Napalm Death - ATG 2026

Nina here for on the guitar channel because he cannot speak. If you don't mind introducing yourself to that camera, please. Hi, I'm John Cook from Napalm Death. There we are, and we're here at ATG and you're headlining the archive stage later. How do you yourself, um, individually or as a band prepare for like a gig like this, if at all, or do you just turn up and play? We're napalm, we just turn up and play. It's been many years. Yeah, this, we've been on tour like nearly all year. At this point we started in the end of January and we did a European tour a couple of weeks off, then went to Japan, did America for 8 weeks, came back, had 2 days off, played Hell Fest, nearly passed out due to the heat. Yeah, that was hot. And then we could do festivals every weekend since then and uh we play here today at Arctangent, and then tomorrow we play in Gothenburg and then we've got 2 months off. Yay, finally. So preparing is. It's just, it's just, yeah, it comes natural. So, um, speaking about the set you'll be playing tonight, clearly it's a practise set, but what is one of your favourite songs, your favourite songs to play, not necessarily a crowd favourite. What's one that you're like, oh, I'm looking forward to playing that one. I mean, I love all the, like all the music, but I some of the stranger songs like diatribes and, Um, inside the torn apart some of the slower weird stuff from the nineties a lot we've been adding a lot of them back into the set recently over the last few years because we're doing these. Consistent tours, so we changed the setlist up and we have two different setlists. You give something to everyone, so people that might have not seen you before, we got really fast and we got really slow and weird. Absolutely, and um obviously you've been in the band for many, many years in different capacities and like you've sang a couple of times. So talk to me about that journey, like, I mean I know we, we only have about 1015 minutes. I used to work in a recording studio in Birmingham called Rabbana's, which is actually where we still rehearse. We were actually just there today picking up the gear and driving down, and I met Shane, bass player, and Danny there. I had to drive them to a recording for an offshoot band of napalm called Venomous Concept, who a few years later I ended up playing in because after driving them down and meeting them, getting on with them, they asked me to come out and sell t-shirts for them. And so I sold t-shirts on this insane, it was called the Back to Basics UK tour. It was 30 shows in England. Scotland, Wales and Ireland, it was mental. It was it's fun though. It's just in a van like we do gigs like Wednesday to Sunday, have Monday and Tuesday off and do gigs. It was like 30 gigs like that. And uh from there anyway I worked with them for years and I worked with some other bands but. I was always there because I lived with Danny the drummer for a long time. From there when Barney got sick once, I had to jump on stage, sing some songs, and then a few years back in 2012, Shane was sick, so Mitch called me like the day before he said you learn all the songs. So I learned all the songs while on my way to Germany, played those three shows, and then when Mitch decides to go to Vegas and. Yeah, I suppose all the issues going on, uh, but yeah, he, then that's his favourite guitar, so and now here you are. That's, I mean, as you said, a long journey, but you've always been in some way involved somehow, that, that's amazing and it's a testament to, you know, the band's longevity. Yeah, he used to drive the vans and everything because Barney still drives the vans. He drove down half the way today. Yeah, we all just kind of. Band's very hands on, yeah, so that's really good for a band that's been on for so long as well, because sometimes you know you get the, oh no, I can't do that anymore, like I, I, I will not touch my own guitar, I will not, you know, and and that doesn't feel like that's what the Tomb is about. Comfortable with we're not comfortable with that. So. So speaking about guitars, um, what are you playing today and uh what is one of your favourites to play? A few years back, uh, I started using PRS guitars because um we recorded a venomous concept album. Um, next door to the PRS from guitar factory and I've got to know them really well and so I'm playing this PRS playing them at McCarthy thin line at the moment, but I like the Myras as well. They're really nice guitars. It's easy to play. They don't look very napalm. They, they, they, they actually, they get mad at me because I bring a guitar in to get it repaired, like what have you done to this? There's dents in it, stickers all over it, but at the end of the day, you, you're part of the band, so you know it doesn't matter if it doesn't look aesthetically pleasing or if you don't, you know, oh this doesn't fit. What, what, what they're I love those guitars, they, they actually put up. They, they stand the beating, so that's incredible, we've probably done 200 shows this year, I think maybe, and they've lasted. That's incredible. And um apart from the guitar, is there any specific gear that makes you sound like you, or you know, it could be a 5 pound pedal or something that you think you can't live without. I always bring my pedalle board. I always make sure when when we fly I actually carry my pedal board on board, because the amount of stuff, luggage we get, we'd lose so much luggage. I used to try and carry the guitars on board, but, It's just not practical because some of the airlines you end up on and they start arguing you need to buy 5 seats for one guitar. It's ridiculous. So yeah, no, I just always carry my pedal board, I just got my tuner, my TS9, um. Overdrive pedal and tube screamer, sorry, I had got a delay and yeah, that's it really, that that's great because I don't use a noise gate or anything. I need my tuner because I use it to mute with my foot, yeah, but yeah, no that's great, and um you were speaking about for example the guitars not necessarily fitting what. Someone would expect Napalm Death to look like, or you know, um, and you know, Napalm Death as a band is the fathers of grindcore, and, you know, for me, when I first learned about the band, I was like a growing up punk, and I, I didn't know about genres, do you know what I mean, and, For me, grindcore wasn't a thing, like I didn't know what that meant, so genres are always, it's a strange thing. Yeah, I was everyone has a name, everyone has a name everything, but uh, how, how do you feel about being a bit like, not necessarily pigeonhole cos obviously it's amazing to be, you know, the core band of a certain genre, but I mean there's songs that are really punk, really fast, as you said, and there's some songs that are slightly weirder, they're slightly, that's a really cool thing about napalm. Since the beginning as a fan, the band's always experimented it's just it's awesome. I just love the, I also like the noise aspect that Shane brought in recently and stuff like. He did some remixes from the last record, uh, Dark Sky Berry remix, which he used on power electronics on and stuff, but that's, that actually is weird as it says that fits with Napoch because Apoch, it's just a strange band that can, but, but you need to keep evolving as well, otherwise you'll, you know, you'll have 20 albums and they'll all exactly sound the same. So what, what, what is the point, right? You're playing the same thing over and over. And um, so lastly, for anyone that might have not heard of Napalm Death or they're new into it, what song would you recommend someone would learn of yours? I'm sorry that I know you have many, many songs. 11 of my favourites played is Brink on the brink of extinction from Time Waits No Slave album, so that's a good. But there's so many areas of the band, it's very difficult to choose, yeah, that would probably, that's great. 01 last one, sorry, I forgot, um, what was your first song that you remember playing on guitar and or, you know, a gateway song that got you into, The heavier music genre, cos I know sometimes people are like, I learned Twinkle Twinkle, but obviously that's not cool to say so, I'll forgive you for that one, but you know, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica, because it's just so simple to learn and to play, it's it's, I remember when I was learning it because they actually tuned slightly out on that record, which I never knew. I was always like I can't get it right. How did they get it? Yeah, but yeah that was the first song. That's incredible. That's amazing and then from then on you never stopped. That's great. I'm sorry I'm the depth, I'm the depth interviewer, but things happen. I'm really looking forward to the gig, as I said, I'm, um, I've been a fan long, long time before I even, you know, it's one of those, my, my first one was Nazi Punks for, as you do, um, so I'm really looking forward to it. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.