NAPALM DEATH have completed recording their forthcoming new album, Smear Campaign. View a video studio report straight from the band here: http://www.napalmdeath.org/mediaplayer/videos.php?id=13.

Vocalist Barney Greenway reports in and gives his feedback on the recording sessions at Foel Studios together with producer Russ Russell and engineer Chris Fielding:

“We just spent a few weeks again in the studio in Wales where we already did The Code is Red…Long Live the Code and it was obviously such a good experience the first time around on The Code… session, that we decided to return. Whilst we were not trying to compete with The Code… or make the same album again it has to be said that Smear Campaign sounds twice as immense. We didn’t fuck around getting the songs together but somehow Smear Campaign seems to come across as a more in depth experience.

“It was very cool that Anneke from THE GATHERING offered to sing on the album. It’s really funny, because we never would have thought about having guest vocals before the The Code… but every vocalist has worked very well with the song they have contributed to. Anneke’s style is clearly very different to that of for example Jello Biafra but what she does totally enhances the experience. It sounds pretty spooky.

“Lyrics: I guess people know about the album title now but to give a brief explanation the general thread is actually a question asking why exactly we need religion to give us a basis to run our lives. Can we not be trusted as human beings to make our own decisions? This applies in my eyes to everything from Christianity to Paganism to Satanism. Surely the world would be more peaceful without religious restrictions and all this false morality!”

Some songtitles from the new album include “Rabid Wolves (For Christ)”, “In Deference”, “Atheist Runt”, “When All Is Said and Done”, “Sink Fast, Let Go”, “Shattered Existence”, “Fatalist”, and “Call That An Option?”.

Smear Campaign is set for release via Century Media Records on September 18, 2006.