After days of oppressive heat the rain finally came to Fremantle just hours before Cavalera played Metros. It was so humid that the walls and the patrons were soaked long before the first support hit the stage. It seemed like a sign of the impending storm that was about to hit the stage as Cavalera the Brazilian Thrash Gods brought the Third World Trilogy Tour Australian leg to a close in the wonderfully humid West.
After a tour of Australia that took in all the major cities and even a jaunt down to Tasmania, could there be a more Metallically brutal way to start the year? And what a way to close! Cavalera’s Third World Trilogy tour has been much anticipated – and sees the band revisiting their roots, playing a selection of songs from their recently re-recorded versions of Sepultura’s Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions and Schizophrenia.
Sadly we missed the first support but Melbourne’s Algor Mortis, an extreme metal outfit fronted by Cecilia Keane, did a great job in blowing off some steam before the main act, and got the crowd onside from the off with their dark energy and massive riffs ablaze.
Everyone of course though was here to witness the return of those songs that changed the Metal world, and Cavalera were hear to not just play the back catalogue but to fill the room with the power and brutality of those game-changing songs and write the next chapter in the story of Max and Iggor Cavalera.
Launching right into the D tuned onslaught of ‘The Curse’, ‘Bestial Devastation’, ‘Anti Christ’ and ‘Necromancer’ there was not let up and half a dozen patrons shot over the barrier in the first few minutes, escorted stage left back into the crowd. As the pit formed on the floor the band just got right into it after warming us up with a back screen of flames emblazoned with the word ‘Cavalera’. Down on the ground it felt like the golden age of thrash was reigning down on us again!
The first continued to be thrust to the air as they blazed through the very essence of Sepultura history, with Max firing up the crowd, pumping the air with his spiked gauntlets and showing us all what glorious moments in Metal ‘Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation’ really were.
And it just didn’t stop: ‘Mayhem’ and ‘Crucifixion’ crushed and ‘Funeral Rites’ was all that you’d hoped it would be! It wasn’t all Max of course – Iggor owned the room with beats that a man 20 years younger would have been hard pushed to keep up in the intense humidity. And both Travis Stone (guitars) and Max’s son Igor on bass shone. It’s a band that sound harder than hell and are solid as a rock.
On a night of so much intensity and so many highlights ‘RIP’ just edged it for me, coming from the album that first introduced me to the Cavalera brothers: ‘Chaos A.D.’ Though for the crowd I think the mash-up of ‘Territory’ with ‘Refuse’ and ‘Propaganda’ might have just raised the roof… And from there when you can still up the intensity with ‘Troops of Doom’ you know when you’ve not just had one of the great concert experiences of your life, you’ve also lost a good few pounds in the process.
This was Metal like Metal should be! Unapologetically brutal, fiercely intense and completely unforgettable! And when you can then go on to close with a medley of ‘Morbid Visions’, ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’ and reprise not just ‘R.I.P.’ but also ‘Bestial Devastation’, what can I say?!
What a way to open the Metal year Downunder – look out world you are next!
