Napalm Death, Ivory Blacks, Glasgow 11/12/11

Sheila 19 December 2011 Event Reviews

On a very windy Sunday night I headed through to Glasgow to interview Barney and review the Napalm Death gig at Ivory Blacks. Last time I seen Napalm Death was at Hammerfest 2 back in 2010 when they tore up the main stage so I was looking forward to tonight’s gig.

It was an early start doors opened at 6pm as there was an early curfew. It’s a 3 band line up tonight starting off the night is Perth based band Nerrus Kor, Shadowthrone who come from Airdrie then Napalm Death to finish off the night!

When Nerrus Kor took to the stage Ivory’s was about a quarter full. They opened with ‘Irreligion’ and ‘Indoctrination’. ‘Frozen In Fear’ had a few of the crowd singing along during the chorus with Neil the lead singer. ‘Henus Cult’ and ‘Slave’ finished off their set.

The guys played a tight, powerful set. Neil’s gruff growls and screams along with James driving drums beats and roaring riffs from Graham and baselines Callum definitely closed the night in style.

Shadowthrone up next, due to commitments I only got to see their first 2 songs and not the full set. They had loyal fans along the barrier and a nice sized pit going from the start of their set. What I heard they guys from Airdrie sounded great. They seemed to win over some of the crowd even though they are a different style to the other bands!

The venue was near to capacity by the time Shadowthrone finished their set and the atmosphere was electric.

After a quick change over and the stage cleared Napalm Death where ready to come on and slay the crowd! ‘Downbeat Clique’ and ‘Strong Arm’ kicked off their set in true Napalm Death style, with Barney storming around the stage like a man possessed with Danny pounding away on drums at the back, whilst Mitch and Shane play their guitars at each side of the stage.

‘Unchallenged Hate’ whipped up some great action in the pit same as later songs ‘Mentally Murdered’ and ‘On The Brink Of Extinction’

They played material from across their discography; new tracks as well as ye old favourites brought great reactions from the crowd. The crowd shouted along with the tracks they knew and there was hair flying, fists pounding into the air and a few circle pits springing up along with the crowd surfers and stage divers!

Napalm Death were on stunning form tonight. The tireless Barney threw in a few political and religious topics, as one would expect, in-between songs which had the crowd shouting out in agreement.

When Barney announced that their 14^th Studio Album “Utilitarian” was to be released on 27^th February 2012 and that they would do a full tour with it the crowd erupted. It’ll be one tour that if you’re an extreme metal fan you won’t want to miss!

The last few songs of the main set ‘Mad’, ‘You Suffer’ and the full encore especially when they came back on stage and launched into ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’ then straight into ‘Suffer The Children’, we seen a frenzy of people crowd surfing and stage diving as they knew the end of the set was near so made the most of it.

‘Silence Is Deafening’ brought the night to a close. It was a brutal powerful gig and Napalm Death have lost none of their edge and continue to bring charming chaos to a your local venue ;)