Napalm Death have just announced a new album, release date, and all that good stuff! But don't take our word for it. Here's the official press release:
Following South American touring as well as appearances at Phil Anselmo's Housecore Horrorfest in Austin as well as Slipknot's Knotfest in San Bernadino this past weekend, British Grindcore legends Napalm Death are ready to reveal the first details for their much anticipated new, 15th studio album release. The album will be entitled Apex Predator – Easy Meat and will be released via Century Media Records on January 26th, 2015 in Europe and January 27th, 2015 in North America.
Vocalist Mark 'Barney' Greenway chimed in as follows in regards to the album's title and concept:
"Sometimes you have to ponder long and hard for an album title, but following the Rana Plaza disaster of last year (collapse of a textile sweatshop building in Bangladesh), it spurred me on to try and craft an exposé of slave labour in the modern world (and the surrounding conditions propping it up).
"Some in power like to declare that slavery is consigned to the history books. But if you look beneath the surface it is alive and well in many different forms – it just has a different face now, and exists in ways that may seem ethically ambiguous. Using the terminology of evolution particularly interests us, so in this case the 'Apex Predator' represents those who bring the slavery to bear (and capitalise from it), and the 'Easy Meat' is of therefore those who feel they have no option but to comply.
"Fittingly, the music on 'Apex Predator – Easy Meat' is punishing. We feel it's more ambient, more expansive, more unsettlingly discordant than ever, and importantly, still extremely rampant at excessive speed. We hope in every respect – both musically and lyrically – this album will make your eyes burn with the harsh sonics and harsh visions of the dumping ground of globalisation."
Earlier on, the band had stated:
"When we say that we've been working on the album recording for nearly a year, people might be thinking that this all sounds a bit too extravagant for Grindcore-type behaviour. The full story is though that we've been recording it in segments to try and achieve varying types of sonic assault. There is a belief in certain quarters that you can only do so much with our particularly noisy strain of music. We think otherwise, so as well as a few stylistic quirks on the album (that are sometimes happy accidents), generally it's rawer, perhaps a little looser and of course always dense, nasty and, hopefully, invigorating too. Certainly not more polished – yuk!
Russ Russell helped us to give lots of people headaches down the years. He doesn't mind us adopting certain, erm, techniques with studio equipment that most producer-engineers would find somewhat distasteful. So back we went again with Russ to Parlour Studios in the comparatively serene surroundings of Northamptonshire to do damage. There's possibly some of the fastest and spazziest stuff we've ever done and, on the other end of the scale, some of the weirdest, most oppressive and adventurous no-wave-type stuff too.
Some song titles for you to chew on: 'Copulating Snakes', 'Dear Slum Landlord' (aired at Roadburn 2014), 'What is Past Is Prologue', 'Stunt Your Growth'. We're nearly finished – we promise!"
Stay tuned for much more! Here's some abrasive music for the mean time…
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