"He just couldn’t do it. He had asthma, then he got a throat infection. The whole thing was downhill for him." The bizarre story of how two beloved extreme metal bands suddenly swapped singers...only to swap them straight back again

All metal fans have heard that tedious comment when playing your favourite music to a non-metalhead: “It’s just shouting! Anyone could do that!”

Au contraire, my normie chum! Being a great metal vocalist is hard! So hard in fact, that even some seasoned extreme music singers can’t cope with the rigorous demands. Need proof? Well, let’s go back to late 1996 and the brief and bizarre vocalist swap between two of the underground's most respected bands: Brummie grindcore legends Napalm Death and Suffolk crust-punk heroes Extreme Noise Terror.

The Napalm Death camp wasn’t a happy one after the release of their 1996 album Diatribes. Frontman Barney Greenway and the rest of the band were at loggerheads, due to what Greenway told Kerrang! were “big musical changes,” adding that he“felt like there were four people pulling in one direction, then me, keeping the faith.”

“I think he thought we were going for the sell-out option,” said bassist Shane Embury in the same interview. “We thought he was anti-progression.”

After a strained Japanese tour, the decision was made to relieve Greenway of his duties. In his place came Phil Vane of Extreme Noise Terror, a band Napalm respected and a guy they’d known personally for some time.

While his former bandmates were moving on, Barney, who had put everything into Napalm Death for seven years, was not having a good time. “I dragged the depths of fucking despair,” he remarked to Kerrang!. “For three or four months I was ready to throw a rope over the bannister and hang myself.”

Unlike the Napalm situation, Vane’s departure from Extreme Noise Terror had been an amicable one.

“Phil had been with the band from the beginning, we were all really good friends, he didn't leave on bitter terms at all,” ENT co-vocalist Dean jones told the Chronicles of Chaos website. “We stayed in touch when he was with Napalm. We couldn't blame him, they offered him quite a bit of money and Phil was really in debt at the time.”

The obvious option for ETN was to grab a newly unemployed Barney as their new frontman - a position he accepted, laying down vocals on the band's 1997 album Damage 381.

“He told us he felt so at home, because the last couple of records with Napalm were the complete opposite,” Jones said. “They were telling him 'Can you mellow your vocals down a bit? Sing a bit more like Machine Head?'. Barney didn't feel comfortable doing that.”

Alls well that ends well, right? Well...not quite.

“Phil came down, rehearsed with us for four months, but when it came down to recording, he just couldn’t do it, physically.” Napalm Death guitarist Jesse Pintado told Disposable Underground. “He has asthma, then he got a vocal throat infection, and the whole thing was downhill for him. His voice just kind of broke down.”

Realising they couldn’t get what they needed from Vane, the members of Napalm Death found themselves going back cap in hand to Greenway, mere months after showing him the door.

“We had all the music recorded, nothing with vocals,” continued Pintado. “Everything was on schedule, and we’re like, ‘Oh shit, we’re falling way behind here.’ We just called Barney up.”

Greenway was initially suspicious but decided to head down to the studio to hear the latest Napalm material.

“I almost couldn’t believe the audacity!” he told Kerrang!. “But I’m a fair bloke, I went down to the studio, listened to the material and decided to do it.”

But what about Phil? Now he was out of a job! Well, you won't believe this, but...

“Straight after Barney laid down the vocals, I heard that Napalm Death were having trouble with Phil,” said Dean Jones. “Barney agreed to go back to Napalm under certain terms, Phil was out of a job, and we were without a vocalist yet again. So, we asked Phil back! Everything just went around in a complete circle.”

What a palaver! Still, nearly three decades down the line, both bands are still here. There have been more lineup changes along the way in both camps, but Greenway has remained in Napalm Death ever since and Vane was part of Extreme Noise Terror until he sadly passed away in 2011. Crucially, both bands are considered legendary standard bearers for heavy music - and singing their songs remains really quite difficult, actually.