It’s been a long time coming but Perth finally got to witness the return of Brazil thrash legends Sepultura after what seems like years and years since their last time on the west coast of Australia. This time however they brought along another thrash veteran act in Bay Area thrashers Death Angel who made their first ever Australian appearance in 2014 supporting Kreator. This was sure to be one of the highlights of the year.
Kudos to Tempest Rising for scoring the support slot on this one and providing further diversity to the show, sitting next to two ultimate legends of metal is a dream come true for any metal band no matter what style. A suitable warm up performance set the tone for the night as the local boys bashed out another killer set and laid out the musical red carpet for the incoming onslaught.
The Bay Area thrash veterans that is Death Angel rolled onto the stage casually a fair while after and went straight into new number “Father Of Lies” off the latest album “The Evil Divide”. The track was the perfect opener with some blazing speed and scorching riffs, guitarist Rob Cavestany proudly showing off his chops with an elegance in the most metal way. Singer Mark Osegueda sounding good as always taking command front and center and riling up the crowd as best he could. Admittedly the crowd took a while to get into it, many obviously here for Sepultura but there were enough Death Angel shirts in the crowd to see that they were just waiting for the right song to jump into action.
The title track off the brilliant “The Dream Calls For Blood”, one of their best albums to date in my humble opinion, careened out of the gates and drew some heavy interest from the fans and by the time the classic “Voracious Souls” stepped onto the plate in the set, a full blown moshpit was on course, impressing Osegueda at the same time. With only a short amount of time in their time slot, it was a shame to not hear more tracks from this beast of an album but with numerous albums to play off of, it was difficult to squeeze more than a couple from each album.
With that being said, the focus was more on later material as they picked out songs from the last 3 albums primarily including newbie “Hatred United / United Hate” which featured a cameo appearance by none other than Andreas Kisser himself from Sepultura who also recorded guitar parts on the studio track. It was the first live performance of this song on the tour and the first to feature Andreas himself as Osegueda pointed out, but the fans loved the early glimpse of Andreas before the mighty Brazilian band came out for their show.
The legendary Sepultura were up next and the anticipation was fairly high considering the band have not been to this side of the country in quite some time. I can’t quite recall what year as I managed to catch the band in Melbourne on their last tour 4 years ago which was still fresh in my mind but comparing the two performances tonight, it was clear 2018 was the winner. I don’t know what made the difference as it was the same lineup although the setlist was vastly different even with a few new ones off the latest album “Machine Messiah” but their performance in Perth was spectacular.
Starting with two new tracks “I Am The Enemy” and “Phantom Self”, a great diversity between the two with thrash and prog diving the differences, Sepultura were sounding on fire from the get-go. The brutally heavy “Kairos” got the crowd going early on and it was good to see the appreciation from the crowd on the later Sepultura material. Say what you will about all the lineup changes, ex-members and the nostalgia of the old Sepultura, there’s absolutely no denying the power of songs like “Kairos” where it’s truly headbanging worthy of any metal head.
Speaking of which, some older material popped up as the set went on with classics “Territory” and “Desperate Cry” getting the stamp of approval from the audience by way of some vicious movement on the floor in front of frontman Derrick Green whose towering presence was felt by anyone nearby. His bellowing voice, deep and loud showed that even after 20 years which this year signifies that remarkable anniversary, he still sounds exactly the same which unfortunately cannot be said by a few nameless others. Say what you will but Derrick has well and truly cemented his place in Sepultura’s legacy and he proved that tonight by pulling no stops at all, some vintage Green from his debut appearance “Against” surprisingly showed up in the form of the title track and “Choke” before circling back to newer material including the brilliant instrumental song “Iceberg Dances”, complete with flamenco guitar by Andreas Kisser.
By now it was pretty clear Sepultura were on top of their game and any doubts in people’s mind that they lost it years ago have all but dissipated. I always knew the band were on another level over the last 20 years and seeing them in Melbourne 4 years ago cemented that even further but it was still nice to see people coming around to the fact that the current incarnation of Sepultura is one slick and well oiled machine. The new stuff may not have grabbed people’s attention in the same way as the older stuff but the live power of the band is undeniably potent and on point.
The tail end of the show was reserved for the older material once again as familiar numbers like “Refuse/Resist” and “Arise” bolted out of the amps like lightning, drummer Eloy Casagrande absolutely destroyed on the kit as he played out one of the best performances on drums I have seen in quite some time. He was consistently perfect all the way through, power and precision, technical prowess and some grooves that were accentuated by beating the bloody shit out of every part of the drumkit. No wonder he is a fit guy, the force in which Eloy displayed tonight was a show in and of itself. Show stealer for sure!
With the encore upon us, the band had some fun pulling out a few rare gems including jams on Policia, Orgasmatrob and an off the cuff attempt at AC/DC’s Highway To Hell before Roots material finally got some love with “Ratamahatta” getting everyone jumping up and down while the show closer and pretty much the signature song of Sepultura now, “Roots Bloody Roots” ended what was a killer show to end the tour. We can’t thank all bands enough for putting on one hell of a show, let’s just hope we don’t have to wait so long to see it again!
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