Napalm Death performs at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on April 7, 2025. Sean Liming/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO —Before their penultimate song at Great American Music Hall on Monday night, British noise metal band Napalm Death brought Dead Kennedys singer and Bay Area mainstay Jello Biafra onstage to introduce his classic hit “Nazi Punks Fuck Off!”

“Nazi Trumps fuck off and Nazi Musks fuck off!” Biafra shouted. As the English quartet neared the end of the frenzied cover, Biafra jumped onto the floor and surfed on top of the crowd for a minute or so, before being deposited back on stage.

Napalm Death vocalist Mark Andrew “Barney” Greenway spent the duration of his band’s performance dancing wildly and screaming at the top of his lungs.

“It seems a little futile and academic to introduce the band after all these years,” Greenway said halfway through the set as the enthusiastic audience, which encircled a mosh pit, cheered wildly. “It’s a matter of simple fucking etiquette!”

With his dark T-shirt tucked into black jeans, complemented with a pair of suspenders, Greenway was a study in contradictions. Looking a bit like British physicist Brian Cox, he suddenly launched into a spastic frenzy of motion as the band blasted into songs like “Contagion,” from 2020 album Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism. With nearly four decades of material, the band’s expansive hour-long set spanned its 13 albums—from “Scum,” the title track of its 1987 debut to “Amoral,” from its most recent LP.

Napalm Death performs at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on April 7, 2025.

A mosh pit formed and surged, amoeba-like, toward the front of the stage where stage divers launched themselves into the frenzied crowd. The pit was particularly intense during the snarling guitar lines of “Twist the Knife (Slowly)” and the malevolent chug of “You Suffer,” from Napalm Death’s first album.

Earlier in the evening, noise rockers Melvins took the stage with a two-drummer lineup that included Coady Willis of High on Fire and Big Business. Willis locked in with drummer Dale Crover as the two pummeled with the precision of a German wristwatch and the power of a sledge hammer. The duo synched up in elaborate fills that began most songs, including a couple of killer ones that launched “Evil War God” and “It’s Shoved.”

Guitarist and singer Buzz Osbourne prowled the stage in his familiar collared robe, festooned with eyes, delivering frantic guitar noise as the band opened with “Working the Ditch,” from 2024’s Tarantula Heart.

On bass, Red Kross’s Steve McDonald, clad in a white suit that reprised the eyes from Buzzo’s robe, leaped and posed with his white bass. McDonald’s facial expressions and stage flair made it obvious he was having a blast. But McDonald also took the lion’s share of vocals on “A History of Bad Men,” from 2006 album (A) Senile Animal.

Melvins perform at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on April 7, 2025.

The undeniable star of the show was the powerful synergy of the two drummers, who revisited their earlier collaboration during the ultra-heavy “Billy Fish,” off 2008’s Nude With Boots. The end of their set was highlighted by the syncopated guitar mayhem of “Honey Bucket.”

Without any stage banter of any kind, the band left the stage with a simple “Thank you!” from Osbourne.

Wilmington, North Carolina’s Weedeater performed a set of grinding and overdriven guitar sludge earlier in the evening. Dave “Dixie” Collins, clad in a mesh trucker cap, hunched over his bass, delivering long groaning slabs of face-melting and distorted low-end sounds. Drummer Keith “Keko” Kirkum punctuated the throb with powerful snare hits and thudding kick drum strikes. At times, the music was slow and undulating, like Black Sabbath tuning after too many bong rips. At other times, the trio summoned a galloping and thunderous shuffle with relentless power chords from Dave “Shep” Shepherd’s guitar.

The first act of the heavy rock show, which lasted nearly four hours in all, was Dark Sky Burial, the atmospheric side project of Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury. The solo performance, with Embury standing at an array of instruments, consisted of dark and spooky music, like the soundtrack of a cool vampire film.

Follow photographer Sean Liming at Instagram.com/S.Liming.