G&P review: Extreme Noise Terror

Extreme Noise Terror
Law of Retaliation
Deepsix/Osmose
According to Metal Archives, 21 people have cycled through Extreme Noise Terror since 1985 (including a couple of slumming Napalm Deathers during snits with their day jobs) in a merry go round of musicians that would give Spinal Tap pause. But it was the addition one man – beloved frontman Phil Vane returned to the fold – that seems to have single handedly revived the English band with the Engrish name from its recent doldrums.
Free of the death metal malaise that came with the ill-advised swapping of vocalists with Napalm Death, these hardcore suicide bombers kickstart a holocaust in your head with a refreshing brickbat of grind on Law of Retaliation. It’s the sound of a band putting aside past differences and rediscovering the common love of acceleration that united them initially.
A searing diatribe against the ills of the world – particularly religion. By “Spit on Your Dreams,” the third song in, Vane et al take a cue from The Exorcist and advocate using a crucifix as a makeshift sex toy. While more restrained, “Religion is Fear” and “Believe What I Say” are not much kinder to worshippers’ imaginary friends.
When Vane and fellow barker Dean Jones aren’t spitting bile over the world, ENT is kicking out the jams with filthy, crusty grind that could have been recorded any time in the last 20 years.
Just as tenacious as their nation’s bulldog mascot, these grubby English gentlemen, along with countrymen Napalm Death, dispel and notion that the U.K.’s old grind guard is somehow slouching toward its dotage.