Favorite Films: Napalm Death’s Shane Embury Picks ‘2001,’ ‘Inception,’ ‘Forbidden Planet’
Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury isn’t one to sit on his laurels – even if they’re extreme-metal laurels. Even though he’s played bass and backing vocals for the grindcore legends since 1987 (man, is that hard to believe), he’s also dallying with his side project Dark Sky Burial, whose new album, The Secred Neurotic, which dropped yesterday via Consouling Sounds.
We’ll have plenty to discuss about that project in the near future, but since it’s Saturday, we found it fitting to roll out a new edition of Favorite Films, in which musicians talk about the best movies they’ve ever seen and recommend some cult classics unfamiliar to most of us.
We caught up with Embury via video chat last month. When we asked him to pick his favorite film ever, Embury initially cited 2001, but then qualified his remark by admitting, “I think I haven’t seen it for such a long time. I always need to go back and check it out again, because when I was young, I was too [much] into Alien or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I really liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but I didn’t know too much about the basis for it.”
He went on to discuss more of his sci-fi go-to picks.
“Close Encounters is more serious sci-fi,” he said. “I’m a big Star Wars fan, which is different, I think. I did like the movie Interstellar. And Inception too.”
Embury then pivoted, emphasizing that “Horror is a big thing for me too. The old-school ’70s and 1930s horror movies, I like those as well. I sort of grew up watching the Universal horror movies, the Hammer horror [pictures]. I still love all that.”
The Napalm Death gave us a brief cultural history lesson when he imparted that “England has some interesting sci-fi programs which [most people] probably haven’t heard of outside England. There’s of course Doctor Who – everyone knows Doctor Who. But I was obsessed with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop because of all the bizarre sounds and blips and stuff.
“Actually, Forbidden Planet is a favourite sci-fi movie of mine, even though it’s very old,” Embury continued. “It’s probably not going to compete with CGI or whatever, but I like that movie. I like the fact that the same thing was done by these two Belgian guys who ended up creating a bunch of weird machines just to make the noises.”
When asked about any other favorite horror movies of his, Embury singled out Rosemary’s Baby, and the original 1976 version of The Omen and The Exorcist, which came out three years prior.
“And then we can sort of veer over to something like the 1958 version of Dracula, or The Horror of Dracula, you call it now,” Embury continued. “And then over towards something like [1951’s] The Day of the Triffids. It’s kind of sci-fi horror. It’s very old. It’s something I quite liked.”
Time-traveling a few decades into the future, Embury noted his approval of Lucio Fulci’s 1981 cult classic, The Beyond, and the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.
“I love the original but the remake was great,” he said of the latter. “It was kind of gory, but when the zombies ran, I was into that. And, recently, Hereditary is kind of an interesting movie. It’s got a subtle kind of kick to it. It reminded me a bit of Rosemary’s Baby. And it’s quite claustrophobic.”
Read Shane Embury’s loving recollections about deceased At the Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg here.
For more posts in which musicians talk about their favorite movies, check out:
• Dying Remains’ Frontman Treasures ‘The Thing,’ ‘Suspiria,’ ‘City of the Living Dead,’ ‘Wounded Fawn’
• Heavy Heavy Low Low Vocalist Lists His Favorite Flicks as Halloween Creeps Closer
• Point Break 2 Frontman Cops to His Guilty-Pleasure Movies: ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Terror,’ ‘Elvis,’ More
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