GRIMM: Did you scrap anything?

Well, Shane would be best informed on this since he came up with it in the end. But we have a bit more than what made it onto the record. If you know Napalm Death, you know that we have a few in reserve for splits or singles. Or if someone asks us for a benefit, for example for refugees or for women’s sexual health as we have done recently, of course we’ll do our bit to help out. Always good to have a few in the bank for those occasions.

GRIMM: I’ve already had the chance to listen to the digital promo and I think it’s a great record. The gist of it is still the in-your-face heaviness we love you for. But I noticed there’s some different styles wrought in there as well. ‘Joie De Ne Pas Vivre’, ‘Invigorating Clutch’, or ‘Amoral’ (which I think is genius), to cite the most notable examples. Could you elaborate a bit on how songs such as these made it onto the album?

‘Amoral‘ has a very direct lineage to Killing Joke. And ‘Joie De Ne Pas Vivre‘ is a track that’s influenced by the band Young Gods who mostly use French track titles. So that’s what I wanted to do here. And I was going to use the expression “joie de vivre” somewhere on the record anyway. But I wanted to put the reverse spin on that, because some people spend so much time hating, scapegoating, or discriminating that they don’t even recognize their own existence anymore. They’re more concentrated on bigotry, prejudice or on how to find the negatives in other people than on the preservation of their own lives. I just find that, for the short time we’ve got on this earth, a bit absurd.

GRIMM: As was the case with previous records, you’re still set on conveying a message that is as positive as possible despite all the horrors of this world. How come Napalm Death still hasn’t chosen a darker path over all these years? What keeps on motivating that positive mindset of yours?

Well, certainly on the lyrical side of things we are critical of course and we come up with an antithesis because, and this is gonna sound a little melodramatic, we’re human beings like everybody else. Yes, we are a band, but that band also gives us the opportunity to put ideas on the table. We recognize our own humanity and we understand that part of said humanity is to make aware of the inhumanities. I believe this will give you a natural enthusiasm because your motive is to push for a better world.

We still haven’t learned all our lessons as a human race. There is still a large percentage of the world that just doesn’t have the same access to the fundamentals of basic living that the rest of us do. Myself and yourself included. So you gotta think to yourself “when’s this gonna change?”. It’s unsustainable, the way things are. It can’t go on like this. So Napalm Death‘s contribution to that is to chip away at the negatives and try to push that equality and perspective, and keep doing it.

Yes, we are only a small part of any of that kind of effort. But at least we are a small part rather than not being there at all. That’s all I can say, really.