NAPALM DEATH INDULGE IN SOME UTILITARIANISM

Yes, The Metal Suckfest is over, and yes, we survived! We had a great time. And while I can’t speak for Vince, I can say that I, personally, am still recovering. ‘Cause holy shit did we party hard, and holy shit am I ever exhausted.

We’ll have pics and reports and all that good stuff soon, but for now, let’s just concentrate on catching up with some news we missed. Like the fact that Napalm Death have a new album coming out next year. Wait wait wait, let me repeat that in a more fitting tone: HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS NAPALM DEATH HAVE A NEW ALBUM COMING OUT NEXT YEAR!!! If that doesn’t make you excited, I don’t wanna know you.

The album is called Utilitarian, and it comes out February 28 on Century. There’s no new music for us to hear yet, but there is the album art (by Frode Sylthe, above), and this statement by vocalist Barney Greenway:

“After some deliberation, we have decided on Utilitarian as the album title. We generally try to avoid generic titles, and this seemed to have a lot of scope to it. I won’t explain the full meaning of Utilitarianism here because it’s an ethical theory, and as ethical theories go, the depth and debate around it is quite heavy at times. It has a certain ‘morality’ aspect to it and that isn’t something that drives me, so I also certainly have issues with it.”

“So, rather than just nail that straight to the mast, of course we wanted to put our own spin on it by suggesting that those (i.e. the utilitarian in us, perhaps) who try to challenge everything, or fight against conventions, well, we go through periods of real self-doubt where we wonder if we’re really making a difference. I suppose the conclusion is that, for the sake of all our freedoms, you should never stop, as even the feeling of resistance is at least a signal to those who would like to entirely control and dominate us – meaning everything from our instinctive behavior to our human entitlement to walk the earth unprovoked.”

“Regarding the album overall, the final creases should be ironed out fairly soon, and immediately after that, we thought it would be good to top it off with a few UK dates. We’ve been playing one new song (‘Quarantined’) out on a tour of Canada and it’s been well received, so we hope to perhaps throw in another one for now. Either way, we’ll be bouncing off the walls again near you very soon. Cheers all.”

Sooo… is it February 28 yet?

-AR