Birmingham grindcore legends Napalm Death played The Academy in Dublin on Tuesday 4th March for a sold out show.
Support was from New Orleans band Crowbar, one of my favourite sludge metal bands and always a great band to see live.
The mixture of their ‘strings on the floor’ detuned guitar sound and Kirk Windsteins growling vocals always hits you right where it needs to, and their badass riffs are so infectious you’re nodding along before you even realise it.
One of the other photographers described them as ‘if a swamp wrote a riff’ (thanks Steve) and I genuinely couldn’t put it better myself.
When Napalm Death took to the stage, their genre defining grindcore sound immediately filled the room as their frontman Barney Greenway came out and continued to run all over the stage erratically like someone who had just drank a bunch of coffees and now had a headache too, and it was genuinely one of the most fascinating shows to see live.
These guys are heavy, and to some I’ve heard them described as ‘too heavy’, but to me there is no such thing. It’s a testament to their perseverance that despite multiple lineup changes over the years they have still released 16 albums and have remained just as relevant to the metal scene as they were when they first arrived in 1987.
The fact that they can still sell out venues says it all.
Crowbar photos:
Napalm Death photos:
Photos & Words – David McEneanery @experimentzero