'You're Only As Good As Your Next Album': Napalm Death on Staying Furious
Thursday, 27 February 2025
Written by Matt Mills
In 1981, three punk kids in the Midlands banded together to make extremely fast music at the loudest possible volume. The group’s initial lineup would prove as volatile as their songs but, amid the mayhem, Napalm Death eventually birthed the now-legendary ‘Scum’: a debut album so raucous that a new genre had to be made to characterise its ferocity.
Although their ranks have stabilised in the intervening decades — with the band now composed of singer Barney Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera – their all out assault has not. Napalm Death are still at the tip of grindcore’s spear, writing brutal tracks lambasting the world’s wrongs. And they’re inspiring younger generations to rage alongside them.
The band routinely lead the Campaign for Musical Destruction Tour, which often platforms new, incensed voices and will have its ranks rounded out by Crowbar, Full of Hell and BRAT when it hits the UK and Ireland in early March. In the run-up to what will certainly be the noisiest shows of the year, we caught up with Barney to discuss Napalm Death’s rich legacy, the music they’re making next, and why the shitty state of things will never demotivate him.
Napalm Death are considered the defining grindcore band and still inspire musicians today. What are your thoughts on the genre and your position in it?
“I’m going to contradict myself. Usually I would say I’m not bothered about pigeonholing, but I would say that best represents Napalm Death. One of the reasons I’m so positive about it is that, when the band gets tagged as a death metal band, I think that’s really lazy. It only tells a fraction of the story.
“As for my relationship with grindcore itself, I’m actually quite ambivalent. I’m quite neutral about it because it’s about what other people bring to it. That’s what keeps it healthy. There’s going to be grindcore stuff out there that doesn’t float my boat, but it’s all part of the ecology. Everything has its place, and Napalm will continue to do what Napalm thinks is the right thing to do, music-and-ideas-wise.”
You’ve had younger grind bands like Escuela Grind and BRAT on your Campaign for Musical Destruction tours. Is that something of a stamp of approval for these up-and-coming artists?
“This is just my opinion, but I consider it an obligation to bring bands that people wouldn’t normally see, because who else is going to do it? That’s my thing. We’ll take bands if they’re interesting. You mentioned Escuela Grind: they’re very DIY and they have a very strong connection to trans awareness and trans rights. That’s something that we should, as human beings, carry with us, especially at this point in time when the idea of gender is under attack.”
Does Napalm’s position as such an acclaimed and still-influential band ever put pressure on you as a creative?
“Where the pressure comes from is that you’re only as good as the next album. It’s very kind for people to consider the band in the way you just said and be so positive, but you can’t carry that with you like a bag of magic beans. You’re only as good as your next album or your next gig.”
Your lyrics are incredibly socially conscious and you talk about social issues onstage as well. Does keeping up with everything that’s going on in the world ever affect your mental health? How do you stop it from getting too much?
“It’s ingrained in me as a human being that I should understand a basic level of humanity. We are so developed as human beings and I think sometimes we don’t even understand how developed we are: that we have the capacity to not persecute other human beings, to not marginalise someone because they have a slightly different biological setup.
“You might say, ‘But other people are completely on the opposite end.’ But sometimes on the opposite end I think the humanity has been chipped away quite a bit. People don’t understand what it is to have a basic level of humanity. It doesn’t affect my mental health, I must be honest, because whatever comes along, it’s better for me to understand it. I think human rights, animal rights, whatever else, they transcend politics. If you don’t have them, everything else is immaterial.”
Do you think artists with a platform have a responsibility to talk about these things?
“It’s not for me to say if a person should be this way or that way. They have to find their own path. But, if you are so motivated, then don’t be afraid of it. Sometimes I speak to bands who say, ‘I’d love to be as forthright as that but I don’t think it would be accepted.’ It’s like, ‘Hang on a minute – this is your art! Why are you afraid of your own art?’ That’s all you can do in life: you can only throw stuff at a wall and, if it sticks, it sticks; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I have no concerns about, ‘Oh, I might lose some of my demographic.’ There’s no point for me if that’s what it’s come to.”
Is there any commercial pressure on Napalm whatsoever?
“Don’t care! Never cared, never will. The thing for me is, hopefully, I can look back over the albums and say, ‘Creatively, that hit the spot.’ Anything else is entirely secondary.”
It’s been almost five years since the last Napalm album [2020’s ‘Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism’]. Is there a new one coming?
“We’ve been talking about it, and Shane’s got a rake of stuff. It’s just a matter of condensing it and putting it all together. We were half-thinking a few months ago about doing it, but you’ve seen our touring schedule! We’re bouncing around everywhere and we just haven’t really had the opportunity to put it together.”
Do you have any lyric ideas?
“I’ve got ideas but I haven’t written anything concrete. My thing about writing lyrics is I need it to be a reflection of my feeling, my subconscious, at that point in time. I’m not gonna go, ‘That’s a good subject to write about, but it’s really generic.’”
Does it disappoint you that some of your older lyrics, like Suffer the Children, are still relevant 35 years later?
“Well, that song was about religious lunacy: one-eyed, religious fervour. Naturally, that stuff is enduring, unfortunately. It’s aimed at not one but all religions, which are generally patriarchal – though not all of them are – and authoritarian.”
Do you have hope for the future of humanity?
“It always seems way worse in the here and now than it did a week ago, or a year ago. The world has always been an absolute fucking shitshow. But, of course, I’m living on this Earth, you’re living on this Earth – we’ve got to push on through. You’ve got to just try and always carry humanity with you, try and endorse it, try and live it, and pull other people along with you. That’s all you can really do, you know?”
Considering everything we’ve talked about – touring the world, supporting younger musicians, the lack of commercial pressure, expressing yourself through lyrics – what’s the best part of being in Napalm Death?
“That’s a hard one to pin down. I think it’s being in a band that answers to itself. Don’t get me wrong, there are always band members who can bring in quite hearty debate – there’s not just one singular train of thought – but it lives and dies upon itself. That’s the best thing about it.”
Napalm Death Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue March 04 2025 - DUBLIN Academy
Wed March 05 2025 - GLASGOW SWG3
Thu March 06 2025 - NEWCASTLE University Students Union
Fri March 07 2025 - LONDON Electric Brixton
Sat March 08 2025 - LIVERPOOL O2 Academy Liverpool
Sun March 09 2025 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
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