As Flaming Wrekage’s brutal fourth album tickles your earholes, you know this is something special. …
The Campaign for Musical Destruction
Napalm Death with Brujeria, Lock-up & Black Rheno
Max Watts Melbourne, 10th October 2017
Somehow, the unthinkable has happened. Australia has been gifted with a line-up of grind luminaries that you’d rarely see together outside of Europe. That’s probably why Melbourne’s Max Watts is nice and busy, and why the bar lines between the short, intense sets as long as they are.
In such illustrious company, grindcore royalty in fact, Black Rheno are something of an anomaly. The trio throw some sludge and doom in the mix. Whether that’s a conscious effort on behalf of Soundworks Touring to ease the evening’s old salts into the brutality that awaits or not, it works superbly.
Black Rheno // Photo: Liz Kent
What happens is there’s an eager sense of anticipation for blast beats—and Shane Embury—before Lock-Up take the stage. As much as Shane Embury takes focus when d-beat/grind supergroup Lock-Up take the stage, frontman Kevin Sharp’s irrepressible charisma is being upstaged by no one—no matter how iconic their bald spot.
Lock-Up Bald Spotted // Photo: Liz Kent
Sharp, with his shit-eating grin and note-perfect banshee howl, would make you wish Brutal Truth were still a concern if Lock-Up couldn’t blast with the best of them. As they blister through cuts from their Demonization album, and the Nick Barker/Shane Embury rhythm section makes a room full of colons quiver like it was Metamucil day at your nan’s assisted living facility, Lock-Up reassures everyone who didn’t catch the Brutal Truth 2009 tour that Sharp is a one-of-a-kind class act.
Where’s my keys, damn you! // Photo: Liz Kent
Some of Lock-Up don bandanas and then we’re watching Brujeria, but no one seems to be complaining. The crowd swarms the pit and gets pretty wild, because even when they play Dino Cazares’ seven-string fight riffs, Brujeria sound great.
A lot of that has to do with the Barker/Embury blasts that turn the beer sitting in your belly to crunchy brown ass torpedos, especially when Brujeria take on material from last year’s Pocho Aztlan record.
That’s right, a band that’s been around for 30-plus years is on the top of their game.
So far past their prime though, Brujeria do feel a little like GWAR if they learned to blast.
Vamonos, cabron // Photo: Liz Kent
Six months earlier, when he was spruiking his new record, vocalist Juan Brujo told me he hoped Donald Trump got elected so it inspired revolution. Tonight, Brujeria score cheap points by starting a ‘fuck Donald Trump’ chant before launching into Viva Presidente Trump!
Presidente Trump, es puto! // Photo: Liz Kent
In moments like these, the mystique that has always surrounded the band comes to feel a bit gimmicky – there’s even cheap stage choreography between the two vocalists. That stuff makes it feel like seeing Brujeria is a bit like ticking one off the bucket list – a pretty significant one no doubt – rather than getting your face blasted off.
On the subject of getting your face blasted off, can we talk for a minute about Napalm Death?
Somewhere there must be a copy of Harmony Corruption that’s Dorian Gray ageing, because the Napalm we get tonight sound like a band half their age. Hell, Shane Embury has played three sets tonight and his bass is still hitting me like three cups of black coffee on an empty stomach. Then there’s Barney Greenway bouncing around the stage like a pissed off punk… The energy they bring to Max Watts puts all the other top-tier extreme bands they’ve shared the stage with tonight to shame.
‘Kin ell // Photo: Liz Kent
This is the first time Australia has ever gotten two tours on the one Napalm album, but that doesn’t make the band any less relentless. Like they’re trying to prove their otherworldliness, the shit Napalm play off Apex Predator – Easy Meat is some of the best the setlist has to offer. That’s right, a band that’s been around for 30-plus years is on the top of their game. Smash a Single Digit and Stubborn Stain are just as compelling as You Suffer’s one-and-a-bit seconds.
OH, THE HOKEY POKEY // Photo: Liz Kent
Barney, Shane and the lads are settled into their groove from the get-go, whatever era Napalm Death they hit sounds venomous. Most surprising though, when they hit the Scum riff that has effectively made the band’s career, they change it up. Tonight’s rendition of Suffer the Children isn’t a carbon copy I’ve heard them play live seven or eight times before. The track gets a big, grindy overhaul and sounds as virulent as ever.
We Suffer But Why // Photo: Liz Kent
That’s perhaps the most heartening aspect of this evening, knowing that Napalm Death are still going to be kicking the shit out of me for years to come, and throwing curveballs my way. It’s enough to make a bitter old grindfreak smile.
CAMPAIGN FOR MUSICAL DESTRUCTION REMAINING DATES
Oct 11th – Sydney, The Factory – www.factorytheatre.com.au /www.ticketek.com.au / www.eventbrite.com.au
Oct 12th – Brisbane, Max Watt’s – www.oztix.com.au / www.eventbrite.com.au
