Exhausting and downright insane: Napalm Death destroy Toronto

jaybroderick
Jun 6
6 min read

By: Jay Broderick

Toronto, Canada - Another kick‑ass Inertia Entertainment night at Lee’s Palace... and for once, I rolled in with only minutes to spare. Totally unlike me, but whatever. The second I stepped inside, the room already felt charged. Five bands, a packed 19+ crowd, and a legendary grindcore institution ready to tear the roof off.

What followed was one of the most exhausting, exhilarating, and downright insane nights I’ve ever witnessed at Lee’s.

Pretty Mouth

7:00 sharp... figurative bell rings... and local noise rockers Pretty Mouth didn’t ease anyone into the ring. They blasted their doom‑laden heaviness into a room that was still filling up. With the floor mostly empty at first, I grabbed a few quick shots… but by the time I stepped out of the literal pit, the place had transformed. Out of nowhere, the floor was full of slammers, already doing their thing.

Mid‑set, vocalist Alex thanked Noel from Inertia, “how fucking cool it is to be here”, before ripping into their fourth track. Seemingly, a few minutes later and the short set was over... Direct. Crushing. Their brand of doom set the tone perfectly, and the crowd roared in approval.

Pretty Mouth Photo Gallery (all photos by: Jay Broderick)

SAGO

One word... POWER!!! SAGO hit the stage and EXPLODED with a hardcore, punk edge that instantly amped the room. Their first three tracks were a blur of speed, sweat, and chaos as they crashed through "Burning Bridges", "Harm's Way", and "Skewed". The mosh pit opened immediately, with a punk sporting an orange mohawk having the absolute time of his life.

By the time the band got halfway through their set, the crowd was erupting. Smiles were everywhere, the band’s strings joining in the blasting vocals in a wall of sound. The pace was so torrid, frequent retuning was required as the strings were absolutely hammered... and then they were right back into the angst.

When vocalist Alex Wilson finally introduced the band, he mentioned they had “a couple more songs” and pointed people to the merch… then immediately cut the niceties short and BAM, straight into their twelfth track "10 Years Later". By the end of it, thirteen songs in half an hour. The crowd chanted for an encore, and I was grinning ear to ear along with everyone else. SAGO owned the night!

SAGO Photo Gallery (all photo by: Jay Broderick)

Ischemic

Female‑fronted, heavy as hell, and absolutely devastating, Ischemic stepped up and delivered the absolute HEAVIEST set of the night, and frankly, one of the heaviest bands I have ever heard. Vocalist Isabelle Tazbir's growl was unreal. It was deep, monstrous, and commanding. Their slow, pounding brood brought a sense of dread that threw me straight back to late 80s death metal like Unleashed... but heavier...

This was pure head‑banging territory. The crowd locked into a synchronized zone of doom‑driven neck destruction and by the band's fifth track, the pace picked up and a mosh opened... not slamming, but a heavy, brooding churn that matched the music perfectly. Another local Toronto band added another notch on the proverbial ladder that Toronto is indeed, a force in the heavy metal scene.

Then came a wholesome moment... as the set came to a close, the band announced that it was their guitarists birthday, and the crowd sang... It was my bro’s birthday too.

Ischemic Photo Gallery (all photos by: Jay Broderick)

Primitive Man

A three‑piece avalanche of gloom from Denver, Colorado, Primitive Man hit the stage next. A minor setback at the outset resulted in the sampler not working, so they had to skip their first song. Vocalist Ethan Lee McCarthy shrugged it off, greeted the crowd, and introduced the band... “We’re Primitive Man.”

A snow‑screen of colour washed over the stage as they launched into a 10‑minute slab of oppressive doom. The visuals didn’t make for great photos, but the crowd didn’t care... they were fully locked into the band’s suffocating heaviness. Track two continued the same visual assault. Track three kept the room submerged in gloom.

Primitive Man didn't bring any theatrics. They simply stood their ground and delivered exactly what their fans came for... crushing, slow‑motion devastation.

Primitive Man Photo Gallery (all photos by: Jay Broderick)

Napalm Death

Barney Greenway performs live at Lee's Palace. Photo By: Jay Broderick

A band I’ve long admired, yet never had the pleasure of seeing live... and then on a warm night in June of 2026, finally, I got to see them. And holy hell, they did not disappoint! There was no buildup. There was no easing in. Napalm Death detonated into their opening track like a bomb going off inside Lee’s Palace.

Singer Barney Greenway, who took over the vocal reigns in 1990, was a ball of fire, sprinting across the tiny stage, flailing, convulsing, completely unhinged in the best possible way. The energy of the music had him, and the entire venue, in a frenzy. With no photo pit, even I, in the front row, was getting shoved around by the moshers. The whole floor was alive.

After the first blast "Instinct of Survival", Greenway introduced them as “a noise band from Birmingham, England,” and shouted out fill‑in bassist Adam Clarkson as the band's original bassist Shane Embury was not able to make this leg of the tour. From their, the band, and the fans exploded! The band smashed through "Strong-Arm", and "Smash a Single Digit" and then came one of the night’s wildest moments during "Contagion". A female stage diver managed to climb up onto the stage with help from Greenway, turned her back to the crowd, and dropped straight into the madness.

A fan about to fall into the crowd at Lee's Palace. Photo By: Jay Broderick

In one of the most visceral vocal introductions, Barney Greenway growls the incantations to the title track of Napalm Death's 2020 release Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism. With only the buzz of the crowd in the venue, Greenway's vocalized anger was intense, setting the stage for the energy of the track, keeping the same torrid pace as the previous numbers. How a band can kick start things at this level, and hold it through the first 20 minutes of their set is beyond me. But there was plenty more high voltage to be had.

Greenway frequently thanked the crowd, shared brief snippets of the band's story, and introduced "the next song". Perhaps purposely placed moments to give the band a second to catch their breaths. The fact is, the vocalist was a timebomb. Hair was soaked and sweat was flying. Outside of the brief chatter, he never stopping for even a second.

Napalm Death perform live in Toronto, Canada. Photo By: Jay Broderick

Napalm Death has no original members left in its lineup, and with their longest service member Shane Embury not at this gig in Toronto, they were even further away from their "good old days", but not a single fan at Lee's Palace cared. Not tonight! The 4 men on the stage had total control of the venue. They provided an insane amount of energy to the jam-packed venue, and the Toronto faithful gave every once of energy back to the band. A little lesson in science... Newton's third law of motion... every action has an equal and opposite reaction!

Among Greenway's chatter, he did share some life wisdom. “Okay, we’re going to take you back to the second Napalm Death record. Life is hard… but you can make it easier on yourself by letting go of all the hate. These are your fellow human beings.” Then a short, violent blast of "Unchallenged Hate".

More stage divers. More surfers. One guy rode the crowd like a wave.

Another woman climbed up on stage and dropped back again. Man, this was quite the spectacle. In a short pause between songs, seemingly out of nowhere, the crowd erupted into a massive chant of “NAPALM DEATH! NAPALM DEATH! NAPALM DEATH!”

As the band wound down their set, Greenway announced “We have two more songs, but they go into each other, so I’ll say our goodbyes now. Take care of each other, even if you don’t know each other.” And then the finale. A final, blistering assault of "Adversarial/Copulating Snakes". Only an hour long, but completely exhausting. Honestly... how could anyone do more?

Set List

Instinct of Survival

Strong-Arm

Smash a Single Digit

Contagion

Inside the Torn Apart

Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism

Amoral

Suffer the Children

How the Years Condemn

Unchallenged Hate

Lucid Fairytale