Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Radio & Music >

NAPALM DEATH | "smear campaign" + all things ND ::

09:05 / 07.08.06

NAPALM DEATH's new album 'smear campaign' is due on 18th september 2006 (european street date). and it sounds fucking awesome, by my gums!

but let's not get into that, because not many will yet have had the opportunity to listen to the new album. let me just quote the press text quoting decibel mag: well, if you liked the previous three napalm studio albums, then this will melt your face off.

but more on topic: ND have been around for quite some time now (20th anniversary of their first release is around the corner) and have left some indelible marks onto the face of music as it is. next to being called the "godfathers of grindcore" (which i absolutely think they are) they have also had a quite an impact on bringing political and social issues back onto the text boards of metal bands. they infused their extremely ferocious brand of metal music not only with oodles of punk rock but also many of the mindsets that are being associated with the hardcore punk scene (at least, that of yesteryear).

additionally they were never ones to shy away from experiments (as is evident in many of the sideprojects of the various band members) which sometimes even resulted in serious falling outs with many of their longstanding, but obviously not very open minded fans (remember the heated discussions surrounding the end-90ies trinity releases of 'fear, emptiness, despair', 'diatribes' and 'inside the torn apart'. and let's not talk about the 'earache meltdown'.

ND have been a huge part of my life since age 11 and continue doing so - but strangely enough i have found over time that almost everyone, even people who never even touched a metal or punk record in their entire lives, had at some stage contact with the general entitiy of NAPALM DEATH.

so, i was wondering. what do you think of NAPALM DEATH?

[on a side note: new TERRORIZER album is also coming and it's fabulous!]

09:19 / 07.08.06

I remember listening to them on John Peel years ago. What he used to say he liked abut them and all the other bands like them (Bolthrower?) etc was that it was like watching an artist paint with a very limited palate of colours - fascinating to see what they came up with given the limitations of the form.

Never been that taken with them myself, though. But I always thought they were fucking funny and I'm glad they exist. NME even put them on the cover once! Can't imagine that nowadays.

Janean Patience

09:54 / 07.08.06

i have found over time that almost everyone, even people who never even touched a metal or punk record in their entire lives, had at some stage contact with the general entitiy of NAPALM DEATH.

To support this theory, while I've never knowingly listened to NAPALM DEATH I did once meet their drummer. It was in Birmingham, early summer 1992, when he was visiting his student girlfriend.

Six Degrees of NAPALM DEATH.

10:28 / 07.08.06

I haven't really heard much of their last few albums, but Napalm Death (Mark I, circa 'Scum') was the band that got me into grindcore almost a decade ago.

Apparently the writing on their recent recordings has been heavily influenced by the late, great Nasum (themselves much inspired by Napalm Death Mark I) so they must be worth a listen.

Anybody see them live recently? I witnessed them the last time they played Dublin a few years ago -- awesome show. They played 'You Suffer', which made my night!

uncle retrospective

12:28 / 07.08.06

That's nuts, Macdara I was at that ND gig and it was amazing, I was just getting back into metal after years of post rock and dance music and they kicked my ass.
I was never into the grind stuff, there was never enough song on Scum and enslavement for me, I got into Harmony Corruption and the amazing Utopia Banished. God I still love those albums so much, it was a revelation listening to political bands like that after years for listening to people shiting on about Satan (not that I have anything against Satan!) But yea, what a band, it's amazing how much ND and all the spin off bands have changed the face of music.

Here's an early interview with them. Bless, they're so sweet.
Here's the video for suffer the children

uncle retrospective

12:33 / 07.08.06

Here's an interview with the boys about .
the new album

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:30 / 07.08.06

For just one band, Napalm Death have also proved a fertile breeding ground for all kinds of stuff, too- Justin Broadrick, Mick Harris- Napalm Death may as well have been a whole fucking label rather than just a kick-ass band, given what they've spawned.

Yes. Put me firmly in the NAPAL DEATH RULE camp.

15:02 / 08.08.06

seen them last time they were in vienna (when was that? can't remember, but not too long ago...) - old geezers, but powerful for sure!

i could post every single ND song lyric here and have a personal tale to tell about it, but here're the lyrics to 'aryanism' from the UTOPIA BANISHED album:

put it on yourself to be
a role model, an image that you feel
should guide the habits, to form a movement of self-infatuated fools

keeping "each to their own", where social bonding is taboo

is it nice to be a clone in your interpretation of a perfect world,
where all desire to consort is perceived as contagious disease

keeping "each to their own", where social bonding is taboo

challenge the sordid claims to purify!
your distinction threatened? - absurd!!
you wage crusades of loathing to prove a point - the need for divide,
how can the thought of unbounded relations kindle so much hate - outcast!!

get your kicks through persecution
used as scapegoats for your exterior doubts
exposing weakness - retarded, unworthy
i cannot begin to comprehend how you wear such shame with vigour - homophobic race antagonist

harmony can only flourish with mutual regard

that last line - and the unbelievable groove it is embedded into - have (and i'm not joking here) a key foundation for my personal views and outlook on life. few musical acts have managed to influence me as directly and strongly as ND did. any similar experiences out there?

15:40 / 09.08.06

If you like Napalm Death and John Zorn, check out the band Painkiller. It's awesome stuff!

Didn't that guy leave ND?

13:31 / 14.08.06

yes, mick harris is no longer part of the active roster of ND. strangely enough ND has, over time, become something like a loose center for all sorts of ND related art and music projects: PAINKILLER, SCORN, TERRORIZER, LOCK UP, CATHEDRAL, ABSOLUTE POWER (still active?), BRUJERIA, VENOMOUS CONCEPTS, BONEHIVE, RIGHTEOUS PIGS, S.O.B., HEAD OF DAVID, GODFLESH, CARCASS, LULL, EXTREME NOISE TERROR, LULL, BLOOD FROM THE SOUL, UNSEEN TERROR... and i'm dead certain i've missed dozens of others.

03:13 / 15.08.06

Add me to the list! I have seen ND once when they came to Brisbane but I can't remember how long ago that was. I have 3 albums by Napalm Death 3 EP's and (3)PAINKILLER, (6)SCORN, (2)BRUJERIA, (1)VENOMOUS CONCEPTS, (6)GODFLESH, (1)CARCASS, (1)LULL, (1)BLOOD FROM THE SOUL so yeah I have spent a bit of cash in their camp. I think Meathook Seed also had a member of ND in it too, they did an abum called Embedded which I enjoyed. And yes, Painkiller is an excellent idea. The album Execution Ground is one of my all time favourite albums when it comes to the snare drum. Awesome production considering most of it is live! It is exciting when bands such as Napalm Death make a break from their surroundings and start something new. With music spreading out so rapidly over the last 5 years, do you think there is any more new ground to be broken?

Locust No longer

01:35 / 19.08.06

I dig the first two Napalm Death album-- "Scum" and "From Enslavement to Obliteration"-- but I can't say I've heard any of their more current attacks on humanity. I haven't heard many good things, honestly, but maybe I'll try to check out this new one

Terrorizer is back with a new album, and it's good? Cool.