Napalm Death
Grindcore band Napalm Death hails from Birmingham, England. Formed in 1981, the group first joined together near Coventry, England in a village called Meriden. Nicholas Bullen and Miles Ratledge organized the band’s creation.
The two, still teenagers, had already been playing with different bands throughout the 1990’s. Before choosing Napalm Death as a name, other choices included The Mess, Undead Hatred, Civil Defence, and Evasion.
Revered as the creators of grindcore music in its entirety, Napalm Death are known for their fast, sometimes violent music and aggressive style. Combined with deep, chilling vocals, hardcore punk and death metal composition, and short song lengths, the style of grindcore was born.
The band’s short-lived original lineup in 1981 included Nicholas Bullen, Simon Oppenheimer, and Miles Ratledge. Since then, band members have come and gone, and the band itself has had its share of hiatuses. The group’s current lineup includes Mark “Barney” Greenway (previously in the band from 1989 to 1996) on vocals, Shane Embury on bass, Mitch Harris on guitar and additional vocals, and Danny Herrera on drums.
Napalm Death’s song “You Suffer,” from their first album, Scum, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the shortest song ever recorded in history.
Today the band is “as brutal and ferocious as ever,” according to the UK magazine, Terrorizer. 2008 saw the release of the band’s fourteenth album, followed by a big tour in 2009 and 2010 across Europe and Asia. And though the band originated across the pond, in America they’re known as the seventh most popular and best-selling death metal band.