Napalm Death: 40 Years Of Rebellion
There are few bands that are as influential as NAPALM DEATH and even fewer that have remained as influential throughout their entire career. The Birmingham squad have shaken the tree ferociously since their inception, and when Barney Greenway joined the troupe in the late 80’s the group eventually became the band we know and love today.
With one of the most impressively consistent back catalogues of any band, ever, NAPALM DEATH have been around the block more times that near enough anyone, and as their latest album looms over the horizon there is a real sense of security in the fact that 30 years on and NAPALM DEATH are still railing against the machine as hard as they ever have been. Speaking with Barney and hearing him talk about death threats they received live on national radio whilst touring South Africa in the early 90’s whilst also discussing the persecution of LGBTQ+ communities in the current global climate simply confirms that nothing has changed the revolutionary minds of NAPALM DEATH.
Given how long the band have been going, and with Throes of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism lined up as the latest addition to the bands illustrious career, the question of how much longer NAPALM DEATH are able to keep this up is a pretty important question to raise. Considering the intensity that the band have made their modus operandi both on and off stage, the fact that the band aren’t getting any younger must be one that hangs over the band as they keep ploughing on. Or at least you’d think, anyway. “As long as we have the enthusiasm and we feel we can still offer interesting new music and live we can really fucking give it, I don’t want to do NAPALMat 40% or 50%…it’s 100% for me or nothing.”
100% is certainly how the new album feels as well. Continuing the raging fury that features in every album they have put out, there is even more to be taken from Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism than meets the eye. “I’m fascinated by all the techniques you can use around language, and the title is actually an oxymoron. So I quite like that as boring as I may sound!” Explains Barney as he opens up about the meaning behind the title of the album. “The meaning is two tiered. If you can imagine jaws being a steel trap and if you’re stuck in a trap and you’ll be desperate to get out. But I wanted to make a positive out of it, hence Throes of Joy. The meaning is something else, it goes to another step. Whenever I write a NAPALM DEATH album it has to connect to something that’s happening around the process of the album because I think it’s important that people can make a direct connection into the album because people don’t drill down deep enough that I might want them too.”
It’s interesting to hear how Barney makes sure to anchor everything the band writes within the cultural happenings at the time. Having always been a voice for the underground, the politics within the bands back catalogue has always been firmly asserted on the left of the spectrum making the rise in right wing politics in the mainstream the perfect target for a band as razor sharp and sonically violent as NAPALM DEATH. Where they were there to call out the South African apartheid as the heinous act it was whilst live on air in the country they are here to call out the abundant injustices that are present in today’s world. Whether that be the previously mentioned problems surrounding LGBTQ+ or the shocking treatment of migrants and refugees fleeing violence in their own country.
Even with these issues being very present in the mainstream news it can be difficult to engage these discussions with people. Whether it be through ignorance or discomfort of the topics, having real talks about how to resolve these problems can be few and far between when they’re not being reduced to emotionally charged shouting matches about personal ideologies. Given how much thought goes into every word that Barney uses to punctuate the blistering musical landscapes Shane Embrury writes, it must be somewhat demoralising when people don’t dig into the meanings, such as Barney mentioned in our chat. But thanks to the gift of experience, Barney has a swift and efficient response to these worries. “Put the ideas on the table so they’re there, and hopefully they have enough content and they’re presented interestingly enough that people will chew them over.” he explains. And maybe that is genuinely all that can be done. You’ll often find bands admitting that music will never change the world and can only put ideas out into the wider conversation and hope they brew into genuine substance. But if there is any band that will actively try to tear the walls of the world down to the ground, it’s NAPALM fucking DEATH.
Throes of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism is out now via Century Media Records.
Like NAPALM DEATH on Facebook.