You would have thought that after Slayer and Mötley Crüe both returned to the fray after having retorted that they were going for good, that we would have got wise to the wheeze of the farewell tour. Evidently not, as Sepultura’s final circumnavigation of the world sees them return as headliner to venues they last bothered nearly thirty ago, when it looked like “Roots” was about to catapult them to the higher plains of the metallic pecking order. It is a little uncertain though whether the sold-out signs are in situ because this is a last chance to see situation, or in direct reaction to their undercard. By dragging along the much-fancied Jesus Piece, the perpetually awesome Obituary and the in vogue and in demand Jinjer they have turned this into a super charged package tour that it is very hard to turn down. 

Jesus Piece are part of a new generation of metalcore that puts the inference on the core. They are rough around the edges, boisterous and desolately heavy. There is a contingent up front who are here purely to fling themselves and others around in a violent fashion. They take to Jesus piece with gumption using their brittle blast beats to beat the proverbial crap out of each other in a manner that stops shy of full on GBH. Jesus Piece know how to use a breakdown. On numerous occasions their tracks surge forward in an unholy whirl of desolate noise and then they stop like they have plunged off an unseen cliff. Powerful and prerogative it's the sound of society spinning out of control.

Obituary have taken to their position of older statesman like a duck to nitroglycerine. Other bands of their vintage may choose to mellow and to coast, but Obituary have become more vital and distinctly un-user friendly in their dotage. They may be afforded no more than a generic support slot on this tour, but they are treated as the living legends that they are by the capacity crowd. The bodies fly (though not all making it all the way to the salvation of the barrier) and a highly impressive circle pit sparks into life.

Obituary were always the missing link between thrash and death metal. Inspired by both Slayer and the then burgeoning Floridian death metal scene, they helped cultivate that trademark sound of guttural vocals and groove laden guitar. We have gone full circle now with the recent reemergence of the old skool death metal sound, to the point that tracks from “Slowly We Rot” and “Cause Of Death” sound modern and thoroughly current. There has always been a blatant simplicity to Obituary’s sound. In 35 years of making records, they've never been tempted to go down the technical or dreaded progressive routes. Instead, it they have stayed true to their blueprint of minimalistic nastiness, to the point that it is nigh on possible, without knowing the tracks intimately, to differentiate what songs come from 2023’s “Dying of Everything” and which have been hanging around their back catalogue much much longer.   

Tonight, it is all about primal power and it is that organic kinetic energy that makes Obituary so enticing. There is a brutal austerity that chimes with tonight's crowd, causing the scenes of pandemonium described above. The reaction is one that is usually afforded exclusively to headline act as opposed to the third rung on a four-band roster. But it isn't just the nostalgia hungry long metalheads who are lapping it up. The bodies catapulting themselves towards the waiting security are in the main made up of younglings who weren't even born when the band returned from self-imposed exile in 2003. The captivating starkness of death metal is frankly timeless and witnessing yet another generation bathe in its glory leaves a wonderful warm glow in the soul.

For a band spoken about as a future festival headliner, the crowd response for Jinjer is surprisingly muted. It is especially disconcerting given that the proliferation of their merch around room certainly outweighs the headliner. They are not ignored and each track at its culmination is given a heartfelt response, but there is a definite lack of mobility, movement, and baying ferocity during the show. Perhaps the faithful are stunned into silence and prefer to enjoy the music and the performance by standing reverentially and letting it soak into them.

Jinjer are indeed an intense and foreboding experience. Compared to the other bands that they are currently hanging with; their sound is far denser and multilayered. Roman Ibramkhalilov’s guitar and Eugene Abdukhanov’s bass interlink and interact in a unique manner. They fold in and out of each other as opposed to treading distinct different paths. This creates a lattice like effect where the riffs and angular basslines intertwine forging a sound that feels solid and opaque. 

Laced on top of that are Tati’s vocals. She pirouettes effortlessly from guttural grunts to melodic wispful refrains. The fact that she retains the latter for the verses and reserves the former for choruses may well feel counterintuitive but actually gives their song a real heft and feeling of maturity. Whilst her stage presence is restrained and slight, she still manages to be effortlessly chatty. She expresses her joy at being back in Manchester and her constant surprise on the adulation and support that her band receives. Whether they will be celebrating a 40-year anniversary like Obituary and Sepultura will remain to be seen but they do put down a solid marker and doing something distinctly interesting with our decades-old genre.

