado3:48
11."Throwaway"GreenwayPintado3:42

Personnel

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Napalm Death

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Production personnel

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Chart positions

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Chart (1994) Peak position
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[23] 22
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24] 78

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Birchmeier, Jason. "( Fear Emptiness Despair > Overview )". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  2. ^ a b Arnopp 1994.
  3. ^ a b "Rank and Defile: Shane Embury Orders Napalm Death's Albums from Worst to Best". Decibel Magazine. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  4. ^ a b Johnson 1995, p. 37.
  5. ^ "NAPALM DEATH". Earache Records. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  6. ^ a b "Decibrity Playlist: Shane Embury (Napalm Death)". Decibel Magazine. 23 February 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  7. ^ Mudrian 2016, p. 222.
  8. ^ RK (May 1994). "Interview with Napalm Death". karsmakers.nl. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  9. ^ Aswad, Jem; Christie, Ian. "Napalm Death". Trouser Press.
  10. ^ Carioli 1994.
  11. ^ Popoff 2007, p. 306.
  12. ^ Larkin 2007, p. 1016.
  13. ^ Matthias (1 March 2007). "Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair Review". metal.de. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  14. ^ Kühnemund, Götz (28 April 1994). "Fear, Emptiness, Despair". Rock Hard (Vol. 84) (in German). Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  15. ^ Norris 1995, p. 265.
  16. ^ Russell 1994.
  17. ^ Billboard's Heatseekers Album Chart. Billboard, 18 June 1994. Page 20.
  18. ^ "Artists :: NAPALM DEATH". MusicMight. Archived from the original on 24 November 2009. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
  19. ^ "Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales". Billboard. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
  20. ^ "Search Results for Mortal Kombat". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  21. ^ Travers 2011.
  22. ^ a b Earles, Andrew (8 January 2013). "Blame Nirvana: The 40 Weirdest Post-'Nevermind' Major-Label Albums". Spin. p. 12. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  23. ^ "Napalm Death Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  24. ^ "Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair". Offizielle Deutsche Charts. Germany. Retrieved 24 September 2015.

Bibliography

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