We recently talked with Napalm Death singer Mark “Barney Greenway” about Napalm, politics and metal for a future Headbangers Ball Blog podcast. While we were on the line, we mentioned how there aren’t that many bands that have stuck it out for as long or longer than Napalm Death and still maintained their integrity, and how most great bands record their best albums in the first 10 years of their careers.
To illustrate our argument, we addressed how Slayer’s 2006 album Christ Illusion is solid, for sure, but doesn’t hold a black candle to their classic 1986 record, Reign in Blood. Greenway disagreed — not that Reign in Blood is classic — that Christ Illusion was solid.
“For me, Reign in Blood was the one,” he began. “I think South of Heaven was a good album and maybe the one after that, but I haven’t been inspired by anything they’ve done since then. I’ve tried and tried and tried, and I couldn’t get to grips with it. They probably need some new ideas. I’m not directly comparing them with Napalm, but what we’ve tried to do is put some new stuff in while not losing sight of the core stuff that we did and to refresh it a little bit. I think they could stand to do that because I think on the new Slayer album, some of it sounds really tired. And I did actually read some comments from [singer and bassist] Tom Araya and some other members that sounded like they’d kind of had enough — and it sounds like it on the last album. I’d be surprised if Slayer were around this time next year — put it like that.”
Clearly, Greenway is a wise, and possibly clairvoyant man, but we’re sure there are other crystal ball readers out there who have their own take on the matter. So, you tell us: Was Christ Illusion the last tired gasp from a dying beast or was it an inspired blast of blowtorch-in-face metal that deserved to win the Grammy it garnered? And who else out there thinks Slayer won’t live to see 2009?
Read what Slayer singer Tom Araya has to say about the band’s latest Grammy nomination and more in our Slayer podcast.
Now watch Napalm Death’s video for “When All is Said and Done”:
