Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	December 03, 2010
Event:	Napalm Death + Immolation: Campaign For Musical Destruction 2010 (Website)
Location:	Old Bell, Derby, United Kingdom
Galleries:	Napalm Death, Immolation, Macabre - Derby, England, 2nd December 2010 by Baz Anderson (20)

The country has come to a grinding halt over the last week, with unnatural amounts of snow falling over our island. Weather was not going to compromise this grinding tour however, as people gathered around the Old Bell in Derby. Numbers might not have been as high as you would have imagined for this amazing tour package, but the warm venue soon sound itself inhabited away from the subzero temperatures outside.



There weren't a great number of people down at the front for this first of the American onslaught. Nonetheless Waking The Cadaver gave it what they had with their brutal deathcore style. Massive breakdown after massive breakdown, these guys plodded through their chunky set while not exciting much more than a handful of people at the front. The frontman's guttural brutal death style vocals sounded great, and the drummer too was certainly talented, but was only showcased a little flash at a time with the style of music. Those down at the front certainly enjoyed themselves anyway.

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Does anyone even know the last time Macabre were in the UK? There were surprisingly quite a number of Macabre shirts and jackets dotted around the venue, considering this band have ruled over the deep underground for so many years. A good number of people also came to the front for this set, as these American psychos unleashed their murder metal into the air. Kicking off with the trio of "Zodiak" going into "You're Dying To Be With Me" and then the short and sweet "McMassacre", these guys sounded great straight from the start, but lost momentum through the set. The band played a couple of new songs, but the sound wasn't particularly clear enough to give the extreme speed of everything justice. Last song of the set "Vampire Of Düsseldorf" certainly proved to be the highlight of the set, and closed the unfortunately short set leaving a good impression.

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The audience were warmed up now, but surprisingly it seemed there were less people at the front for Immolation than the previous band. Perhaps Immolation are always going to be the criminally under-appreciated band, because the sound the band had on stage was so crisp and clear, pretty much perfect. Kicking off with the epic "The Purge", these Americans had told us they were going to pack in as much material into their timeslot as possible. The drums sounded amazing, the whole set had such a good sound, which made songs like the crushing "Father, You're Not A Father" sound so immense. The set included an even balance of new, old and everything in between, including the best performance of the night in the form of the grand "Close To A World Below" played at what seemed like twice the speed. Immolation absolutely blew everything away, they left after putting on without a doubt the best set of the evening.

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As expected, the room filled up and soon became a danger zone as Napalm Death from just down the road stepped on stage. There were no surprises here, just an unrelenting assault of grind from the masters themselves, and the audience certainly appreciated the band, but the sound was nowhere near as distinctive and clear as it was for the previous band. Regardless, with songs from all over the band's catalogue, including songs like the great "Continuing War On Stupidity" that aren't played too regularly - the packed audience down at the front just exploded over and over again with each song. As usual, Barney had various things to say in between songs, and considering the band are amidst a lengthy European tour and after all these years, he still seems to genuinely enjoy the music up there on the stage himself. The set on the whole might have been low on the blastbeat side of things compared to previous shows, but playing so many shows of this nature back-to-back can't be easy. This time it was the old songs that sounded the best, "Scum" sounded other-worldly and the closing two of "Suffer The Children" and "Instinct Of Survival" sounded equally insane. As far as grind can go, this was perhaps a somewhat laid back and comfortable performance, but one enjoyed by both audience and band regardless.



Thanks to Sarah at Century Media for the accreditation.
Written by Barry Anderson.
Photos by Barry Anderson.