It has been quite a while since I saw Napalm Death, I guess over 5 years ago. They’re doing a bit of touring now in Europe, mostly around some of the festivals that are abundant with a number of club gigs to fill in the gaps. But the first date of this tour is in a club in the Netherlands called Burgerweeshuis in down town Deventer. They didn’t bring any supports, so the club added a opening band.

That first band was called Teethgrinder from Zwolle. I wasn’t familiar with them at all. They basically play a mixture of hardcore, and grind. I didn’t care much for the vocals, which were mostly shouted, hardcore vocals. But other than that it was quite okay.

After a pretty quick change-over Napalm Death took the stage. Mitch didn’t make it so there was a stand-in guitarist. Who actually did quite well. They opened up with “Multinational Corporations” off the debut album, which was a bit of an odd choice, if you ask me. Naturally a couple of songs of their latest album Apex Predator – Easy meat were played including the furious Smash a Single Digit. The temperature in the venue rose quickly during the gig, and that was not just only the heatwave outside. A lot of my personal favourites got played, of course the perpetual Scum, but also I Abstain, Plague Rages, Deceiver, Control. The old Walls of Confinement found its place into the set. Strangely enough, there was no Siege of Power. I guess they grew tired of that. On the other hand Barney seems to have the same energy as 25 years ago and his vocals are equally vile. He could do some less chatting in between songs, though. Anyway, very good gig from one of the oldest metal bands around.