NAPALM DEATH…only the name says it all... Independent, extreme & uncompromising Metal band! A real example of integrity! Those well-know English gentlemen were on their Euro-tour to promote their new (& highly recommended) album “Smear campaign” and gave a concert not so far from where I live… It couldn’t be a better opportunity for me to see them live again & also to ask Shane (legendary bass-player of the band & fuckin’ cool guy as well as the other band members) to answer some of my questions...thinking this would be a cool interview to share with the Brutallica readers! So here we go!!! Fabien PINNETEAU Béatrice FARRICA
You cannot label NAPALM DEATH, it’s impossible! I suppose this is not your only gig in France and Europe… When & where the tour has begun and where & when will it end? It started in Newcastle on the 18th of October and will finish on the 19th of November. Before this tour, we had been 6 weeks in America with HATEBREED
shows. We like what we do and if we didn’t care, we would probably not be doing what we do… Do you enjoy playing in France? Well, yeah, that’s pretty good ! Can you say there are differences between French and the rest of Europe audiences?
and BLACK DAHLIA MURDER and after this tour we’ll go to the US again, so this is the second part of a three part tour I guess… What is your “secret” not to be completely broken at the end of a tour and to always have the energy to play a good show? Hum… I don’t know. I mean we’re still very passionate but sometimes you’ve good days, bad days and usually on tour you’ve to play almost every day and you’ve to save your energy for the
And also between European & American one? If so, which ones? Well, it depends on the shows, you can have bad and good shows, it doesn’t matter where you’re playing, you can have bad shows in France, in Germany, etc. A good show makes the crowd acting, dancing…a bad show makes the crowd watching you, this can happen all around the world I think, it’s all the same… Ok, back to the band… Your new album is called
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“Smear Campaign”…first of all, the artwork really caught my attention and it really reminds of the band’s early releases… it is also much more disturbing than the previous album covers…why this choice? The last four album covers had the logo in the centre of the record; we felt we lost a bit the old feeling with lots of details, messages… We just got back to the early punk covers with just one colour…that’s the main reason. This album has been recorded at the Foel Studios in Wales where “The Code Is Red…” was also recorded. What does this studio have in particular you wanted to find again? It’s cheap (laughs)! Well, basically the studio is ran by a guy called Dave Anderson he’s the original bass player for a band called HAWKWIND, really a hippie guy, pretty cool. It’s in the middle of Wales, really quiet, nothing around. It’s quite good because it is not distracting. Not like if we recorded in Birmingham where we live, you can go home, to the pub, so this is the best way for us. Musically what is really surprising is the kind of “back-to-the-roots” sound and way of writing, mixing new industrial & even atmospheric sounds… How did this idea come to compose such songs? One could think atmospheric touches could weaken the sound but not at all, the result is even much more aggressive. Was it something you wanted to experience for a long time or did this come naturally? Well, we just try to make a definitive NAPALM DEATH album. Even in the early days before the first album, NAPALM DEATH did experiments with slower more industrial tracks; But we just try to make an album we’d love to hear, we gave crazy fast parts, catchy heavy slow riffs, we just tried to do what NAPALM DEATH do best! The atmospheric stuff was good to experiment this way and sounds really apocalyptic in some ways, it follows the concept of the album, kinda bizarre, dark…it’s kinda cool! Barney also sings much more differently than previously… It is more varied and the same as for the music, it gives more impact to the songs. Is that also something that was for him natural or was he thinking of doing this for a long time too? We’ve made kind of experimental songs in the past albums, but it’s in the past two albums that we felt really comfortable…but it is not really comfortable it is almost more “confident”, I think. It’s also showed on the last track of this album, it is like a natural extension you know, too much would be too much obviously, there is just enough to make it a little stranger, and I think there is enough atmosphere. We’ve always tried to experiment throughout the years into different directions… How did it come that Anneke from THE GATHERING sings on two songs? Whose was the idea? I didn’t think she was a real NAPALM DEATH fan he, he…and what’s your opinion about THE GATHERING that started as an atmospheric Death Metal bands years ago? Do you enjoy their latest releases? We had a part in a song that needed female vocals, Century Media suggested Anneke, she sings very well, was really enthusiastic, it turned out pretty well and I believe it was interesting also for her, kinda challenge… Do you think she’s a real Napalm Death fan? Supposedly… She came to the show a couple of weeks ago… And what’s your opinion on THE GATHERING that started as an atmospheric Death Metal band years ago? Do you enjoy their latest releases? The last album they did is great, I like it a lot. I like a lot of atmospheric music, and all that’s good to me is fine! Anneke on a NAPALM DEATH album, you, Shane, appears on the new ANAAL NATHRAKH album and Barney sings on the last BORN FROM PAIN album too… Is that important for you to keep this open-minded attitude to various musical