Brazilian heavy metal masters Sepultura headlined a six-band lineup of the world’s most brutal music last night, filling the tiny Gramercy Theatre with rabid metalheads and a crushing performance.
Sepultura has been around almost as long as the much-heralded Big Four, who played Southern California this past Saturday, but with significant lineup changes the popularity of the group has wavered in the public eye over the years. Last night, however, the band’s fiercest supporters packed the floors and seats of The Gramercy to a level few bands have ever done there before, with heavily accented chants of “Sepultura!” and waving flags testifying to a significant South American presence in the crowd.
Despite a 6:30 doors, opening bands Bonded in Blood, Neuraxis, Keep of Kallesin, Hate, and Belphegor played until 10:30 pm, giving ticketholders all the death metal one could ever ask for, and pushing Sepultura’s set to 11pm, one of the latest start times this Examiner has ever experienced. While unfortunate for those of us who had to rise early in the morning, Sepultura (as well as their openers) delivered such a raw, uncompromising set that the late hour was more than worthwhile.
With both of the founding Cavalera brothers out of the band for years now, longtime guitarist Andreas Kisser stands out as the key member of the group, and fans pressed against the front barricade cheered for the fiercely shredding guitarist throughout the night. By his side was American-born frontman Derrick Green, who despite joining the band well into their second decade as a replacement for Max Cavalera, has done a superb job of making the songs and sounds of Sepultura his own.
The band opened with Arise, but it was on second song Refuse/Resist that the crowd began screaming along in earnest, as the dreadlocked Green beckoned for everyone to get louder. At some point during the third song, Dead Embryonic Cells, crowdsurfers suddenly started began to appear as if a switch had been flicked, briefly overwhelming the pair of security guards as surfers tumbled towards the barricades two and three at a time.
Deeper in the crowd, mosh pits swirled virtually nonstop throughout the night, growing and ebbing according to the ferociousness of the music. The band debuted two brand new songs alongside classic Sepultura hits - you can watch my video of new song Kairos on the left sidebar of this page. Kisser was a stunning guitar god throughout the show, effortlessly shredding up and down his fretboard in what has become the original Brazilian metal style. Drummer Jean Dolabella slammed through intense death metal beats with a vengeance, occasionally joined by Green on a single drum set up next to a microphone.
The night peaked, however, with the foreboding drum intro to Territory. Fans who had spent all night sitting in the rear seats jumped up to join the fans wilding out on the floor, and even the bartenders and security guards shouted along to the chorus “War for territory!” as Green held his microphone out to the furiously screaming crowd.
Despite the high bar set by Territory, the band carried on with a fantastic, jamming encore performance of the jungle beat-heavy Ratamahatta, and finally wrapped with Roots Bloody Roots well past midnight, the energy still as electrifying as it was from the start.
Some metal bands never make it out of the clubs; others, like the Big Four, go on to become household names and sell out arenas. There is no question that Sepultura is a best-selling, genre-defining, landmark act, and last night’s show combined the best of both worlds. Whether you were in the upper back row of the Gramercy’s seats, or crushed up again the front barricades, you got a top notch, all-out heavy metal show that could barely be contained by the walls of the movie theater-turned-concert venue. The band is as loud, tight, and aggressive as anyone could hope for, and clearly determined to keep kicking ass for a long time to come.
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