NAPALM DEATH Frontman Reveals Working Album Title, New Songtitles

Zach Palmer of Doomsday Music recently conducted an interview with NAPALM DEATH frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Doomsday Music: You guys have been playing for nearly 20-25 years, somewhere in that area. Do you ever get to the point where you just want to go home and sit down?

Barney: "You know what? Well, it's been 25 years this year, NAPALM DEATH in its entirety, which is obviously a long time, especially for a band that is so outside of the mainstream. I get your point, of course there's times where I am tired on tour and I feel a bit under the weather or whatever, but at the end of the day, we've got to keep this band going. It's got to keep moving around and the only way to do that is for us to get out there and do what we've got to do; keep playing as much as we can, do the albums, make sure they are good, make sure that every one moves along a little bit more, pushes the thing along. That's what we've got to do basically. I think it's human nature to say, 'Aw fuck, I really don't want to do this today,' but once you get out there and you get into it, you forget what you were thinking earlier on in the day, so it's all good to me. I take it in my stride and I'm happy to be doing it and I'm happy to be going this long and all the rest of it. It's a good experience. It's a good feeling."

Doomsday Music: In the press release that was released, I think it was yesterday, you mentioned that you hope to go back in the studio sometime in May?

Barney: Yeah.

Doomsday Music: And at the current time, I believe you said you don't currently have anything other than a few lyrics written?

Barney: Well, that was mainly said because I actually do have about four or five songs, and as much as I have got those, we actually haven't come together yet as a four piece unit in a rehearsal studio, so things could always change, but the stuff that I have got I'm really happy with, the titles are really good, they are definitely ready from my end. I can give you some of those titles if you want.

Doomsday Music: Sure, yeah definitely!

Barney: "Yeah, OK. Let me try to remember all of these. There's a track called 'Persona Nongrata'. That's obviously a Latin term, and what it means is someone that becomes a lesser being. It's actually a legal term that stretches back quite a few years and the whole concept of that is that some people are just born into this world and just because of their circumstances they are persona nongrata, in other words, pointing out what a real unfair situation that is to be in. So there's that one, then there's… it's like a two part song really. The second half is called 'Smear Campaign' and obviously a smear campaign is something that is like, it could be a verbal or basically a series of actions taken out that basically dirty someone's name or reputation. I'm thinking that I want to use that for the title of the album actually, because the way that's being used, the whole concept is, what I'm trying to get across with this album is the theme is religion basically. I know a lot of people go down that route, but I think increasingly we see governments of assorted countries being governed on a religious basis, and to me that is just going to take us down paths that we really don't need to be going down. I think for the good of the world, especially as fragile as it is at the moment, to try and govern people on theories, on these sort of unproven theories, it just doesn't wash. Doing things in the name of God, well, surely you should be doing things in the name of man, you know? [Laughs] Not in the name of God, so that's my whole point basically, so there's going to be a whole series of images around that if that comes up to be the album title. So there's that one there. There's another track called 'Call That an Option?' with a question mark on the end, and an 'option' being the nuclear option, which Britain is certainly pushing and I believe America is too. They're trying to say that we should enter another nuclear age where we relying on nuclear fuels for consumption. Now bearing in mind Chernobyl etc. etc., I don't think that's a good way to go particularly. And there's a second part to that as well. You've got the situation in Iran at the moment, and I've got a very simple comment to make on that. It's not saying that these guys should have nuclear weapons because these guys shouldn't, it's actually saying no nuclear weapons. Any nuclear weapons are no good at all. But by the same token, how can you criticize a nation for trying to develop a nuclear arsenal when you yourselves are holding arsenals so big and with so much potential to wipe people off the face of the earth, how can you sit there and criticize other people for trying to even the balance a little? You can't do that! America and Israel and many other countries, the very people who are most vocal in opposing what Iran is doing right now are the very people who are holding some serious fucking weaponry. Now, surely that is hypocrisy of the highest order."

Read the entire interview at www.doomsdaymusic.com.