Scum by Napalm Death

Scum, Napalm Death's debut album, came out on Earache on 1 July 1987, and it sounds like the West Midlands band is trying to finish before the tape runs out. The two sides were cut by two entirely different lineups about a year apart, and the only player on both is drummer Mick Harris, whose arrival in 1985 had sent the band's tempos through the roof.

This is grindcore being invented in real time: crust punk and death metal ground together into short, violent bursts of down-tuned guitar noise, blast beats, growls and shrieks, with the lyrics aimed squarely at politics and society. More than 10,000 people bought it in its first year, it reached number four on the UK Indie chart, and its reputation has only grown since. Kerrang! readers voted it the 50th best British album in 2005, Terrorizer ranked it number five among essential European grindcore albums in 2009, and it's in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.