LIVE REVIEW: Napalm Death

Grindcore veterans NAPALM DEATH have returned to yet another sold out Glasgow live show, this time at Queen Margaret Union. Accompanying them are the live rare experience PIG DESTROYER, the unfathomably heavy doomsters PRIMITIVE MAN and Singaporean grind heroes WORMROT. Such a stacked lineup translates to a queue that snakes down the street. As WORMROT hit the stage a scant 20 minutes after the doors open and the line slithers down at a snail’s pace, this reviewer and so many others entirely miss WORMROT’s set. Frustrating. Primitive Man live @ Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

The night moves quickly. American sludge doomsters PRIMITIVE MAN commence their show just ten minutes after WORMROT’s end. The trio begins with the eight-minute-long Menacing from their most recent full-length, Immersion. Frontman ELM and bassist JPC shadow each end of the stage and lead the headbanging with an austere presence. They sketch violently nihilistic soundscapes, wielding a suffocating atmosphere. My Will, Victim and Consumption compose the rest of their setlist. Their doom heaviness can shatter diamond mountains, but its deliberately crawling tempos certainly stick out among the other speedy acts tonight. The audience appears to merely tolerate the performance, offering polite applause after each song. There’s definitely an unspoken desire for breakneck moshing anthems. ELM’s black/death/grindcore act VERMIN WOMB would have suited the bill better, but PRIMITIVE MAN played a solidly engaging show.

Rating: 8/10 Pig Destroyer live @ Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

The venue’s hall turns into a sweatbox before American grindcore soldiers PIG DESTROYER are up. For a band of their pedigree, they rarely play the UK, although they made the 2022 Damnation Festival lineup. It’s safe to say that most of the crowd haven’t witnessed them live, and they are probably a bigger draw than the headliners. The opening notes of Grave Dancer transform the vast majority of the punters into a vortex of flailing human bodies. The pit occupies around two-thirds of the floor; not only is it massive, but it’s also extraordinarily violent and frenetic. Vocalist J.R. Hayes deploys a signature hardcore-inspired shout-growl backed by complex yet savage guitar riffs from Scott Hull. Unlike their genre peers, PIG DESTROYER’s guitar tone isn’t always heavy, leaning closer towards thrash metal at times, and their use of electronics from Alex Cha adds to the disorientation. There’s a solid concentration on groove and alternating tempos, all contributing to the semi-permanent moshpit and tide of crowd surfers.

With song clocking in around a couple of minutes, these grindsters fire out aural shot after shot, which, coupled with the omnipresent pit, feels like getting struck by a semi-automatic firearm. Unsurprisingly, the band draws predominantly from highly lauded albums Prowler In The Yard and Terrifyer. The likes of Cripped Horses, Thumbsucker, The Torture Fields, Deathtripper, Cheerleader Corpses (preceded by the creepy and bizarre Jenifer intro), Scatology Homework, Trojan Whore and many more are ammunition for the record-breaking moshpit. The fans are so hyped to see the band that they could probably play anything and summon a similar response. The band looks entirely energised on stage and genuinely excited to perform, not typical for a band that started in the 90s. All in all, this was a wildly dynamic show of chaos that even NAPALM DEATH would struggle to surpass.

Rating: 9/10 Napalm Death live @ Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

Back again in Glasgow for the second time in as many years, Birmingham’s NAPALM DEATH explode on stage with the bruising From Enslavement To Obliteration. This classic slab of grindcore has heads banging and fists pumping. Surprisingly, the audience appears reluctant to form a mosh pit, which takes some encouragement. When it does spawn, it’s significantly smaller and less violent than PIG DESTROYER’s swarm, but the band members are just as enthralling as the previous act. Vocalist Barney Greenway possesses more energy than a hyperactive, sugar-addled toddler, constantly working the stage with an authentic, frustrated wilderness about him. The legends of grind pummel the venue with song after song of aural devastation, brief but ultra-punishing. Chunky riffs and thunderous power chords from live guitarist John Cooke are served with feral abandon, underscored by Danny Herrera’s apocalyptic drummings.

