As leaders of extreme music and one of the hardest working bands around, the legendary Napalm Death is currently putting the final touches on their 14th studio album (excluding the cover album Leaders Not Followers). This new piece of brutality is entitled "Utilitarian", and it will hit stores on February 27th in Europe and February 28th in North America via the band's long time partner, Century Media Records. The cover artwork perfectly fits the album's theme and was created by the Danish artist Frode Sylthe, who is also responsible for The Haunted`s amazing "Revolver" artwork.
Singer Mark "Barney" Greenway explains the album title and concept: "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."
Napalm Death is already confirmed for the 2012 Wacken Open Air, Hellfest, Maryland Deathfest, and much more. If you are a UK citizen, make sure to catch them on their year-end run in November/December and witness some of the new material live!
NAPALM DEATH UK Tour 2011:
11.25 - York - Fibbers (Great Britain)
11.26 - Dundee - Beat Generator Live (Great Britain)
11.27 - Manchester - Moho Live (Great Britain)
11.30 - Bournemouth - Old Fire Station (Great Britain)
12.1 - Milton Keynes - Craufurd Arms (Great Britain)
12.2 - Sheerness - Ivy Leaf (Great Britain)
12.3 - Liverpool - Masque (Great Britain)
12.4 - Belfast - Stiff Kitten (Great Britain)
12.5 - Dublin - t.b.a. (Ireland)
12.7 - Bristol - Fleece (Great Britain)
12.8 - Birmingham - HMV Instiitute (Great Britain)
12.9 - Braga - Bracara Extreme Fest (Portugal)
12.11 - Glasgow - Ivory Blacks (Great Britain)
12.12 - Newcastle - Trillians (Great Britain)
12.13 - Sheffield - 02 Academy 2 (Great Britain)
12.15 - Weymouth - Pavillion (Great Britain)
12.16 - London - Underworld (Great Britain)
12.17 - Plymouth - White Rabbit (Great Britain)
12.18 - Norwich - Waterfront (Great Britain)
NAPALM DEATH Festivals 2012:
3.2 - Tilburg - Neurotic Deathfest 2012 (Netherlands)
4.27 - Lausanne - Les Docks (Switzerland)
5.24-27 - Sonar, Baltimore - Maryland Deathfest (USA)
6.15 - Clisson - Hellfest (France)
8.2-4 - Wacken - Wacken Open Air (Germany)
Related links:
Napalm Death
Century Media
