Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands, in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since Utopia Banished (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris, drummer Danny Herrera and lead vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway has remained consistent through most of the band's career. From 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris as replacements for guitarist Bill Steer. Following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece.

The band is credited as pioneers of the grindcore genre by incorporating elements of crust punk and death metal, using a noise-filled sound that uses distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdrive bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, vocals that consist of incomprehensible growls or high-pitched shrieks, extremely short songs, and sociopolitical lyrics. The band's debut album Scum, released in 1987 by Earache Records, proved substantially influential throughout the global metal community. According to the Guinness World Records, their song "You Suffer" is the shortest song ever recorded, at 1.316 seconds long. By their third album Harmony Corruption (1990), the band shifted to death metal and began writing longer songs.

Napalm Death have released sixteen studio albums, and as of 2003 are listed by Nielsen SoundScan as the seventh-best-selling death metal band in the United States. According to former vocalist Lee Dorrian, Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration (1988) have sold a combined total of 400,000 copies worldwide.