The arena - sat sep 8

Gold Coast death metallers Internecine Excoriation brutalise their way through the opening slot at The Arena tonight, leaping between sludgy grooves and subterranean blasts with aplomb. It’s maybe not the most original sound in the world, but the lads do it well.

Next, Melbourne death-grind-rockers Blood Duster’s set has something the feel of a missed opportunity – surely, the idea of ripping through a relentless set composed of pure grind from the band’s earlier years must have occurred to the lads at some point as the perfect appetiser for a Napalm Death show. As it stands, however, we get a damn fine and well-received modern Blood Duster set, displaying their rock, grind and death metal elements in roughly equal measure.

Finally, after 11 years of absence from the Brisbane stage, the legendary Napalm Death virtually detonate The Arena in a singular maelstrom of high energy grindcore and death metal. The performance is energetic, frantic and downfright magnificent, with singer Barney Greenway acquitting himself well in particular with his dervish-like flailing, inimitable vocal mangling and amusing between-song rants on topics of currency such as Sydney’s APEC Conference. The setlist is more representative than comprehensive, with only an excellent rendition of melodic tune Breed To Breathe representing the band’s mid-‘90s experimental period, and no tracks from the excellent grindy 2000 release, Enemy Of The Music Business. The highlights are many, however, with a muscular rendition of Suffer The Children providing the zenith, along with great versions of classic tunes like Scum and the band’s famous cover of the Dead Kennedy’s Nazi Punks Fuck Off. The one niggling sore point is the sound – the band’s instruments are turned up far too loud, to the point where the band’s grindy riffs are often lost in an indecipherable morass, with only Greenway’s vocals providing an indication of which song is being played at times. Other than that, tonight’s performance is as close to perfect as anyone could expect.

SHAUN NANCARROW

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