U.K. grindcore pioneers NAPALM DEATH will release their new studio album, “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”, on September 18 via Century Media Records.
To further demonstrate the wide stylistic array explored on the LP, NAPALM DEATH has launched a single/video clip for the closing track, “A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen”. Check it out in a video clip created by Sam Edwards and Khaled Lowe of A-Side Films.
NAPALM DEATH vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway commented about the song/video as follows: “‘A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen’, you could say, is about building and breaking down in the same discordant breath. The building came in the sense of many layers of coruscating industrial ambience, all marching to the beat of a home-made drum kit consisting of rubbish bins, oil drums and industrial screw parts and other bits that Shane [Embury, bass] could find littered around the studio grounds. The scope and gravity and density just demanded a vocal that was as baritone and anguished as I could push out of myself. The breaking down side of it was the intention to just focus minds to understand that people who traverse continents, suffocate in confined spaces or drown grasping for assistance are as keen to live in dignity and peace — and without violence and hunger — as the rest of us. As ever, quite simply, we are all human beings and if that means anything anymore, a helping hand is the least we can offer.
“Sam Edwards and Khaled Lowe, directing the video, really focussed our minds in the way they wanted to drill down into the indifference generated around these things — via some incredible animation and suchlike married to the stuttering engines of unseaworthy vessels and the precision shunt of our industrial pounding. The whole visual concept of beach life going on around bodies washed up on the shore is a grotesque scenario that illustrates how meaningless those we can’t connect to our own small universe can become.”
Edwards and Lowe said: “This film was commissioned by U.K. grindcore pioneers NAPALM DEATH. Both the song and video address the disturbing prevalence of the ‘anti-outsider’ in contemporary society — from popular right-wing publications filled with hate-fuelled rhetoric through to the chilling nonchalance of holiday makers found relaxing in front of washed up corpses.
“Based on real events, the film uses a combination of live action and animation to depict a doomed voyage; escaping their ruined city, a family of refugees meet a tragic end when their boat sinks during a storm. As the dinghy sinks near the shoreline, indifferent tourists party and picnic. Bodies wash up on the beach while people take selfies, heedless to the carnage behind them. The story concludes with images of a vast ‘sea cemetery’ of floating gravestones and an obscure ghostly figure drifting on the horizon — these represent the countless lives lost in the pursuit of freedom from oppression and the ease with which they are forgotten.”
“Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism” track listing:
01. Fuck The Factoid
02. Backlash Just Because
03. That Curse Of Being In Thrall
04. Contagion
05. Joie De Ne Pas Vivre
06. Invigorating Clutch
07. Zero Gravitas Chamber
08. Fluxing Of The Muscle
09. Amoral
10. Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
11. Acting In Gouged Faith
12. A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen
Greenway stated about the upcoming album and its theme: “The phrase sticking in my mind when I started thinking about the lyrical direction for this album was ‘the other.’ You could recognize at the time that there was a rapidly growing fear and paranoia being generated about everybody, from migrating people to people with fluid sexuality and this was starting to manifest itself in very antagonistic reactions that you felt were almost verging on violence. Not everybody resorts to such reactions, of course, but even the basic lack of understanding can become toxic over time. I’m not saying that this is an entirely new phenomenon, but it has been stoked in recent history by some particularly attack-minded people in more political circles and, as ever, I felt that it would be the natural antidote to endorse basic humanity and solidarity with all.
“The artwork specifically uses a white dove as a centerpiece, which, of course, is a commonly recognized symbol of peace and cooperation. The dove has been mauled very violently by a sterilizing hand and in death appears particularly broken and bloodied. However, through the violence you can see an equality symbol in blood on the chest of the dove, which perhaps demonstrates — visually at least — that equality cuts through in the end. A positive amidst many negatives then, much like the album title itself being a bit of an oxymoron — the celebration of humanity even in the mangling jaws of negativity.”
Regarding the LP’s musical direction, Greenway told Kerrang! magazine: “I’ve definitely done some stuff on this album vocally that I’ve never done to this degree before. We’re heading into the noise-rock territory, loosely. SWANS, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE YOUNG GODS — we’re heading more down that path. But there’s some more traditional, fast, chaotic stuff as well. Again, as long as it’s aggressive, confrontational, abrasive, even when it’s less full-pelt, it’s always NAPALM DEATH.”
NAPALM DEATH is (from left to right in photo)
* Shane Embury – Bass reverberations, barks and moans, noise-testing everyday objects
* Mark “Barney” Greenway – Bawling, shrieking, intermittent baritone
* Danny Herrera – Turbulent beat throes
