Grindcore legends Napalm Death have been around in one form or another for over forty years and even though their line-up hasn't included an original member since around 1985, the spirit and the ethos have remained unchanged. On the musical front, time thankfully hasn't dulled the band's edge: they remain as aggressive and abrasive as ever.
There is something about an extreme metal show that you just don't get with other forms of music. Some emotions that can only happen at a certain level of decibel. The noise, the dissonance, the aggression and the violence in the music, it all provides a cathartic release of energy which leaves the listeners drained, exhausted, but strangely at peace with themselves and the world. Case in point: it took about three songs (so roughly two and a half minutes) for the stage-diving and moshing to begin.
Napalm Death was reduced to a trio: bassist Shane Embury had to miss the gig because of an unspecified emergency. Some of the low end seemed to be emanating from John Cooke's guitar, but the distorted growl of Embury's instrument was missed during the few guitar solos. But what can you do? Better to plow on as a three-piece than to cancel.
Speaking of cancelling, vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway was confined to a chair during the entire performance, having sprained his ankle at a gig the week before. This didn't hinder the intensity of the gig in any way, but it must've been very frustrating for him to not be able to thrash and bash around the stage like he usually does.
Like their songs, a Napalm Death show is a short burst of intense, violent noise and the diminished band left the stage after just over an hour of joyful cacophony. They played a bunch of songs from their most recent pamphlet Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism, but also harkened back to the origins of the band with tracks from their very first LP Scum, including the title track and the infamous You Suffer, which they played twice... Of course, that song, listed in the Guinness book of Records as the shortest song ever published, only lasts a fifth of a second...
A killer set by a band that somehow doesn't seem to mellow with age.
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