The Melvins and Napalm Death ‘March’ Forward
King Buzzo discusses their heavy collaboration
“They get lumped into this category like metal,” Buzz Osborne says, speaking about his recent collaborators in Napalm Death.
“They’re not a metal band. They’re a fucking performance art, weird art band to me. I don’t consider them a metal band at all. They have elements of that kind of stuff, but it goes beyond that. There’s nobody like that. There’s nobody… not exactly like the way they are, not with what they’re willing to do.”
Osborne, the enigmatic frontman of sludge titans the Melvins, saw Napalm Death for the first time on their first United States tour and has been a fan for the ensuing four decades. In 2022, Napalm Death and the Melvins, with support from Melt Banana, hit the road for the Savage Imperial Death March tour. When it came time for the two bands to do it again in 2025, they decided to sweeten the deal.
Before setting out, Osborne and drummer Dale Crover linked up with Napalm Death vocalist Barney Greenway, bassist Shane Embury and longtime live guitarist John Cooke along with producer Toshi Kasai.
“Me and Dale and Shane and John got together in LA at our studio,” King Buzzo recalls. “I had some songs, and those guys had some songs, and we had various parts and we spent like a week or so running through stuff. You know, coming up with a wide variety of different things that we wanted to do and we ended up with enough stuff for an entire record. They took it back to England and Barney then put his stamp on all of it after, after it was all said and done, and he took it to the next level.”
The original, truncated version of Savage Imperial Death March was released as a physical, tour-exclusive piece of merchandise but never saw digital or wide release. Osborne says the group approached the Melvins’ longtime label, Ipecac Recordings, about releasing the full version of the album and things moved quickly from there, noting how happy he is about the final result.
“When we recorded, it was really weird,” he says. “I honestly don’t remember which parts I play. I played bass. I played guitar. I did and those guys all did the same thing. Some of them played bass, some of them played guitar. I mean we just switched around and did all kinds of things, so it is a true collaboration. It’s not Napalm Death songs and Melvins songs. No, it’s a whole new hybrid.”
Osborne speaks of Napalm Death with deep respect bordering on (deserved) reverence throughout the interview. Despite, or perhaps because of, both bands’ legendary influences on the extreme music scene, the process was natural and no one came to the studio with a defined role in mind.
“When you get people, really creative people, together, that kind of stuff is easy. You’re just, you’re doing something, egos go out the window. There’s not, you know, ‘I’m the guitar player’ or ‘I’m the bass player,’ none of that’s going on. It doesn’t really matter and you’re just servicing what it is you’re doing.”
If you were one of the eager fans who waited for an upload of Savage Imperial Death March’s tour-exclusive version, you’ll find two new songs on this release — the very weird “Awful Handwriting,” which features silly vocals and bouncy rhythms, and “Comparison is the Thief of Joy,” which serves as a sort of cinematic interlude before the final track. Sometimes the album feels more like a Melvins release with special guests but there are some truly special moments when the two parties find their groove, namely “Awful Handwriting,” “Some Kind of Antichrist” and album closer “Death Hour.” Savage Imperial Death March thrives in the spaces between the band’s two sounds, where Napalm Death’s noise meets Melvins’ grooves or where one of the many vocal contributors, in Greenway’s own words, “babbles lyrically” over Kasai’s synthesizer soundscapes.
Buzzo says everyone went in with ideas and parts of songs written but there were no demos and no idea of what the finished product might sound like ahead of time.
“A lot of times with demos people fall in love with how that sounds,” he offers. “And then miss out on how it could sound with the guys that you brought in.”
The Melvins frontman says he doesn’t have a favorite song on the album but “machine gun to his head,” he’d choose “Some Kind of Antichrist,” which is also the album’s longest song at over nine minutes. And as for future collaborations, who can say? Osborne says he’d be very open to working with Napalm Death again, but time and overseas logistics mean that nothing is guaranteed. If not? He had the time of his life making this one.
“I’m happy that this happened,” Osborne reflects. “If this is all that there is, I’ll be satisfied with that. But if it came up and we were able to do it, I’m more than willing to do more stuff with those guys, absolutely, without even hesitating.”
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