Napalm Death’s “You Suffer” is recognised by Guinness World Records as the shortest recorded song, lasting just 1.316 seconds. Though initially created partly as a joke, its extreme brevity and chaotic intensity came to represent the band’s pioneering grindcore style and helped make the track an enduring curiosity.

The song was written in 1986 for Napalm Death’s debut album, Scum, by guitarist Justin Broadrick, bassist and vocalist Nicholas Bullen, and drummer Mick Harris. Inspired partly by Wehrmacht’s ultra-short “E!”, Bullen supplied the four-word lyric, “You suffer, but why?”, and the band recorded it at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham; the song was repeatedly performed for local audiences before gaining wider appreciation.