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NAPALM DEATH Premiere ‘Contagion’ Music Video
November 9th, 2021

Birmingham, England-based grindcore band Napalm Death have released a music video for the track ‘Contagion’. Directed by Marc Nickel / Ljuba Generalova, the clip can be viewed below.

Speaking about the song and video, frontman Mark “Barney” Greenaway said: “Although we can only hope to provide a snapshot in four-minutes, what we wanted to try to illustrate with the ‘Contagion’ video is how difficult it has been made to do something as fundamental as moving freely as a human being. There is downright absurdity in that some people have to resort to mortal danger doing things like riding atop trains whilst others can move seamlessly and freely without a second thought. We advocate for an end to borders of all description. Complementing that, the sweaty live footage was shot brilliantly by Ljuba Generalova in Napalm Death’s virtual second home of Berlin and the music, you might say, just motors along like a train.”

Bassist Shane Embury, who wrote the music and the lyrics for ‘Contagion, added: “Musically, ‘Contagion’ is geared towards manic intense live mosh pit action but with an added 4AD noise quirk homage chorus! Also, having so many friends in the Latin community, through a couple of them I learned and read about the perilous journeys that families embark on for the chance at a better life. As a parent, I think of my children’s future all the time – the things we take for granted I wanted to reflect lyrically!”

Napalm Death issued 16th full-length studio album Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism on September 18th, 2020 through Century Media Records.

Greenaway commented: “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.”

Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism was once again recorded with longtime producer Russ Russell.

Cover artwork was created by Frode Sylthe.

Regarding the artwork, Greenaway said: “The artwork specifically uses a white dove as a centrepiece, which, of course, is a commonly recognised 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.”

The track listing is as follows:

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’
13. ‘Feral Carve-Up’ *
14. ‘White Kross’ (Sonic Youth cover) *
15. ‘Blissful Myth’ (Rudimentary Peni cover) *
16. ‘Air’s Turned Foul In Here’ #

* mediabook CD bonus track
# vinyl LP bonus track

Napalm Death’s line-up is as follows:

Mark “Barney” Greenaway (vocals)
Mitch Harris (guitar)
Shane Embury (bass)
Danny Herrera (drums)

Music videos were released for the tracks ‘Amoral’ and ‘A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen’. In addition, an official lyric video was created for the song ‘Backlash Just Because’. All three clips can also be viewed below.

Fifteenth studio record Apex Predator – Easy Meat was released in January 2015 via Century Media.

Promotional photograph by Gobinder Jhitta.

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