NAPALM DEATH

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST MARK “BARNEY” GREENWAY BY MARIKA ZORZI

“I want people to listen,” says Napalm Death singer Mark “Barney” Greenway. “What we have to try and do is talk about stuff that but it has been accentuated, even at a governmental level. We know the obvious person across the Atlantic who enjoys using this to his own end, try now.’ [They] put about the idea that LGBTQ+ people, because their makeup might be different because of their sexuality, that somehow that is neo-Nazi activity around and about. If I’m somewhere and it’s going on, it does fucking anger me. But to a point, I think constantly fighting with people has some semblance of basis in the but we also have it in Europe. We have a threat to the biological makeup of in the physical sense, it doesn’t help. here and now, because they’re also it in Poland. We have it in Hungary. We rest of the population. It’s fucking nuts. It just perpetuates the cycle of vioexperiencing that, so they can relate have people that use this kind of lan- lence rather than trying to get to the to it more.” guage 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 individ-

Napalm Death have always tried to these are the tactics of—for example— are also trying to be the antithesis. ual, but more importantly as Napalm shake consciences, from back in the the fascist regimes in the past.” Napalm Death is standing up and Death, as it’s chosen to be, we’ll just first days of their formation in 1981. saying, ‘No. These are our fellow keep putting the ideas on the table

After almost 40 years, that attitude “They would pick out groups within the human beings. This nonsensical and hope that they resonate with hasn't changed at all. The band from population, and they would tell the treatment of other human beings is people, which they have done with a

Birmingham, U.K. are back in 2020 general population why these people not acceptable.’ It doesn’t need to be, lot of people that follow us.” with a new album, Throes of Joy in shouldn’t be trusted, and they’d dehu- and it shouldn’t be.” the Jaws of Defeatism, out via Century manize them, and eventually, it builds Since the beginning, Napalm Death

Media. According to Greenway, the up to a point where the rest of the pop- As with everything Napalm Death have been synonymous with both album has only one message: a plea ulation becomes so afraid, so paranoid, have recorded since the early ’90s, proudly-held ethical principles and for humanity and compassion to pre- so hateful, that they start to use violence Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism the relentless pursuit of new ways to vail over selfishness and fear. against these groups,” he continues. digs deeply and insightfully into all terrorize people with riffs and noise. manner of historical and contempo-

“What the album talks about is gen- “Sometimes, as we know, it can lead to rary horrors and injustices. “Napalm Death is about the collecerally the treatment of the other,” mass murder. So, it’s quite significant tive,” he says. “It’s about what we can Greenway says. “First of all, I use the that refugees are being dehuman- “Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of do to contribute to the promotion of example of people fleeing danger- ized, but also look how at the LGBTQ+ things,” Greenway continues. “I’ve humanity. I know that sounds a bit of ous situations, commonly known as community are being dehumanized been involved in a lot of things over a grand idea and a little band makrefugees or migrants. The dehuman- by Poland, which just declared, ‘Oh, the years. I still get really disappoint- ing all these grand pronouncements, ization of those people is nothing new, we have gay-free zones in the coun- ed and angry when I see that kind of but I think it’s very true.” �� �� �� 40 NEW NOISE

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST AND VOCALIST BRENDAN KELLY BY JOHN SILVA