With so many albums to their name, the band wisely sticks to their genre-defining earlier tracks and fresher cuts, peppered with the odd mid-discography banger. The likes of If The Truth Be Known, Suffer The Children, You Suffer and Dead proudly represent the old material. Contagion, Backlash Just Because, Amoral and Resentment Always Simmers showcase NAPALM DEATH in their modern incarnation, adeptly weaving death metal and grindcore into tapestries that don’t shy away from criticising our corrupt moral world. Moshers and crowd surfers try their hardest to move attention away from the headliners and onto themselves. One of the craziest parts of the set is when someone clambers up the vertiginous amp stacks to the right of Shane Embury. The man then launches himself into the pit. Hopefully, he avoids any injuries. Napalm Death live @ Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

Greenway is known for his political stage chatter, although he keeps it quick tonight: “Refugees welcome,” earning hearty acclaim from the crowd. Another message cements the band’s support for human rights, including women’s rights, gay rights, and trans rights, with the applause for the latter being enormous. Is it really a NAPALM DEATH show without a cover of DEAD KENNEDYS’ Nazi Punks Fuck Off? Of course, that makes the set. As the years pass, these grind icons defy age limitations by providing an impassioned, dynamic live experience. There’s a reason they sell out so many shows so often.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:








































































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ALBUM REVIEW: Echoes – Altar Of Betelgeuze

Three-piece Finnish doom dealers ALTAR OF BETELGEUZE have made a thunderous albeit gloomy return with third album Echoes. Their second album Among The Ruins saw the band tinkering with a stoner-doom style. However, album number three has the trio distilling a far darker doom atmosphere, combining more cavernous vocals and memorable riffs into a seven-track beast quite different from its predecessor. With a blend of death-doom and more traditional doom at its core, Echoes is a powerful, ominous statement.



On The Verge blows the speakers wide open with a huge sound. Crashing chords and powerful drums combine while a steady rumbling bassline underpins the intro. It’s the sort of doom sound that conjures imagery of a lumbering behemoth making its way inexorably towards an unknown destination. All we know is that nothing can stop it. Then the vocals come in, colossal gutturals matching the instrumentation and rounding out the all-encapsulating doom atmosphere. From track one, it’s clear that the three-piece are not here to mess about – this is a commanding statement of intent.

With an imperious sound now firmly established, Echoes settles into a groove that illustrates how ALTAR OF BETELGEUZE have refined their sound. Shedding any aspect of stoner rock and clean vocals, they’ve embraced a darker path and while melody is still key to the movements of their songwriting, the heavyweight riffs and rhythms are now more prevalent and drive the sound like a swinging sledgehammer drives through a soft wall. Embrace The Flames is a pummelling track with a tone worthy of allowing the trio to be placed alongside some of the greatest doom peddlers of all time, yet the vocals offer up some enticing death-doom edge which allows the whole track to lift from a potential ponderous fate. The driving hooks are energetic and dynamic and all the elements combine creating a sonic splendour.


A Reflection is a bludgeoning, bruiser of a track with a downtempo groove that is propelled by the huge chord progression. Once again, the tone is thick and enthralling – courtesy of the immaculate production. Despite its apparent blundering tonality, with lumbering like riff structure, there is a remarkable hook contained at the heart of the music that entices further listens.

With careful consideration given to both lyrical constructions as well as the wider songwriting of the instrumentation dynamics, ALTAR OF BETELGEUZE have successfully navigated the path of sludgy, death-doom inspired music without any element becoming ponderous or bogged down. This is a pitfall that may artists can come undone; while hunting for the texture and feel of a darker doomy sound, they can become ensnared in the details, losing sight of song direction and getting mired in the swamp. Echoes elevates itself above this, using elements already described as well as focusing its creativity on what makes doom great. Salvation offers a nice departure from what has gone before with the vocals allowed to soar higher in the mix. While still a part of the wider album stylistically, the dynamic shift elevates the sound from an already good level to a great one.

