Ed Miliband meets Napalm Death on Radio 2 – and attempts to sing Death Metal It’s not often a well-known politician discusses ‘death metal’ on Radio 2. But that’s exactly what happened today. All this week, […]

It’s not often a well-known politician discusses ‘death metal’ on Radio 2. But that’s exactly what happened today.

All this week, former Labour leader Ed Miliband has been sitting in for Jeremy Vine.

And listeners got a treat earlier when Miliband welcomed Barney Greenway of the band Napalm Death into the studio.

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I've been a groupie for SO long, been to the gigs, got the T-shirt, now's my chance to meet Napalm Death in person….tune in from 12. https://t.co/oWW1ceBan5 — Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) June 21, 2017

‘Heavier than heavy’

After throwing over to Bobby with the traffic news (a nasty burst water main on the A1112), Miliband gave us a spurt of death metal.

The reason? For the first time ever, a stage dedicated to the genre is making an appearance at Glastonbury, curated by the Nottingham label Earache Records.

“This isn’t the heavy metal you might know like Iron Maiden,” said Miliband. “This is heavier than heavy.”

After giving any flagging lunchtime listeners a rude awakening with a blast of Wormrot, we got a snippet of Napalm Death’s ‘When All Is Said And Done’.

“It’s all a bunch of noise,” posited Miliband, opening up the discussion to Greenway on the merits of the artform.

“I totally understand it, we appreciate that people feel that way,” said the singer. “We get a perverse sense out of annoying people. The band is very sonically violent, but the ethos behind it would appear to be the antithesis of that.

“We welcome people’s revulsion sometimes.”

Attempting Death Metal

Miliband then dared to go even deeper down the rabbit hole, asking for a clearer description of ‘Grindcore’ (“you’re part of a genre within a genre?!”).

“It was actually the last Napalm Death drummer that came up with the term,” said Greenway.

“It has to be extreme or bothersome and generally make someone really happy or ruin their day.”

Miliband then halted the conversation to play Shalamar’s ‘A Night to Remember’, one of the strangest changes of tone you’re likely to hear on radio.

After discussing Napalm Death’s record-setting shortest song ‘You Suffer’ (“blink and you’ll miss it, but I think we’re going to hear it now!”) and playing it twice, Miliband had his own attempt at the lyrics.

“I’m going to take my career into my own hands if it hasn’t already gone down the pan,” he said, as a ringtone started up somewhere in the studio.

“Somebody’s ringing me to say it’s not a very good idea.”

“Force it up through the throat,” was Greenway’s advice, before Miliband let out an embarrassed howl.

“OOAAAWAAY!”

“You need more throat.”

“Youareaaawwwwwwhy!!”

“Definitely more throat… I don’t know how to get that going.”

Ed Miliband just attempted to sing death-metal on Radio 2, tutored by the lead singer of Napalm Death. You're welcome. pic.twitter.com/1gnZgSMU9O — Tim Johns (@timoncheese) June 21, 2017

It looks like the death metal community will be safe from Miliband’s guttural roars for now.

Ed Miliband doing a Napalm Death roar was so Partridge. I'm not sure he can top that. I'm not sure humanity can. — Zorro P Freely (@banalyst) June 21, 2017

As Miliband signed off with the Grenfell Tower charity single, one Facebook user commented on the surreal half-hour:

“I knew sticking with Radio 2 would pay off eventually.”