INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MARK “BARNEY� GREENWAY BY MARIKA ZORZI
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want people to listen,� says Napalm Death singer Mark “Barney� Greenway. “What we have to try and do is talk about stuff that has some semblance of basis in the here and now, because they’re also experiencing that, so they can relate to it more.�
Napalm Death have always tried to shake consciences, from back in the first days of their formation in 1981. After almost 40 years, that attitude hasn't changed at all. The band from Birmingham, U.K. are back in 2020 with a new album, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, out via Century Media. According to Greenway, the album has only one message: a plea for humanity and compassion to prevail over selfishness and fear. “What the album talks about is generally the treatment of the other,� Greenway says. “First of all, I use the example of people fleeing dangerous situations, commonly known as refugees or migrants. The dehumanization of those people is nothing new,
40 NEW NOISE
but it has been accentuated, even at try now.’ [They] put about the idea neo-Nazi activity around and about. a governmental level. We know the that LGBTQ+ people, because their If I’m somewhere and it’s going on, it obvious person across the Atlantic makeup might be different because does fucking anger me. But to a point, who enjoys using this to his own end, of their sexuality, that somehow that is I think constantly fighting with people but we also have it in Europe. We have a threat to the biological makeup of in the physical sense, it doesn’t help. it in Poland. We have it in Hungary. We rest of the population. It’s fucking nuts. It just perpetuates the cycle of violence rather than trying to get to the have people that use this kind of language against fellow human beings. “We’re not only presenting those endpoint, and the endpoint is quality This is really dangerous stuff because scenarios that are very real, but we and dignity for all. Me, as an individthese are the tactics of—for example— are also trying to be the antithesis. ual, but more importantly as Napalm the fascist regimes in the past.â€? Napalm Death is standing up and Death, as it’s chosen to be, we’ll just saying, ‘No. These are our fellow keep putting the ideas on the table “They would pick out groups within the human beings. This nonsensical and hope that they resonate with population, and they would tell the treatment of other human beings is people, which they have done with a general population why these people not acceptable.’ It doesn’t need to be, lot of people that follow us.â€? shouldn’t be trusted, and they’d dehu- and it shouldn’t be.â€? Since the beginning, Napalm Death manize them, and eventually, it builds up to a point where the rest of the pop- As with everything Napalm Death have been synonymous with both ulation becomes so afraid, so paranoid, have recorded since the early ’90s, proudly-held ethical principles and so hateful, that they start to use violence Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism the relentless pursuit of new ways to against these groups,â€? he continues. digs deeply and insightfully into all terrorize people with riffs and noise. manner of historical and contempo“Napalm Death is about the collec“Sometimes, as we know, it can lead to rary horrors and injustices. tive,â€? he says. “It’s about what we can mass murder. So, it’s quite significant that refugees are being dehuman- “Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of do to contribute to the promotion of ized, but also look how at the LGBTQ+ things,â€? Greenway continues. “I’ve humanity. I know that sounds a bit of community are being dehumanized been involved in a lot of things over a grand idea and a little band makby Poland, which just declared, ‘Oh, the years. I still get really disappoint- ing all these grand pronouncements, we have gay-free zones in the coun- ed and angry when I see that kind of but I think it’s very true.â€? đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł
