Sepultura – Gig Review 29th November @ Max Watts, Melbourne VIC
Sepultura
Max Watts, Melbourne VIC
November 29, 2023
Support: Hidden Intent and Deprivation
It dawned on my mate Burkey and I that it had been around 20 years since we had seen Sepultura live. So it was with great excitement we headed down the stairs of Max Watts to find a packed room full of eager metalheads who were ready to thrash.
Unfortunately, we missed NSW metallers Deprivation but heard they put on a great show, still riding a high from scoring the chance to play the almighty WACKEN earlier this year!
We settled in time for Aussie thrashers Hidden Intent. Combining hardcore speed with Anthrax swagger, the trio made an almighty racket that was well received by the audience. Highlights included the native anthem ‘Drop Bears Are Real’ and a blinding rendition of ‘Addicted to Thrash’. Flannel-clad frontman/bassist Chris McEwen was a sight to see with his finger bass picking and unruly mop of curls headbanging between barks.
They finished with a blitzing cover of Slayer’s ‘Altar of Sacrifice’, a nice closer to a good forty minutes of headbanging. It’s the kind of good times that sent Burkey and I back to the bar for a Vic Bitter.
The crowd energy picked up again as ‘War Pigs’ came over the PA, promoting a full voiced singalong. This was followed by Titãs’ ‘Policia’ (a tune regularly covered by Sepultura), which kept the good vibes going as the lights went out and the intro to ‘Isolation’ began.
The band took the stage and blasted through Quandra’s lead off track before catapulting into the first classic of the night – ‘Territory’.
Most of the set followed this format. Newer songs like ‘Means to an End’ and ‘Kairos’ fit alongside legacy anthems like ‘Attitude’. Between every song the crowd erupted in “Sep-ul-tura” chants. There was slightly more enthusiasm for the older material but I certainly didn’t see anyone head to the bar just because it was a newer track.
Andres Kisser noted next year is their 40th anniversary launching the band into ‘Propaganda’. At this point, I realised I’d turned to my mates three times already and said “that was fucking sick”. Derrick Green introduced the next song, ‘Guardians of the Earth’, as being written for the indigenous tribes of the Amazon. His declaration that “their fight is our fight” to a big roar from the crowd. It starts with Andreas on acoustic guitar with beats from Eloy Casagrande behind the drums. When Derrick and Paulo join them it’s a soaring thrash tune designed to capture hearts and minds. The guitar solo was simply epic, with the pretaped keys and strings adding to the song’s progressive nature.
Derrick revealed they were trying to play something from every album so they pulled out the “little bit more obscure” ‘Dialog’. Fair to say most searched Spotify for this one on their way home (it’s on Kairos). I can’t say they played something from every album but we got a great dose of Quadra and plenty from Arise onwards. Burkey noted the crowd would’ve gone off for one of the earlier Derrick-era songs like ‘Choke’ but alas this portion of the band’s discography wasn’t included tonight. At one stage Andres mentioned they were recording all these shows for a live album that would feature forty songs from forty cities which suggested there will be some variation to the set at some point.
For me the highlight was the full version of ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’ from Arise. I’ve seen Sepultura and Soulfly include the end of this one as a coda to ‘Arise’ so it was thrash metal heaven to hear it in full. We got the epic ‘Agony of Defeat’ from Quadra before the band brought it home with four of their most loved songs, ‘Refuse/Resist’, a colossal sounding version of ‘Arise’, the tribal influenced ‘Ratamahatta’ that segued straight into the nu-metal bounce of ‘Roots Bloody Roots’. Those four tunes underline everything that is great about the band then and now.
Sepultura are a serious metal band who sing about all aspects of our world. The fact that frontman Derrick Green can be caught smiling between his bellows is a sign that even after all this time they still love what they’re doing. The amazing response from punters in Melbourne shows the long trip is worth it. From a punter’s perspective, watching Casagrande do some insane things on his drum kit is worth the ticket price alone.
As we headed back into the night, buzzing from a brilliant gig, my mate Burkey was mobbed by several youths who congratulated him on his great performance and bass work for Hidden Intent. Turns out guys in red flannel with curly hair are easy to get confused. Shout out to the boys in Hidden Intent, whose performance made fans of some Sepultura die hards.
Words: KJ Draven (Twitter X and Instagram).
Sepultura – Good Things Fest Sideshows
December 4 @ Princess Theatre, Bris