Napalm Death have been doing a lot of touring the last couple of years, and for this tour they did only one gig in the Netherlands, this time again in the Patronaat in Haarlem. They brought no less than 4 support acts on this Campaign for Musical Destruction tour. I missed the first band called BAT due to the early starting time.

When I entered the venue, it was already nicely filled and Rotten Sound from Finland were playing their first song. These guys play grindcore, so there is short songs that mix groovy parts with lots of blast beats and fast riffs. After a song or two it all gets a bit too samish. Half way through song the guitarist managed to break his lower E string, and had to replace it, as he brought no second guitar.

The second band I watched was Misery Index, a spin off band from Dying Fetus. This US outfit plays death metal with some grindcore in it. Not the greatest band in the world but not bad, there is some cool drumming in it and some good riffs as well. Then some of the songs seemed to go nowhere. The dual vocals are nice, but don’t add that much if they sound quite similar.

Eyehategod is an American band that is rather different from the rest. They play sludge metal, never really my favourite. The guitar sound on stage was very loud even sounding louder than the drums, but I guess that is necessary as the guitarist uses feed back a lot, even in the riffs. Quite an odd band but not entirely my thing.

Napalm Death is one of the oldest extreme metal bands still going even though they have no original members left. Before the show I was wondering what the set list would be as they have no new album yet to promote, except for a two track 7 inch. Turns out they uncovered a lot of songs they haven’t played in a long while. Starting with I Abstain, is always great. And as always the band is good. Barney still runs around like a madman on the stage. And Shane grinds his bass as ever. Can’t Play Won’t Pay is a great song of the frequently skipped Enemies of the Music Business. And even Mass Appeal Madness is on the set. The traditional sequence of Scum tracks is gone too although Dead, Scum and You Suffer are still played. Near the end of the set the concert had to be stopped because some one didn’t get up in the moshpit. But eventually it seemed okay and the band continued. The set ended with two covers, the classic Nazi Punks Fuck Off and a new one by Sonic Youth called White Kross. Great set list and one of the better gigs from Napalm Death that I have seen.