Scum
Napalm Death
- LP
- Label
- Earache
Scum is the debut studio album by English grindcore band Napalm Death. It was originally released on 1 July 1987 through Earache Records.
The two sides of the record were recorded by two different lineups in sessions separated by about a year; the only musician in both incarnations was drummer Mick Harris. The two sides are very different, and the two taken together serve to bridge stylistic elements of heavy metal and punk rock. While the songs on the A-side are influenced heavily by hardcore punk and anarcho-punk, the vocals and lower-tuned electric guitars on the B-side anticipate subsequent developments in extreme metal.
Scum sold over 10,000 copies in its first year of release, reaching number eight on the UK Indie chart. Since then, it has become known as a formative release in the grindcore genre. In 2005, Scum was voted the 50th best British album of all time by Kerrang! readers, and in 2009, it was ranked number five in Terrorizer's list of essential European grindcore albums; it is also is listed in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[3]