Napalm Death have announced their upcoming album, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, will be released on September 18th via Century Media Records. The follow-up to 2015’s Apex Predator – Easy Meat was produced by Russ Russell and it will consist of twelve ruthless tracks. The band will unveil the first single on July 24th along with pre-orders.
In the meantime, check out what frontman Mark “Barney” Greenway has to say about the new record:
“The phrase sticking in my mind when I started thinking about the lyrical direction for this album was ‘the other.’ You could recognise 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.
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 sterilising 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.”
Check out the tracklist and artwork by Frode Sylthe below:
Tracklist:
01) F**k 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
