Utopia Banished

Utopia Banished
Studio album by Napalm Death
Released	18 May 1992 (1992-05-18)
Studio	The Windings, Wrexham, Wales
Genre	Death metal grindcore
Length	39:04
Label	Earache, Relativity
Producer	Colin Richardson, Napalm Death
Napalm Death chronology
Death by Manipulation (1991) Utopia Banished (1992) Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	4/10 [2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Select	[4]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	5/10 [5]

Utopia Banished is the fourth studio album by the British grindcore band Napalm Death. It was released in 1992 by Earache Records. ^[6] It is the first album featuring Danny Herrera on drums following the departure of Mick Harris. Metal Hammer ranked it as one of the 20 best metal albums of 1992.

Release

A limited edition of this album included a 3" bonus CD; the vinyl release included a bonus 7" containing the same material. ^[6] The 2007 re-release came as part of Earache's Classic Metal series with The DVD as bonus disc. In 2012, Earache Records released a remastered edition on limited edition coloured vinyl and CD digipak. ^[7]

Single

The EP "The World Keeps Turning" was released in July 1992 on vinyl and CD and contains two non-album tracks, "A Means to an End" and "Insanity Excursion". ^[8]

Writing

Samples

Napalm Death make use of samples in some songs on Utopia Banished. The tracks "Discordance" and "Awake (To a Life of Misery)" sample snippets from 1988 science fiction film They Live while the track "Contemptuous" takes a line from 1987 war film Full Metal Jacket . ^[9]

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Discordance"			1:26
2.	"I Abstain"	Mark Greenway	Jesse Pintado	3:30
3.	"Dementia Access"	Shane Embury	Mitch Harris	2:27
4.	"Christening of the Blind"	Embury	Embury	3:21
5.	"The World Keeps Turning"	Greenway	Pintado	2:55
6.	"Idiosyncratic"	Greenway	Embury, Pintado	2:35
7.	"Aryanisms"	Greenway	Embury, Harris	3:08
8.	"Cause and Effect (Part II)"	Greenway	Pintado	2:07
9.	"Judicial Slime"	Embury	Embury	2:36
10.	"Distorting the Medium"	Greenway	Pintado	1:58
11.	"Got Time to Kill"	Greenway	Embury	2:28
12.	"Upward and Uninterested"	Greenway	Pintado, Harris	2:07
13.	"Exile"	Embury	Harris	2:00
14.	"Awake (To a Life of Misery)"	Embury	Harris	2:05
15.	"Contemptuous"	Embury	Embury, Harris, Pintado	4:21
Total length:				39:04

Personnel

Napalm Death

• Mark "Barney" Greenway – lead vocals
• Jesse Pintado – guitars
• Mitch Harris – guitars, backing vocals
• Shane Embury – bass
• Danny Herrera – drums

Technical personnel

• Colin Richardson – production, engineering
• Pete Coleman – co-engineering
• Matt Anker – photography
• Mid – cover art
• J. Barry – layout

Chart positions

Chart (1992)	Peak position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [10]	60
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [11]	77
UK Albums (OCC) [12]	58

References

1. Birchmeier, Jason. Napalm Death: Utopia Banished > Overview at AllMusic. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
2. Popoff, Martin (2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 305. ISBN   978-1-894959-62-9.
3. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. pp. 1015–1016. ISBN   978-0857125958.
4. Perry, Andrew (July 1992). "Napalm Death: Utopia Banished". Select . EMAP. pp. 74–75.
5. Norris, Chris (1995). "Napalm Death". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 265–266. ISBN   0-679-75574-8.
6. "Napalm Death 'Utopia Banished'". Earache.com. Earache . Retrieved 19 October 2014.
7. Sheila (14 May 2012). "Napalm Death – 'Utopia Banished' remastered edition out now!". PlanetMosh. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
8. "Napalm Death 'The World Keeps Turning'". Earache.com. Earache . Retrieved 24 November 2014.
9. "(Film) samples in (metal) songs". Rate Your Music . Retrieved 16 November 2014.
10. "Napalm Death - Utopia Banished". Offizielle Deutsche Charts. Germany. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
11. "Dutchcharts.nl – Napalm Death – Utopia Banished" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
12. "Napalm Death | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 11 October 2014.