Brazilian metal legends throw one hell of a party to celebrate their career, their fans, and one last tour before saying adeus.
Few bands rise to the level where they are referred to as “legendary.” The count reduces to minuscule when measuring the number of legendary metal bands hailing from Brazil. For 40 years, Sepultura has worn the crown as the most successful metal band from Brazil and now they have played their last Raleigh, NC, show. Calling it quits at the end of this Celebrating Life Through Death Tour, Sepultura created a lineup of bands worthy of celebrating their history, impact on the metal community, and inspiration they’ve had on many bands to follow in their wake.
Sepultura is the inspiration for many new metal bands and Claustrofobia is one such example. Forming in 1993 and based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this terrorizing three-piece unit opened the show as if three opening bands had already played. Creating a massive circle pit only two songs into their opening set, Claustrofobia’s reverence for Sepultura was clear as they are a sonically agile version of Sepultura’s heavy sound. Managing to make three musicians sound like five, Claustrofobia’s thrash metal attack was unexpectedly brutal, in a fantastic kind of way, for an opening band.
No ordinary band can bring the fire and excitement needed to set up a headliner as powerful as Sepultura. Agnostic Front, the iconic New York hardcore band that successfully pulled their original punk following into the world of metal, is no ordinary band. Vinnie Stigma, the immediately recognizable and overwhelmingly friendly founder of the band, was greeted on stage to enormous applause followed by long-time vocalist Roger Miret and the rest of the band. Opening with “AF Stomp,” Agnostic Front’s hardcore punk sound was significantly different from the rest of the lineup, and it was perfect. After getting riled up by Claustrofobia, a one-two punch to the face punk singalong was exactly what the audience needed to elevate to the next level of mayhem. Punk anthems “For My Family,” “Friend or Foe,” and “Gotta Go” kept adding fuel to the dance floor fire before Roger pulled the audience to the front and before anyone knew what was going on, masterfully turned the entire floor into one huge mosh pit. A truly epic set for what was turning out to be an amazing farewell evening. Also celebrating 40 years as a band, Obituary from Gibsonton, Florida, commanded their supporting slot role with an aggressive auditory pounding that sent one audience member home with a broken elbow and a concussion. Considered a pioneer of the death metal genre, Obituary states they were influenced by bands such as Celtic Frost, but they evolved to create a thrashing, Anthrax-like speed junkie death metal sound. Vocalist and band founder John Tardy with his waist-length hair, sang with surprisingly clean vocals but on several occasions growled and screamed as if conjuring up the dead from under The Ritz’s foundation. Surprisingly limited to the front of the stage, the same space as provided to the opening bands due to the very large staging setup for Sepultura, the closeness between the audience and the band actually amplified the energy in the room. Crowd surfing began, the pit became too wild for the weak and cautious, and by the time Obituary came to “Slowly We Rot,” The Ritz was in literal mayhem. Raleigh doesn’t host a large Portuguese population but many of them were in attendance for Sepultura’s final farewell, waving Brazilian flags and ecstatically happy. Opening hard with “Refuse/Resist,” Sepultura and their unique Brazilian percussive sound launched into a lengthy setlist celebrating their 40 years as a band. Fronted by the imposing Derrick Green who became the new face and image of Sepultura after the departure of the founding Cavalera brothers, smiled joyously and celebrated the audience response throughout the evening. Long-time guitarist, Andreas Kisser, commanded stage left with his lethal shredding guitar solos and full-body emotional outbursts while Paulo Jr. stealthily locked in with new drummer Greyson Nekrutman, formerly from Suicidal Tendencies. Greyson was an absolute powerhouse and fit in perfectly with Sepultura’s speed, unique sound, and vibrant energy.The setlist covered roughly eight of Sepultura’s albums and the band played a number of older songs for the old school fans. Closing out their set with their must-play classic, “Roots Bloody Roots,” Sepultura gave Raleigh a history lesson of not just how powerful they were as a metal band, but also how much they pushed boundaries. The band called out roadies and audience members to join in for a percussion jam on “Kaiowas,” included flamenco-styled acoustic guitar for “Guardians of the Earth,” and sang in Portuguese for their classic song “Ratamahatta.” Overall, Sepultura performed a stellar retrospective of their amazing and highly successful career.
Every band’s stage crew deserves incredibly high praise. Break down and set up between bands never took longer than 20 minutes, keeping the momentum and excitement high as bands interchanged. Sepultura’s farewell tour continues through October 12, 2024, where the band will play their final United States show in New York City before taking the tour to Europe.AGNOSTIC FRONT
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