LIVE REVIEW: Napalm Death @ O2 Institute, Birmingham

Thirty years. A Guinness Book of World Records spot for the shortest song ever written. Some of the most infernal noise ever committed to record. NAPALM DEATH are a band that require little introduction at this point. The grind pioneers have blazed a trail worldwide throughout their career, and now The Campaign For Musical Destruction Tour 2020 has finally come home to Birmingham’s O2 Institute. And with EYEHATEGOD, MISERY INDEX and ROTTEN SOUND and BAT (which we sadly missed due to our late arrival to the venue – thanks day job!) joining them on the bill, tonight promises to leave a trail of sonic filth in its wake.

There’s an unwavering intensity to ROTTEN SOUND’s amalgam of blackened death metal and grind, coming hard at this still growing crowd in claustrophobic waves. Craniums are splintered as vocals veer wildly between throat ripping shrieks and low-end growls; the pissed off chaos off Targets offering up more crust than your average loaf as a barrage of drum blasts follows suit. Deafening in volume, the Finns tear mercilessly through their discography with every aggressive slab of noise inciting pits whilst ENTOMBED-esque grooves segue into sporadic sludgy breakdowns. Keijo Niinimaa announces to the crowd that “there’s a song for everyone in the room” and with this kind of brutal downtuned assault he’s not kidding. It’s a grindcore party and everyone’s cordially invited – ROTTEN SOUND continue to shake the foundations of venues to their cores.

Rating: 7/10

“Get the fuck up!” Jason Netherton barks as MISERY INDEX launch headfirst into a blistering opening salvo of The Great Depression and Ruling Class Cancelled; death grind blasts sit alongside crushing breakdowns causing circle pits to open and bodies go hurtling into one another during the latter mentioned song. Pulling the majority of tonight’s setlist from 2018’s sublime Rituals of Power, the Maryland death metallers deliver one bludgeoning cut after another as Teutonic thrash metal influences wrestle with that older hardcore sound. The explosive grind of New Salem rages like a rabid beast and groove-laden The Choir Inside is ridiculously catchy – albeit in a brick launched straight to the face type of way. Elsewhere Hammering the Nails showcases the bands penchant for ominous melodies and pummelling riffs – that mid song solo plunging the hordes into grindcore-loving ecstasy. MISERY INDEX have been flying the death metal flag for the better part of two decades and on the strength of tonight’s performance look certain to continue.

Rating: 8/10

Nihilistic despondency has long been the musical modus operandi of NOLA sludgelords EYEHATEGOD whose 1990 debut In The Name Of Suffering became a blueprint for the genre – a celebration of raw, unencumbered filth and punk animosity. Declaring themselves “blastbeat free since ‘87” swaying frontman Mike Williams takes the stage swigging from what looks like a bottle of wine. His band counterparts follow suit and the four-piece let rip with a bleak arsenal of excruciatingly slow riffs, steamrolling dirges and squealing feedback so abrasive it could pierce your eardrums. The seedy stomp of fist-shaker Sister Fucker and Blank’s turbulent guitars and heaving slow rhythms are as vile in their imagery as they are vitriolic in delivery. Shop Lift’s oppressive BLACK SABBATH-meets-southern blues dirge encapsulates the festering humid swamplands from which they were borne whilst elsewhere Williams’ tortured screams are manic yo the point where it sounds like he’s tearing the demons from his vocal chords. Granted, there are a few moments during the set where the energy wavers. The band appear lacklustre – fan favourite Dixie Whiskey is minus its usual intoxicating bite – but overall it’s a welcome return for a band missing from Birmingham since 2010.

Rating: 7/10 

With the O2 Institute now swelling to rightfully frenzied levels given the esteemed company we’re in, the cacophony of noise that greets NAPALM DEATH is enough to lift the roof clean off this venue. From destroying sweaty rooms on the toilet circuit to conquering international festival stages over a career spanning 30 years, these grind legends have become synonymous with combining the uncompromising brutality of extreme metal with socio-political commentary. Tonight, the quartet are back here as hometown heroes, yet there’s still zero pretension or self-involved grandeur on display. “Let’s get the etiquette out the way. We are NAPALM DEATH from Great Barr, Walsall, Dorridge. The sum of all parts and all are welcome!” the inimitable Barney Greenway announces as beers fly skywards and bodies start to bounce.

Entertaining and equally intense, one minute the frontman is jogging about the stage, the next he’s writhing about like a Tasmanian devil: eyes practically protruding from his face as his incomparable vocals reverberate across the room. Discordance’s rumble of unsettling distortion quickly makes way for I Abstain and Silence Is Deafening; the latter of which being the absolute antithesis of its moniker as a result of those hyperfast, hardcore-inflected death metal blasts. It’s the jump-off for the band to plough through a career spanning set ranging from the brutish force of 1987 debut Scum to current single Logic Ravaged By Brute Force – which Greenway lovingly refers to as “a snapshot of the god awful noise that’s to come”.

Can’t Play Won’t Play seethes with disdain whilst taking a swipe at music industry bullshit and presents an opportunity for the frontman to chat about personal freedoms and the opportunism of political sycophants. Spoken diatribes aside, corrosive crust-punk riffing collides with Suffer The Children’s thrash fuelled thunder and with both You Suffer and Dead getting an airing tonight, the masses promptly lose their collective shit. Quite possibly the most gloriously filthy one-second blast ever recorded, the former has everyone demanding an immediate encore. Cheshire Cat grins are stretched across the sea of faces beneath them as rarely heard banger Cleanse Impure (from 1998’s Words From The Exit Wound) erupts. Barney’s vicious shrieks are on enamel peeling form and its pure grind on a plate – served with the precision and aggression that only NAPALM DEATH can bring to the table. There’s just enough time for the four-piece to drop that (in)famous cover of DEAD KENNEDYS’ classic Nazi Punks Fuck Off into the mix but it’s the set closer – a surprise cover of alt-rock experimentalists SONIC YOUTH’s White Cross that truly raises eyebrows. Curveballs, cookie monster vocals and unbridled chaos – welcome to the live grind mastery of NAPALM DEATH.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the carnage in Birmingham from Damian John Photo here: