Show Review: Napalm Death + Melvins @ Emos (4.18)
It’s hard to shield yourself from the world’s current events in 2025. There are wars going on, a Russian-happy president in the Oval Office, and Elon Musk is our billionaire asshole-in-chief. For a band like Napalm Death witnessing the perils going on all over the world and their overseas allies going to complete shit in the US, they have a lot to say. Helping them deliver their message came sludge metal titans Melvins and long-running Wilmington stoner doomers Weedeater, a triple threat gauntlet that brought all the heavy – and more. The billed appearances on this run have been aptly titled the “Savage Imperial Death March Tour,” a fitting moniker for the traveling caravan of the long-running performing acts.
Hit the jump for more with fancy photos from Casey Chumbley.
Taking the stage for the evening’s overture came Dark Sky Burial, a solo ambient noise project from Napalm Death guitarist Shane Embury. The solo endeavor showed Embury planted on stage left, armed with an electronic percussion pad and other miscellaneous auxiliary instrumentation for the meditative, experimental catharsis at hand. With a wide-ranging discography existing in the guitarist’s repertoire, the outlet set the tone for a night of players that remain relevant to multiple generations of heavy music lovers. Weedeater took the stand next, delivering a cast of down-tuned stoner doom glory led by Dave “Dixie” Collins. Presenting a bottle of Jim Beam whiskey to the crowd before plunging into the music, Collins and the trio have been a blueprint for countless bands that have come after them to continue the harbinger that “Sweet Leaf” cultivated all those years ago.
Melvins took the reins with not one, but two drummers placed side-by-side. Longtime member Dale Crover took his rightful place on the throne after a medical issue caused his leave on the last run of shows with Japanese shape-shifting titans Boris. Coady Willis acted as the fill-in for those shows, and was subsequently asked to stay as Crover returned. Lead vocalist and guitarist Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne, along with Redd Kross figurehead and decade-tenured bassist Steven McDonald round out the power trio, the latter of which has acted as the spokesperson for the group as Osborne has been known to be “Less talk, more rock” whenever he plugs in to play. The set did not feature any songs from the latest record, Thunderball, but still had the tenacity to deliver a switched-up setlist from their last Austin appearance. Classics from Bullhead showed up for the co-headlining onrush, along with an array of new tunes from previous studio release, Tarantula Heart.
Napalm Death closed the evening out with a young-at-heart Barney Greenway, who looks like he stopped aging in the ’90s. The band has proven to be formative for extreme music and is recognized as one of the key innovators in the grindcore genre. A craft that has been perfected for over 40 years. The staff at Emo’s had their hands full throughout the entirety of the 60-minute barrage, crowdsurfers and all. If there wasn’t a barricade in place, stagediving would have been a bombastic certainty. The onstage conversation from Greenway is activistic in nature, giving all the middle fingers to the current North American political situation and inviting the attendees to join their worthy cause. For a band that hasn’t released a full-length since 2020, the 16-album spread of the Meriden-hailing group provides a plethora of options for each impending onslaught. No matter the occasion, Melvins and Napalm Death set their surroundings ablaze when the situation arises, offering their legacy while continuing to create bodies of work that remain true to their mission decades removed from their conception.
All photos come with credit to Casey Chumbley. See more of his lovely work or get in touch on his website.
