WORAAAAAAHHHH!!! Am I happy to hear Barney Greenway's sick twisted brutal voice through the speakers once again, or what! The godfathers of grindcore and blast-beat overdosage are back with their new effort The Code Is Red.. Long Live The Code!

Let's start of with the basics, the artwork, as always is brilliant. On the digi-pack aswell as the regular jewel-case edition. Typical Napalm Death stuff, as is the music. Napalm Death are displaying a brilliant mixture of different Napalm Sounds, from Scum to Enemies Of The Music Business, and topped off with a little bit of expirimentation with some refreshing stuff, more on this later. The unrelentless violence that pumps my speakers as we speak is familiar and recognisable as ever. Thundering blastbeats, catchy riffs, groovy and hyped music in optima forma.

You just have to admire a band such as Napalm Death, they have never really compromised to any trend, and even though they had a slight creative slum in the mid nineties the pioneers are loud as in the old days and still own the magic of writing fucking a catchy tunes that remain somewhere between absolute chaos and beauty at the same time. Tracks such as The Silence Is Defening, Diplomatic Immunity and the sickeningly riffed title-track all shout it out to you "we still fucking rule". A song such as Climate Controllers makes you wonder what the fuck went wrong with the latestStrapping Young Lad" title="Search for Strapping Young Lad"> Strapping Young Lad album, it makes you think how soft a band like Fear Factory is, or how redundant and boring standard Death Metal really is. Napalm Death are spitting in your face, and you're loving every micro-second of it.

The one aspect of The Code Is Red.. that has been discussed and anticipated a lot, has to be the collaborations with Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta (on Intstruments Of Persuasion), Jeff Walker of Carcass (on Pledge Yourself to You) and the very remarkable combination of the brutal sounds of Napalm Death and the wackily cheerful, and therefor very distinctive vocals of no less than Jello Biafra (on The Great And The Good).
Jamey's contribution to the song is minor, his brutal throat tricks simply fade away in the violence of the music, where Biafra's voice is a very strange combination with the repellant violence that the Brittish grinders bring. But after getting used to this unlikely combination, you start to appreciate this daring move. And considering the fact that Napalm have been Dead Kennedys fans as kids... more power to them!
Jeff's addition to the track is one of the lesser interesting, because his disgusting vomit-style scream is too soft to compete with Barney's loud and powerfull growl in the mix. A bit of a strange disappointment, that one.

The other un-Napalm Deathish thing going on on The Code Is Red.. is the second to last, slow and dark-mooded track Morale, that gets very earily near to Doom metal. Wtf? But it works out, especially when the bizarre outro rolls through your set.

Even though Napalm Death have lost one guitar player (Jesse Pintado left the group, to not be replaced) The Code Is Red.. sounds like an eruption of violence and brutality, something 90% of modern day Grind (and that stupid retarded overdosage of Carcass fakers) couldn't do in a million years.

Some say Napalm sounds to much like Hardcore these days. Well, some people just suck. One of the better 2005 releases!

Tracklist:
1.Silense Is Deafening
2. Right You Are
3. Diplomatic Immunity
4. The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code
5. Climate Controllers
6. Instruments Of Persuation
7. The Great And The Good
8. Sold Short
9. All Hail The Grey Dawn
10. Vegetative State
11. Pay For The Privilege Of Breathing!
12. Pledge Yourself To You
13. Striding Purposefully Backwards
14. Morale
15. Our Pain Is Their Power

Line up:
Vocals: Mark “Barney” Greenway
Guitar: Mitch Harris
Drums: Danny Herrera
Bass: Shane Embury