Sepultura: the final, close farewell to a story not to be ignored
There’s already a bit of nostalgia when the sun begins to hide behind the trees of the Idroscalo, on the outskirts of Milan. If until a few weeks ago there was still room to imagine that the word “end” could be postponed, the doubts are significantly reduced after the announcement of the final concert set for November 7 at the Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu in Sao Paulo. Sepultura’s last Italian passage starts from Circolo Magnolia on the evening of June 9thbefore the Roman appointment the following day. For some of the audience, the final tour of the Brazilian metalheads is the excuse to go back to see them liveremembering past moments of glory. For others the “Celebrating Life Through Death” tour, literally “Celebrating life through death”, is yet another unmissable event with the band’s forty-year history. For everyone present it’s the way to say goodbye to one of the most influential formations – or at least its memory – that metal has produced in the last forty years. Sepultura never misses an opportunity to remember the bond built with our country over the decades. “It’s wonderful to be here. This band has a very long history, and we’ve been here in Italy so many times. Thanks Italy, obrigado!”, says Derrick Green during the concert, welcomed by a long chorus from the audience. It is one of the few moments in which the group indulges in pleasantries and nostalgia, a feeling that will emerge openly only at the end of the evening.
It doesn’t matter if the group today no longer attracts the large crowds of the nineties. Sepultura’s remains a story that’s hard to ignore when talking about the metal of the last forty years. On the Magnolia stage, the story of a band takes shape that over the years has mixed thrash, groove, tribal rhythms and Brazilian identity to the point of consolidating its own language and a trademark.
Forty years of Sepultura live in Milan
After the opening performances entrusted to Torture Squad and Evil Invaders, Sepultura surprise everyone by even going on stage a few minutes early. No particular introduction, other than the playlist that fades to the tune of “War pigs” by Black Sabbath, and no pleasantries. Andreas Kisser, Paulo Jr., Derrick Green and Greyson Nekrutman immediately attack with “Inner Self” and “All Souls Rising”almost as if time was too precious to waste. The choice is not random. On one side there is one of the posters from the classical period taken from “Beneath the Remains”, the album that opened the doors of the international scene to Brazilians in 1989. On the other hand there is the new EP “The Cloud Of Unknowing”released last April and destined to be the last recording chapter in the group’s history.
For much of the concert the band maintains a direct and almost spartan approach. The songs speak for themselves and the music is tight. Only with “Desperate Cry” does Derrick Green begin to open up more to the public and breaks the ice by shouting a thunderous “Milano, I can’t fucking hear you”, getting the response he was looking for. It is a moment that captures the spirit of the evening well, leaving aside any atmosphere of a museum celebration.
Different eras coexist on stage of their history. Andreas Kisser he is now the main custodian of that heritage. Having joined in 1987 to replace Jairo Guedz, the guitarist is present on every album released from “Schizophrenia” onwards and represents the bridge between all the incarnations of the band. There is at his side Paulo Jr.who joined Sepultura a few months after its foundation and is now the longest-serving member of the group. Derrick Greenwhich arrived in 1997 after the traumatic exit of Max Cavalera, still faces a legacy that for many seemed impossible to take up. And there are still those who can’t swallow it, while at Magnolia the name of Cavalera bounces from one chatter to another, as if it were a tribute to the two founders and the decisive role they had in building the myth of the band.
Behind the skins he sits instead Greyson Nekrutmanthe youngest of the company and the most recent face of the lineup, called at the beginning of 2024 to replace Eloy Casagrande after his sudden move to Slipknot in place of Jay Weinberg.
The lineup spans nearly four decades without following overly predictable nostalgic paths. “Kairos”, “Means to an End”, “Against” and “Choke” remind us that Sepultura are not just the albums of the nineties, while “Attitude“, introduced by an evocative sitar passage and accompanied by the collective chorus of “Can you take it?”, brings everyone back into the universe of “Roots”. It is an experience that almost always proceeds with the strength of the inertia accumulated over many years of career, also riding out some inevitable flaws. The vocal attack of “The Place”, one of the songs taken from the recent EP “The Cloud Of Unknowing”, when Green invites the audience to give the band’s most recent material a chance, is not among the most flawless moments of the evening, but it is not enough to undermine the overall impact of a band that continues to focus on urgency.
When it arrives”Escape to the Void“, it’s Andreas Kisser’s time to indulge in pleasantries, in his own way. By asking for a mosh pit by introducing the most historic of the pieces in the setlist, taken from the second album “Schizophrenia” from 1987, the guitarist invites the “old metal school” to make itself heard more than the others. The audience, including the younger ones, responds unitedly. Shortly after, “Kaiowas” becomes one of the most particular moments of the evening. The four musicians move to percussion to give life to the famous tribal jam of “Chaos AD”, while a series of guests take the stage among improvised instruments, choirs and moments of pure collective participation. It is perhaps the passage that best summarizes one of the most characteristic elements of Sepultura’s history, the meeting between metal, percussion and influences outside the genre.
The end of Sepultura between glory and nostalgia
The final part of the concert concentrates much of the band’s history in a handful of songs. “Dead Embryonic Cells”, “Slave New World”, “Territory”, “Refuse/Resist” and “Arise” flow like fundamental chapters of a path that helped redefine metal between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s. Yet the concert continues not only to look to the past. Three songs come from “The Cloud Of Unknowing“, the EP released during this farewell tour and born almost by chance from the entry of Nekrutman. Andreas Kisser recently told “Metal Hammer” that he initially had no intention of recording new music before the breakup, but the enthusiasm brought by the new drummer convinced the band to enter the studio once again. The result is a work that alternates aggression, experimentation and reflections on the presentaddressing issues such as technological alienation, misinformation and the need to recover a more direct relationship with the real world.
Precisely this tension between past and future makes Sepultura’s last chapter special. On the one hand there is a band preparing to greet the public after over forty years of activity. On the other hand there are the words of Andreas Kisser, who in recent months has repeatedly recalled how Sepultura “won’t die”, leaving the door open to possible future developments after a long break. For now, however, only the present matters. After the drum solo which introduces a shortened version of “Ratamahatta”, the finale is inevitably entrusted to “Roots Bloody Roots“. Magnolia sings every word, the pit continues to move and Sepultura seem intent on closing without too much sentimentality. Then, right on the last notes of the concert, Derrick Green greets the audience: “You truly are the best ever. We will miss you. We love you. Thank you very much for all these years spent together“, he says before leaving the stage with his companions. After forty-two years, the story of Sepultura really seems to be coming to an end. But at least for one evening, in Milan, that story still sounds alive, loud and perfectly aware of its importance.
This is the lineup:
Inner Self
All Souls Rising
Desperate Cry
Kairos
Means to an End
Attitude
Against
Choke
The Place
Escape to the Void
Kaiowas
Dead Embryonic Cells
Slave New World
Beyond the Dream
Territory
Refuse/Resist
Arise
Ratamahatta
Roots Bloody Roots
