At first glance, it might appear that Napalm Death’s vocalist Marc “Barney” Greenway is a living, breathing paradox, reports Psychology Today’s Michael Friedman Ph.D. Greenway’s band, Napalm Death, one of the founders of grindcore, is a fast and aggressive fusion of thrash metal and hardcore punk music that is designed to unnerve and shock. And yet at the same time, Greenway is well known as having a “sensitive” side, including his recent plea to Indonesian President (and Napalm Death fan) Joko Widodo to spare the lives of British citizens sentenced to death for selling drugs in Indonesia.

After speaking with Greenway, however, one comes away realizing that this is no paradox at all, but rather part of a well-honed artistic and philosophical statement: We may need to be jarred a bit to pay attention to and have empathy for those that suffer in this world.

Studies suggest that having empathy, or an awareness and understanding of the feelings and well-being of others, is a part of healthy development and well-being. Some studies suggest that empathy is what motivates altruistic behavior. Altruism has also been linked to improved health. Theories of psychotherapy suggest that empathy is a crucial part of the therapeutic alliance and vehicle for change. One meta-analytic review of 59 studies found that empathy is a predictor of improved therapeutic outcome.

Greenway explained how empathy is at the core concept of Napalm Death. “I mean, people always talk about Napalm as being a political band, and I understand that. But it goes a bit beyond that for me. So the entry point for me, at least for Napalm, is to be a humanitarian band if you like; to put forward this thing that all sentient beings should live with dignity and to understand what humanity is and promote humanity,” he said. “So to try and cut through things — our thing, if you like, is to say, ‘Well, let’s try and understand what humanity is and try and get back to that. Because I think until we do that, we’ll never stop doing things such as being motivated to kill people en masse because we have the power to do so. Or to keep people really, really oppressed. Napalm Death, I hope, is kind of the antithesis of that.”

“I mean Napalm could arguably just as easily be a very twee-sounding (link is external) folk band. The lyrics are definitely interchangeable with different forms of music.”

Read more at Psychology Today.