NAPALM DEATH

Natural beauty of the world

Birmingham- based extreme metallers NAPALM DEATH are one of the few groups on the contemporary scene that could last for so long (it's hard to believe, but those guys, or at least some of them have already spent over two decades on slaying metalheads with their brilliant stuff!) and still have the same passion and dedication to music as when their first album came out. At the beginning of this year the UK's finest grindcore act strikes back with the brand new album entitled „Time Waits For No Slave”. Just before the European tour I had an opportunity to talk to Shane Embury. The interview turned out a bit chaotic, but who really cares?

-You are about to release your new album „Time Waits For No Slave” very soon. This is your thirteen full length record which is definitely an impressive result. Nevertheless some people claim „13” to be unlucky number. Are you superstitious?
I guess I am kind of in some ways but so far the reaction we are getting back from the label about the new album is really positive, so maybe its having a weird reverse effect. Fingers crossed!

-Can you try to answer yourself where you are now, at the steps of you career and how far to reach the peak? Or maybe you have already reached it some years ago?
Mmmm well... thats a weird question I think. I think some people thought we reached our peak many years ago but looking back on the past I can say without a doubt that we as a band are musically and sonically stronger than ever. I remember a couple of years ago we played the Loud Park festival in Japan with among other bands Cathedral who of course feature our old singer Lee Dorian on vocals. He told me after the show that he thinks we are more aggressive and intense than back in the older days when he and Bill were in the band, so as I said, for me we are stronger than ever and I think this new album is one our most important albums.

-But you're pretty close to retirement age. Are you gonna be the ROLLING STONES of grindcore music? The question is justified because many people are wondering how long will you stay alive as a band.
We will be around as long as we feel that we can justify being around. We really have nothing to prove and I am only 41 and not fucking 61, I think perhaps people get confused with the fact that in the bio its says the band has been in existence for 27 years which is true but I have been in the band only 21 years and the other guys less than me. The first album came out 22 years ago. Look at Slayer- they are older than us..

-Anyhow, it's hard to believe after so many years, so many albums you still manage to keep your music so fresh, successively increasing band's explosive power with every single release. Is there any scientific explanation of that phenomenon?
Well... maybe a factor is that we don't feel our age, this music has a way of keeping you excited I think. I still love to keep in touch with what's happening around our scene and find a lot of new bands exciting. This in turn gives me the kick up the arse and faith to keep on pursuing what we do in Napalm Death. We are lucky to have been together for a long time now and are pretty close to each other in many ways and are from the old school so we want to deliver the good every time. We are getting better as we get older I think and thats comes from trial and error, we are less afraid to try different things.

-In common opinion your works are true masterpieces of extreme metal art. I've been listening to „Time Waits For No Slave” since a few days and must say, that's gonna be another classic album in that genre. It smells like classic! What are your general impressions concerning the effectiveness of your new cuts?
Well for me its a great step forward again from the last album, Mitch’s songs have a lot of classic chunky riffing which makes the difference on this album. I have tried to write some songs with some weirder guitar riffs and also make the faster songs more manic with more stops and starts. Also Barney has made some really interesting vocal patterns as well as Danny bashing the hell out of the kit this time around

-It's been nearly three years since you have released „Smear Campaign”. How could you characterize the way you've progressed as a band since 2006?
For me I usually have ideas finished or in rough form just after we have finished an album and this was the case after „Smear...”. I had a few tracks from years ago as well which were unfinished and so there were great starting points. As we toured the „Smear Campaign” album I kept on refining idea’s for this new album knowing that by the very nature of time and progression in studios and faith in our producer Russ Russell they would sound fresh when the time came. As soon as we had decided to start the new album I gave the idea’s to Barney we were of. Mitch had said to me that he wanted to concentrate on some more mid tempo riffing and that would be cool since i had some ideas for more manic songs with more time changes.

-What was the main goal when you started writing for „Time Waits No Slave”, the golden rule for making this album so great? Just to follow your heart and be as spontaneous as possible or maybe this album had been deeply though out before you started working on it?
As I said part of its had been thought out from me and Mitch but at the same time we follow our hearts and put our trust if being spontaneous as much as we can as well. Also with all the studio experience we have had we knew that things would probably end up being changed when we started recording the record and some things were and for the better.

-In one of recent interviews you said that you always try to make each album differ without losing the thread of what should be there. Is it a challenge for you guys? How do you avoid falling into a rut and becoming bored with music?
Music is a massive recycling process of idea’s and environments so as young bands form and make albums they in turn add to the creative pulse. We like to listen to all forms of music so inevitably we come across bands that have that spark which we find inspirational. This make the mind tick towards what we could do on our next album. Again it helps that we have been together so long now and have a lot of faith in each other but you can hear stuff in other music which you can interpret to your own ends. I have a habit of running riffs through my head long before I pick up the guitar and and record the idea. Late at night on tour me and Mitch would spend endless nights talking about directions and listening to bands, a lot of the time influences are subconscious but I think they all count towards what we do next as a bands. You pick up idea’s structures lyrics from every where. Living life on the road can give you inspiration. These are the things that help us hopefully make a challenging album.

-How would you describe the musical content of your new album compared to the previous effort?
To me it's Napalm Death. Musical content is a hard one to explain I think, I can't really disent it that much other than it's a natural sounding evolving album that has its roots in the last couple of albums but moves forward in many different ways also.

-The new album was recorded with your full-time producer Russ Russell behind the knobs. What is so special in working with him? There must be something like special chemistry, right?
We me and Russ were born a day apart for start off so we think in very similar ways. He did our live sound for many years so understands that side of us which helps when you record your album has you always want to maintain your live feel. He always wants to better his last effort which is very much like us and we just click as friends. He is like our 5th member in that he can pre empt what we are thinking before we have to say anything to him about it. We would not go with anyone else, he cares about what he does and will stay up until 4 every morning, until the job is done.

-Are you entirely satisfied with the album production? I would say there's no particular difference between „Smear Campaign” and „Time Waits...”...
I actually totally disagree, the drum sound is way better and the guitar sound is so much heavier than „Smear...” – the production is so much better. I use a 5 string bass on this album and you can hear the lower tones so much more than „Smear...” – No this albums sound is far more superior

-OK, that's your opinion... Now would you be so kind as to tell me something about the significance of the album artwork? How does that picture you put on the album cover relate to the title and the lyrical content?
Well... you see the mechanics of the clock in pieces and you see the human body in pieces. This is to reflect the rat race we are all in, the repetitive day to day struggle which is stopping us from looking around at the natural beauty of the world. There is so much around us that we take for granted, we are so caught up with the high fast powered living we have become acustomed to that, we are in danger of losing ourselves to it.