Best Served Cold (Discography 1998-2007)

Ah, convenience...something most anyone can appreciate, and something that Best Served Cold delivers in spades, by compiling Narcosis' entire career output between 1998 and 2007 onto a single, absolutely, positively, astoundingly convenient disc. How ironic for an extreme grindcore band whose mission statement — had they been the sorts of chaps to have a mission statement — would surely propose making music so vile, so raw, so savage, that all those exposed to it would feel most inconvenienced. Oh yeah, was it mentioned that said body of work consists of 51 tracks, all of them assembled here in just 78 minutes? Obviously, Narcosis were U.K. grind purists who restricted their explosive songs into sub-minute hyper-blasts, but the fact that they would then scatter them, a few at a time, across numerous split releases (often kept to limited vinyl pressings) naturally led to endless confusion and frustration among their fans. This is where Best Served Cold comes in handy, and since the band also deigned to record two "full-length" albums in 2007 and 2003 named Romance and Heart Slows Down, respectively, it is with their tracks that Earache chose to lead off this collection — probably because the more consistent recording standards they share help to ease listeners (if such a thing is possible) into the disorienting brutality of Narcosis' onslaught. Fact is, though, once they get past the initial shock, the flying musical debris, and amusing titles attached to unintelligible screaming (e.g. "Ode to a Worthless F**king Piece of S**t," "The World Is Your Oyster and I Am the Hammer," etc.), persistent listeners will find numerous interesting rhythmic change-ups, stops and starts, and even occasional doom/sludge passages — more His Hero Is Gone than Napalm Death or Brutal Truth. And although many more will agree they could have done without the alternate versions of many tracks, drawn from the aforementioned split releases, including them here as well is pretty damn, errr, convenient. One thing is for sure, Best Served Cold provides the first and final word on Narcosis.