Live Review : Napalm Death + Raging Speedhorn + Crepitation @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on March 19th 2022

Napalm Death are a national institution, maybe a national treasure. How many other grindcore bands does yer gran not only know the name of but can make a fair stab at describing what they sound like (‘the nice man goes “groahhhhhhhhh” and the songs sound like someone pushing over a trashcan’). Over forty-one years they have built a reputation through hard graft and a no compromise attitude. Their mammoth European trek that was going to keep them occupied for most of the first half of this year was pulled by a promoter unsure how to navigate the different covid regulations still in place across the continent. Instead of being downhearted they declared bugger that for a game of soldiers, asked Raging Speedhorn if they fancied coming out to play and booked a UK tour.     

For the Liverpudlian stop of their brisk roam around the country they have added local slam heroes Crepitation who in a live setting feel like anarchy incarnate. I have seen them numerous times over the years in their various different incarnations and they always feel like one off the cuff remark away from a complete onstage meltdown. It is however that tension and that level of unpredictability that makes them such an enticing watch. You get the feeling that rehearsals are not for them and that just wander up grab their instruments and see what occurs. For a band so brain-crushingly heavy they are surprisingly loose and surprisingly free-form. In many ways, they remind me of grindcore Happy Mondays, in that they are gloriously dysfunctional but still managing to create a wonderful sound.

Raging Speedhorn are also not strangers to on stage collapses but tonight we get the super-charged on fire Speedhorn. I have said this in previous reviews, but as a collective they have a superhuman ability to drink a bar dry and still manage to get up on stage and be fantastic. Being almost a hometown show, you can tell they have probably been in the local ‘spoons with their mates since midday, but as soon as they hit the boards something click and they ignite on all cylinders. The smaller the stage the more intense Speedhorn seem to be and tonight they are on incendiary form. Frank and John prowl the front of the stage like caged tigers, venomously spitting out their words like they were toxic. Monumentally heavy but infected by a groove that makes the cacophonic noise they create just so danceable. Raging Speedhorn are too forward thinking to do greatest hit sets but this is as close as we are going to get. ‘Redweed’, ‘Superscud’, ‘Fuck The Voodooman’ and ‘The Hate Song’ are all chucked out in their irreverent glory: corrosive, brittle but also bloody brilliant. Somehow (and it could be the booze, or it could be a deal with some Corby dwelling demon) Raging Speedhorn just keep getting better. Stunning.

And so to the headliner. Napalm Death are probably the only band with their level of recognition that are still playing clubs. The reason is that for all the celebratory endorsements and podcast appearances, they are still as musically impenetrable and uncompromising as ever. They have not mellowed one iota since I first clapped eyes on then at the Kilburn National in 1989. The difference is that thirty-three years later the once angry young men are even angrier middle-aged men. Metal in some quarters has a penchant for shying away from politics, Napalm Death choose to instead wear it proudly on the sleeves. They are a socially aware powerhouse full of indignant rage. The world is a fucked-up place, and they are not afraid to point at those they feel are to blame. Barney is as chatty ever, preaching to an essentially converted crowd. He takes on all comers, Putin, bigots, daily mail and essentially anyone who chooses to be bastard to their fellow human being.

Napalm Death give no flying fucks about whether they are popular, en vogue or fit into a particular scene and style. They have been making unrelenting noise for over forty years and they seem in no mood to stop. They conjure up raw primal wrath, this is music to bring down governments to or at least to pretend that we can. Punk taken its most vibrant and tempestuous experience. Tracks fly by as Barney Greenway hurls them like a possessed man off the stage. For music this brutal and caustic the atmosphere is actually one of cohesion and harmony. I am not sure if there is a collective term for a room of sweaty rather unfit fifty years slamming into younger cubs but tonight is a joyful illustration of the power that music has to bring us together and to articulate the frustrations we all feel. Napalm Death maybe the go to representation of indecipherable vocals but that is missing the point. Napalm Death are, even more than ever, the coherent and clear voice of our music, you just need to open your ears and listen.