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Napalm Death and Madball, The Mill, Birmingham - review and pictures

It seems faintly ridiculous describing Doom as a revelation, but having not seen the crusty old goats in far too many years that’s exactly how they come across.

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Their short set is a relentless rampage through 30 odd years of sticking their fingers up at the system, and classics like Police B*stard still get the pit going.

Singer Denis wastes little time addressing the room, his between song banter involves jokingly telling the crowd to ‘shut up’ and an outburst against an over enthusiastic security guard.

The Brummie legends also deserve kudos for consuming the most beer during a set that I have ever witnessed. It is as if the only reason they pause from playing is for another gulp of ale.

It paves the way perfectly for Madball, who vocalist Freddy Cricien readily admits are something of an outlier on this bill.

Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Madball. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn

The New York Hardcore mob are old friends of Napalm’s – although it’s unlikely their super commercial merch stand (complete with focused lighting and a huge range of shirts, caps, jackets, shorts and vinyl) would meet with Doom’s approval.

But any minor concerns Madball may have had about how the crowd would react to them were blown out of the water within three strums of Hoya’s bass in the opener Rev Up.

Inside this impressive new venue under the Digbeth arches, it’s carnage, and Cricien – who with his long mane and beard looks more like a metal god than a hardcore kid these days – thrives off it.

We get Set It Off from the first album, classics such as Look My Way, Doc Marten Stomp and Hardcore Lives, as well as the really old, short and sweet, Get Out, which Cricien first belted out back in the late 80s when he was still a school kid.

Even for a band that just doesn’t know how to play a bad show, this one was something special.

Hardcore still lives.

By the time Napalm Death takes the stage for this sold out hometown show, there’s barely a punter in the room who is not grinning like a maniac.

Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn
Napalm Death. Credit: Aatish Ramchurn

It is the band’s last gig of another busy year that has taken them around the world and back, and it’s abundantly clear from the ferocity of Smash A Single Digit that they ain’t planning on going out quietly.

Singer Barney Greenway is in top form tonight, possibly buoyed by his beloved Aston Villa’s win earlier in the evening, or possibly because Napalm can still pack ‘em in like sardines halfway through their fourth decade as a band.

Highlights tonight include Wolf I Feed from 2012’s Utilitarian, Narcoleptic from Order Of The Leach, and Standardization, which featured on this year’s Coded Smears… compilation.

We also get the usual storming pair of covers, Nazi Punks F**k Off and Victims of a Bomb Raid.

Greenway – who unlike Doom’s singer very much enjoys preaching to the crowd - raises a laugh when he describes the ‘melodic subtleties’ between You Suffer (1.3 seconds) and Dead (1.5 seconds).

Siege Of Power brings the curtain down on 2018 for Napalm Death, who will be back next year with another album (their 17th), and more blistering live shows.