Just feet away from where NPR Music staffers write and edit stories, a swirl of black t-shirts and battle jackets opened up a small circle pit. The absurdity of the moment was not lost on us, but the smirks on the masses gathered to see an English metal band tear up NPR's office carpet kept the momentum appropriately (but respectfully) chaotic. Napalm Death's ongoing campaign for musical destruction had come to the Tiny Desk.
For more than 40 years, noise has not only been a central tenet of Napalm Death's caustic sound, but has also served as an ear-splitting advocacy for human dignity. In the 1980s, an early version of the band created grindcore, which amped up the intensity of metal and hardcore to make something far more extreme. In these songs, often short and always ferocious, the pain of oppression is reflected in the sonic assault, but the shrieks and growls remind us to choose love over hate.
So how do the founding fathers of grindcore sum up such a legacy, one that's still evolving? On both sides of this set, we get tracks from 1987 that still define the genre — let's call it a Scum sandwich. In between, Napalm Death speeds with manic energy across its sprawling catalog, including the dissonant death metal of "Everyday Pox" and the heaving post-punk of "Amoral," a song written by longtime bassist Shane Embury, who was unable to join the band for this U.S. tour. The set closes with a wink, but also a challenge: "You Suffer" can be written off as novelty, but in its one-second blast, there's a question worth asking every waking minute we spend in hopelessness: But why?
SET LIST
- "Instinct of Survival"
- "Strong-Arm"
- "Everyday Pox"
- "Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism"
- "Amoral"
- "Dead"
- "Scum"
- "You Suffer"
MUSICIANS
- Mark "Barney" Greenway: vocals
- John Cooke: guitar, background vocals
- Matt Sheridan: bass
- Danny Herrera: drums
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Lars Gotrich
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
- Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame
- Audio Engineers: Josephine Nyounai, Becky Brown
- Production Assistant: Dora Levite
- Copy Editor: Daoud Tyler-Ameen
- Photographer: Vanessa Castillo
- Tiny Desk Team: Ashley Pointer, Felix Contreras
- Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
- Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
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