NAPALM DEATH Interview with Mitch Harris, Vibrations Of Doom Zine.
Quite a potent force in the death metal scene these days, Napalm Death return
with a new album Diatribes. Inquiring about all the recent activity themembers
of Napalm Death conducted with side projects, Mitch relates to us that "we
had a lot of free time on our hands. We had a lot of different ideas and
influences, and actually we've got enough ideas to do about five different
bands! We did Meathook Seed, and other techno style projects I wanted totry.
Shane of course had his reasons for doing Blood From the Soul. We did acouple
of gigs as Meathook Seed (one was done in Atlanta, which was only the second
time the played Meathook live) and the gig in Atlanta was much more responsive
than the one in New York, which didn't go over well."
Apart from all this free time, the mini album Greed Killing showcases some
surprising twists to a band that has kept a similar style and sound throughout
the years. I'll let Mitch tell ya about it: "We wanted to forgo thetradition
of 'you know what you're going to get' when you hear a Napalm Death record.We
wanted to break some new ground, which we started on the record 'Fear,
Emptiness, Despair,' and from there, judging by the reaction of the songs
played live and feedback to the album , we knew what we wanted to focuson and
developed further from the last record. We got better production this time
around, and actually Colin was only used to mix the last record becausethe
first mix turned out really crappy, and it turned out better but the wayit was
mixed was strange to begin with. There are different vocal approaches even,but
it's not like we totally changed on this new effort. Even vocal wise, there's
some higher pitched vocals (like in the old days with Lee Dorrian) mixedwith
Barney's traditional rough throated singing and some stuff that was influenced
by a group called The Swans, which is more droney, warped sounding. It'skind
of cool, because it bridges the gap of total repetitiveness, and it makesit
sound a little different without losing the 'flavor' that is Napalm Death.On
this new record, Shane did some vocals on one track 'Cursed to Crawl' andlive
I do some of the higher screaming. Whatever has been double tracked in the
studio I do live, since Barney only has so much air for his vocals."
Many diehard fans may remember the Strange Fruit Peel Sessions cassettefrom
which over in England got radio play! It's an interesting note as to howMitch
and company got hooked up with this: "What it is basically is JohnPeel's radio
show, on BBC1 and distributed nationwide. It's totally mainstream in the
daytime, but at night they have all these obscure programs. John has always
been a fan of ours since the 'Scum' record, and he asked us for some sessions.
The way it works is you're asked to do a session, and then you go down tothe
BBC studio in London and set up your stuff, and they get the sound fromthe
other room, and say 'okay, we're ready!' You don't even hear it, so it'skind
of a rehearsal, and you just run through your set, then afterwards whenit is
done recording you overdub the vocals and whatever else. John Peel thenplays
this on his show and states it as special recordings for listeners. Sometimes
these sessions are released to the public, and sometimes it doesn't. Most
everything we did for the Peel Sessions was already on vinyl at some point;the
difference being that it has more of a raw edge to it." Much has been
accomplished by Napalm Death since those early days, and even though theydo
add distinctive new twists to their music, the idea is still, as Mitch putsit,
"grindcore, blast beats, whatever you want to call it. Aside from thefact that
there's now a thousand other bands doing grindcore, we feel that it's justnot
as extreme anymore. Thus arose the need for the side projects, and alsothe
need for incorporating new sounds and styles of music into what we do, just
trying to keep everything from becoming stale. If you look at it this way,the
average attention span of a person is about a half hour, and if you're goingto
listen to a record for say 30 minutes, it's got to be something that keeps
your interest long after the first few plays. With many different peoplein the
band, we've always got new ideas, and it keeps Napalm Death from soundingtoo
repetitive, however we don't forget the underground, or our roots as inwhere
we came from." Speaking of the underground, I wondered what opinionMitch had
of Jeff Walker and company from Carcass, who you may remember in a pastissue
had mostly unkind words for those who dwell in the sub region that is totally
closed off (with a few exceptions) from the mainstream: "Well, I wouldnever
rag on the underground because that's how I got in Napalm Death. It's howyou
find record deals and how you get your music to people. There's still alot of
people that know what good music is. These people are intelligent, they'renot
stupid because they know where to go to get their music, they go out oftheir
way to find these bands in the US and overseas. As for Carcass, I was abig fan
of theirs, but their new stuff, I'm not too into their direction on theirnew
record, which is totally metal oriented. There is killer guitar work, butit's
a far cry from when I was a fan of theirs back when they had the old vocalist.
I had a soundboard tape of theirs that to me was the most intense vocalist
ever."
Before I close this interview out, I wanted to touch briefly on the success
that this band has seen, especially with the release of "Twist theKnife" off
the Mortal Kombat soundtrack, and Mitch had this to say: "At one point,
Columbia Records was going to release the soundtrack for the movie, andthey
sent a package of us to the people working on it. I guess they send packages
to all the movies trying to get their bands in for some exposure. When we
heard about it we thought it would be really cool, but we didn't get ourhopes
up, as this industry is a business where a lot of things 'almost happen'but
never do. We're doing what we do and we do it well, and this is a good vehicle
to get our music across to many people as possible. We aren't kissing anyone's
ass to do this, but for us it's still wierd because it's like 'Hey, Napalm
Death is on a soundtrack that sold over a million copies.' And a lot ofthe
audience is much younger that will be picking up on us too." More audience
means a wider acceptance of death metal, the setting was certainly rightand
the invasion has already begun! Be sure and catch them on tour with Sheer
Terror this spring at a town or pit near you!
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