NAPALM DEATH have a new studio album on the way called “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”. It arrives on September 18 via Century Media Records and is the follow-up to 2015’s “Apex Predator – Easy Meat”.
That being said, the band have released the official lyric video for the first single off “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”, which is a song called “Backlash Just Because”.
And it’s everything you would expect from a NAPALM DEATH tune. Quick, to the point and brutal.
NAPALM DEATH vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway commented: “This song in particular really spurred me on when I was writing lyrics for the album overall. It’s raucous and traditional, but also quirky and discordant and ultimately catchy as anything in the context of rampaging noise. Lyrically, it was directed at the spiteful art of creating easy targets and fomenting paranoia and revulsion, which is something that I feel has become de rigueur in very recent times. I really let loose on the more sporadic vocals at the end of the song — it’s a real barkfest at that point. Lovely.”
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.”
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
NAPALM DEATH is (from left to right in upper photo)
* Shane Embury – Bass reverberations, barks and moans, noise-testing everyday objects
* Mark “Barney” Greenway – Bawling, shrieking, intermittent baritone
* Danny Herrera – Turbulent beat throes
Now here’s the tune. The louder you play it, the better it sounds.