The billing of this as Sepultura’s final hurrah farewell tour are played down massively to the point where it is not even mentioned on stage. What they do major on is the fact that they are celebrating 40 years. It is even more astonishing when you realise if you go 40 years the other way from their formation, you are smack bang in the middle of the Second World War. Whilst never quite making it into the premiership of metal bands, Sepultura have carved out a highly impressive career and have cultivated themselves quite a reputation. Any fears that a good majority of the audience belong to Jinjer and will have buggered off home before the headliner takes the stage are instantaneously dispelled by the monumental reception that opener ‘Refuse/Resist’ receives. It is categorically Sepultura’s crowd and for just under two hours they go ape-shit, cavorting and flagellating themselves in an astonishing display of highly energetic crowd participation. The bodies rain over the barrier during second track ‘Territory’ and ‘Slave New World’ marks an almighty culmination of a fantastic early doors threesome from the career defining “Chaos A.D.”. It is an astonishing opening salvo that drips with intent and cements the intensity of the evening.

Sepultura have existed without the Cavalera brothers for almost as long as they were members. Paulo Jnr and Andreas Kis have forged quite the partnership with vocalist Derrick Green, eclipsing previous formations and creating a power trio that unashamedly carries forward Sepultura’s legacy. After twenty-three years up front Derrick has earnt his position in sweat and determination. Tonight, he utterly owns the stage, looming over all he commands with his impressive 6ft 5 inch frame. He seems just as comfortable dispensing material that he's been involved in the creation of as he is maliciously barking his way through the stuff that was cultivated before his arrival. He has been spitting out the lyrics to ‘Inner Self and ‘Arise’ for longer than Max ever did and he has now taken a well-deserved ownership of them.

Andreas Kis guitar work is simply extraordinary. Perpetually underrated he is the beating soul that drives forward sepultura’s sound. Tonight, apart from the sweeping synths during ‘Agony Of Defeat’ there are no overdubs and no sneaky backing tracks. Every piece of divine guitar work comes from the pulsating fingers of Andreas. Having not had a rhythm guitarist to back him up for over a quarter-century he has nurtured a unique approach that allows his guitar work to simultaneously soar but also provide that much-needed galloping groove. He speaks to the audience once, introducing the, at the time, genre defying ‘Kaiowas’. Drums are placed liberally around the stage and everyone joins in, stagehands roadies and all, to emulate the almost alien pulsating rhythm that felt so different and groundbreaking when it first surfaced over 30 years ago.

Sepultura forged together two very distinct and different musical worlds in a way that irreversibly changed heavy metal. They opened the floodgates for fusing together influences from far beyond our usual sonic palettes. Without “Roots” it is unlikely that we will have many of the outlandish fusions that exist today. It is fitting it’s two stand out moment are reserved for the encore. New kid on the block, Greyson Nekrutman, uses the pulverising rhythmic odyssey of ‘Ratamahatta’ to get in a little bit of well-deserved showing off. But then it hits, the absolute apocalyptic weapon in Sepultura’s armoury, ‘Roots Bloody Roots’. It has been heard a thousand times and it's been ripped off and unsuccessfully emulated a thousand times, but there is nothing like ‘Roots Bloody Roots’. It is astounding and bewildering in its organic splendour and raw spontaneity. Everything is dialled back to its base element. It is visceral and brutal, a full-frontal gut-wrenching monolith of a track that uses its cultural roots to strip away anything that underplays its power.

Whether this is the end of whether this is just another piece of clever and coy marketing, it doesn’t actually matter. Sepultura have been redeemed and have finally ascended to that legacy position that they always deserved. This was a career defining show intended to illustrate that there is much more to them than a couple of albums that upset metal’s Apple cart in the 90’s. It achieved everything they set out to do and Sepultura proved beyond doubt that they are still and never stopped being one of the most influential bands in metal's long history and they will continue to do so whether or not they have come to the end of the road.  

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Sepultura + Jinjer + Obituary + Jesus Piece