Savage Imperial Death March Part II Storms Michigan!!! (Concert Coverage)

Over the last two nights, Michigan has been stormed by the mighty forces of the Savage Imperial Death March Part II Tour. (say that ten times quickly). The state lines were originally breached (from Ohio, of course) on Monday, May 12th, with the lineup of Titan to Tachyons, The Melvins, and Napalm Death who established a temporary base camp at St. Andrew’s Hall for the evening. Our own Porous witnessed the ensuing musical massacre. Following the destruction of the beloved Detroit venue, the march continued deeper into the Great Lakes state where a new base was established at The Intersection main stage in Grand Rapids on May 13th. The initial foray was at the hands of an anonymous noise duo, but soon the same heavy artillery was unleashed on the masses and the carnage began. Thankfully, the Death March has now been repelled back into Buckeye territory, and friends of mittens everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief.

St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit, MI, 5/12/2025 by Porous

For a far more detailed overview of the show, please march on down to Hayduke’s coverage of the Grand Rapids date below. My primary contribution to this war-torn coverage of the tour comes in the form of photography! But I’d still love to say a few words about my experience with these three bands.

I was super-jazzed to see Titan to Tachyons perform their heavy instrumental chaos in a live setting. I remember first hearing their music and feeling giddy in the same way those first couple Dillinger Escape Plan releases affected me in the early 00s. While they are two very different bands, the passion to push the envelope of extreme music and explore more original song structures is the same. For stage presence though, Titan to Tachyons played their mathy compositions far more stoically (hopefully my photos captured that). Much of the crowd was completely hypnotized by the labyrinthian arrangements, including myself. Can’t wait to see them again!

And then came The Melvins. This was tricky to photograph because I kept getting distracted by how impressive they all were! Every single member of that band (Buzz, Steven, Coady, and Dale) gave the crowd their money’s worth and more. Not only in the masterful exhibition of those beloved tracks, but also in the swagger. And the gorgeous fashion. There’s a reason this group has been around over 40 years: they know exactly what they’re doing. It was such a joy to capture those moments with my camera.

The concert was closed out with a once-in-a-lifetime performance by Napalm Death. Literally though, as their poor bassist Shane was ill and couldn’t perform. His understudy did a magnificent job filling those shoes though. But then for vocals, what a show it would’ve been if Barney had been sick and someone else filled in! Luckily that was not the case and I can’t even find the words to describe that fella’s energy up there. Endless physical energy while belting out those lyrics and then seamlessly transitioning to eloquently earnest anti-fascist hype in between songs. It made for the perfect evening (and a lot of ghostly photos with motion blur).

All three bands on this Savage Imperial Death March Tour absolutely dominated at the Detroit stop, each in their own way!

The Intersection, Grand Rapids, MI, 5/13/2025 by Hayduke

About 6 pm last night, I hopped into Darth Rav (my car) and headed on an Imperial Death March to the venue, picking up my son Hayduke Jr. and his partner on the way. We parked, headed over to the venue, showed our tickets, and made our way to the front where the two of them grabbed a piece of the rail, and I stood behind in case a mosh mood struck me (for whatever reason, it did not). 

I thought we’d have a while to wait – the website said music at 7:30 – but by 7 pm, there was a masked anonymous duo on stage starting a noise set. Having pieced together from very difficult to discern clues (they took their masks off at the end of the set and wore the same clothes all night), I’m pretty sure the two in question were Napalm Death guitarist John Cooke and one of the stage crew members touring with the band. As a weirdo who enjoys noise, I really liked their set. It’s fair to say that Hayduke Jr. and his partner were ready for it to end. My hunch is they were performing in the first place as an impromptu fill in for Dark Sky Burial, because Shane Embury was apparently being held captive in Ohio (the official story is he has been ill, and I wish him a speedy recovery, but you know those Buckeyes, so…)

Next on stage was Titan to Tachyons, a jazz metal supergroup of sorts. Based in the US, but founded by composer/guitarist Sally Gates, the quartet also features bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle), guitarist Matt Hollenberg (Cleric), and drummer Kenny Grohowski (Imperial Triumphant). The group makes difficult, entirely instrumental music. I have to say that, with the exception of a few passages, this wasn’t for me. The group was very obviously incredibly talented, and worked hard to push boundaries, but it didn’t really move me at all. I definitely have strange, out-there tastes, and I definitely like (even love) some music that is not for most people, but sometimes it doesn’t come together in my head, and I just get bored. At least part of the problem for me is that strictly instrumental metal is very often a hard sell for me. I can think of maybe three exceptions to that rule. They were overall well received though, and nothing I’ve written here is meant to cut them down at all.

I’ve known about The Melvins and been a casual listener for many years, but have admittedly never dug deep into their discography. That said, I was expecting a great set based on my experience of seeing them one other time, and I was not disappointed. They sounded great, are engaging to watch, have a great stage presence, and brought some really fun energy to the crowd. Before their set, another audience member was using his best ‘ough!’ voice to express many opinions about the upcoming moshpit, which all essentially boiled down to his hope that the pit was fun. Well, ‘war borther’, it sure seemed like you were not disappointed.

All of this brings us to the reason I was really there, which is my favorite band, a band nearly as old as I am, a band which has destroyed countless stages for countless years, the mighty Napalm Death! Though I’ve been a fan since my teen years, as fate would have it, this was only my second time seeing them live. And to top it off, this time I got to experience them with my son and his partner. (He’ll yeah, war borther) I really think Father Time has forgotten about this band. They are certainly wily veterans and certainly look like they are a more mature band (not old really, but they are starting to show a bit of gray and a wrinkle here and there). They don’t sound old though, and the energy they bring to their set is very young and vigorous. Barney still challenged the Energizer Bunny for the title of most energetic being on this planet, with the way he romped around the stage for roughly an hour. Danny Herrera is still a maniac on the kit. Guitarist John Cooke brought the furious riffs and the guest bassist (sorry, I forgot to write down his name) filled in admirably for the under-the-weather Shane Embury (get well soon). The set was an artillery barrage of madness, chaos, and humanitarian thought. They hit most of my favorites, missing only The Wolf I Feed from the tracks I was really hoping to see. My theory is that Shane provides too many vocal parts for that track. With him out for the evening, I’m guessing it was cut from the set. I could see a set list towards the back of the stage and could tell that two or three tracks had been scratched off, but it was too far for me to read which. I would predict one of those was that track, however.

All in all, this was a really top notch live experience. I recommend going to see any of these bands if they come to the area, and here’s hoping your moshpit isn’t boring.

 

Biography:  Hayduke X has been writing for MoshPitNation since June of 2016. He is also a contributor to The Metal Wanderlust. Prior to joining the MoshPitNation team, Hayduke published reviews on his own blog Rage and Frustration. In addition, he has DJ’ed an online metal radio show of the same name as his blog, written for TOmetal.com, done interviews for Metal Rules, and collaborated with The Art of B Productions to create video interviews with a wide variety of bands.

 

 

Biography:  Porous has been possessed by heavy music for the vast majority of his life. For a good chunk of it, that love was exorcised by playing metal, punk, and hardcore with other musicians. Nowadays Porous writes/records music mostly on his own, but engages with the community by supporting/encouraging other artists, and one of those ways is through writing! In early 2025 he joined MoshPitNation to contribute album/show reviews, concert photography, and hopefully an infectious love for sincere heavy music.