Echoes is an album for fans of death-doom, traditional doom and anyone looking to add greater weight and depth to their record collection. It’s a departure from the band’s previously established sound, but rather than being a reinvention, is a sonic evolution into a darker depth of doom. ALTAR OF BETELGEUZE have developed a catchy and melodic album that has the titanic rhythmic heart of a colossus. It is enticing, crushing and memorable, successfully bridging the gap between traditional doom and death-doom styles.

Rating: 9/10



Echoes is out now via Wiseblood Records.

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Firewind: Always United, Never Divided

He’s inspired people the world over to pick up a guitar for over twenty years. He’s guested on no less than twenty-nine albums alongside his own, original material and, in 2009, he was handpicked by OZZY OSBOURNE to replace Zakk Wylde in the Double-O’s touring band, a position he held for the next eight years. You’d forgive Gus G for deciding to hang up his six-string and rest on his laurels after a career bursting with accolades, but whilst the driving force behind Greek power metal giants FIREWIND is still very much active, he’s not about to churn out new songs for the sake of it.



“I always ask myself ‘what do FIREWIND have left to say after nine albums?’,” he explains. “I must have something to say artistically, otherwise why bother? I’m not saying the world really needs a FIREWIND album or whatever, but if I don’t 110% believe it, there’s no point in doing it.”

It’s an admirable mentality to have. Whether or not you like the latest releases by some of metal’s so-called ‘legacy’ bands likes IRON MAIDEN, PRIEST, SAXON et al, you cannot brush aside their resolute nature to not become a cabaret act and tour the hits for the rest of their days. Gus also knows that, for fans of the band, a new album will always bring excitement to them.

“We definitely don’t take it for granted; we don’t even take for granted the fact we still have some fans!” He jokes. “But of course, the most important thing is that you still feel creative. If you can sense the evolution in how to move forward with your style, sound and everything around it, then it’s worth doing.”

Which brings us to Stand United, FIREWIND’s tenth album and one that, as alluded to, has come with its own form of evolution – in this case, it’s that it has more lyrical contributions from Gus than any other record before. “I had starting writing lyrics more on the last album to help out Herbie [Langhans, vocals] because he was new in the band and we were on a tight deadline. But this time around, we worked on it from scratch and discussed so much back and forth that I ended up writing a lot more, especially on tour when I would write a verse in an airport on the way back from a festival. Before I knew it, I’d written a fair amount of the album!”


Although not a full-blown concept record, Stand United is, as its name suggests, centred around coming together in the face of adversity, from the call to arms of the title track to the empowering chug of Chains. If there’s one thing power metal does better than any other genre, it’s produce uplifting tracks for people to raise a fist and smile at – which begs the question, can it ever be gloomy? Given Gus’s longevity in the scene, it’s a good question to pose to a wise head.

“I mean, it depends on the band, but power metal is supposed to be all about the cheese right? You have to embrace the cheese. Some bands do it more than they should – I feel the younger generation of power metal have turned it into more of a cosplay thing and into ‘Disney metal’ territory, which is personally not my vibe, but power metal has always had some kind of uplifting message and my take is that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Talking of embracing the cheese, the album also features Talking In Your Sleep, a cover of the 1983 hit by Detroit power pop outfit THE ROMANTICS. Not as big a hit worldwide as Michael Sembello’s Maniac (which FIREWIND had previously released 2008’s The Premonition), it’s apparently, according to Gus, a huge song in his home nation. “It’s on the radio a lot here, and one day I figured it could work as a cover and, after I saw there weren’t any metal covers of it in existence, I knew it had to be done. Funnily enough, though, when I mentioned it to the band, Johan [Nunez, drums] said ‘dude, I grew up with this song!’ and he’s from Belgium, so I guess it was a hit there too!”

Having had such a varied career, and one that’s brought a lot of plaudits, there’s one final question for Gus – what one piece of advice would he give to musicians wanting to stick it out for as long as him? “Stick to your guns. If you do what you really believe in, you won’t be bothered by trends or what’s cool in the moment. Do what fills your heart first, and then you’ll be able to fill the souls of those who like what you do.”

Stand United is out now via AFM Records.

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