Napalm Death: A New Interview with Mark “Barney” Greenway

Photos by Adam Wills

What more can be said about U.K. grindcore icons Napalm Death? Beloved by metalheads, punks, and rockers alike they’ve been flying the grind flag for 35(!) years, and basically created the genre with the legendary album Scum in 1987. The band incurred numerous lineup changes early on, with literally no original members left in the band today. But the current lineup has more or less been the same since 1990’s Harmony Corruption (the major exception being guitarist Jesse Pintado who passed away in 2006).



They’re also arguably the most politically active band in extreme music, and maybe in guitar-based music in general. For example vocalist Mark “Barney” Greenway received a lot of mainstream press last year for his attempt to reach out to President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, who is inexplicably a fan of the band, in an effort to persuade him to overturn the death sentence of two Australians who had been convicted of heroin smuggling in the South Asian country.



Napalm Death’s latest album Apex Predator/Easy Meat is also perhaps the band’s most well-received release in decades, garnering high praise from both fans and critics. I met up with Greenway at the Toronto stop of their recent eclectic tour with The Melvins and Melt-Banana to talk about the reception of the new album, the impending U.S. election, and even their famous mention by superstar comedian Jim Carrey on the Arsenio Hall show.

Napalm Death have European and South American tour dates lined up throughout the summer, and Apex Predator/Easy Meat is available now on Century Media Records. Check out their new video for “Dear Slum Landlord” below.

Napalm Death - April 19, 2016 - The Opera House, Toronto