Napalm Death

The name Napalm Death is guaranteed to pop up in any debate about the heaviest bands in extreme-music history. Indeed, it was the earliest iteration of the band—back when underground visionaries like guitarist Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) and blast-beat innovator Mick Harris (Scorn, Doom) were passing through their always changing ranks—that invented grindcore. On the English band’s first two albums, 1987’s Scum and 1988’s From Enslavement to Obliteration, they fuse the filth and anarchism of crust punk with the explosiveness of thrash and death metal to create brief bursts of anti-capitalist rage with no stylistic antecedent. When the foursome of growler Barney Greenway, guitarist Mitch Harris, bassist Shane Embury, and drummer Danny Herrera solidified into the band’s core in the early ’90s, they continued unleashing grindcore while also expanding their reach: 1992’s Utopia Banished veers into experimental death metal; 2000’s Enemy of the Music Business turns extreme metal into minimalist sculpture; and 2015’s Apex Predator - Easy Meat creeps with noise-rock weirdness. The fact that the most important grindcore band ever are also paragons of avant-garde integrity makes Napalm Death’s legacy that much more towering.