The Kick Up The Ass They Needed

Napalm Death are more than just grindcore legends: they are a metal institution every bit as important as fellow Brummies Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. For more than 25 years the band have carved an uncompromising and highly idiosyncratic path through the world of extreme metal. Embury however prefers to steer away from superlatives and instead is content to acknowledge it’s been a strange path.

“Yeah, it’s been a while,” he chuckles. “But to be able to come and play in Australia with Carcass, who of course we’ve known from the early days, is a real honour for us. We’ve toured together before but this one will be special – and we’re going to try and get a certain Carcass guitarist up on stage to play with his old band – so I guess some of you will be interested in that.”

Napalm Death have always written their own rules, much to the disgust of some fans who believed the band should have remained one-dimensional purists who did nothing but grind as fast as possible. This angst reached its heights in the mid to late ‘90s when Napalm Death (gasp) slowed down and took on board influences from the industrial scene and behemoths like Killing Joke and Swans. As Embury explains, it was the best of times... it was the worst of times. “On the one hand I think it was something the band needed to do – to explore that side of our sound,” he muses. “It was a time when we realised that it wasn’t just playing as fast as possible that meant you were extreme, and you can see that attitude on the likes of Diatribes and Words From The Exit Wound. I think some of the material we made in that period between say 1993 and 1999 was actually good. On the other hand we as a band did drift a bit from what we were all about. I moved down to London, other stuff was going on with Barney – I think we all drifted apart. By the time we came to do Enemy Of The Music Business I think we’d all had the kick up the ass we needed and that record really brought us back to life.”

Embury isn’t lying here. Since that superlative piece of sonic nastiness Napalm Death have been on a 15-year streak, producing album after album of intense grindcore that has never once strayed towards the derivative or one-dimensional. Instead the likes of Utilitarian and Time Waits For No Slave show a band comfortable in their sound but willing to innovate. “We are very comfortable with where we are at as a band. We’re getting a great response for the new record, especially when we play the new songs live. But most of all we are still feeling inspired to do what we do – and what’s more, we’re still enjoying it.”

And as for the sets planned for their upcoming Australian jaunt? “We’re going to give you guys a bit of everything.”