Words by Jimmy Glinster
Pix by Sarah Gilpin
Cryptivore pix thanks to Rashid Alkamraihki from Sense Media
After having a headache all day and almost shitting myself twice on the way up here due to some unsolicited milk intake, we turn into the street of the venue, and I say to Krispy “it would be good to score a park along here”. And I shit you not, as I finish saying it a parked car chucks its indicator on and then pulls out. Now all I need to do is reverse park into it, and I don’t mean to boast, but I nailed it first attempt.
We make our way in early thanks to tour manager Gav Hansen, who escorts us in and directs us to the best and only seats in the house up on the balcony. Moments later, the doors open and the crowd starts trickling in. The lineup out front wasn’t that big considering the show is apparently sold out. I guess people have learnt a bit better these days and spend more time pre-loading at nearby dive bars, or in nearby car parks. For me, though, it’s people watching from the balcony as they all crawl in. That sounded a little creepy, carry on.
Bris-Vegas locals Cryptivore kick straight into some intensely heavy death metal with thrashing riffs, blast beats and deep guttural growls, then the song loosens up a bit and hits a slower groove. The thing about technical riffs like the ones these guys are playing is that you get very little movement from the guitarists other than the odd headbang, which is a little bit counterproductive against the intensity of the music.
I have no idea what that last song was called, but this next one is called arrrgrrrrblurgh raaarrr. The venue is moderately full now, but there is still room for people to move to the heavy rolling groove that this song kicks in with before landing on another blast beat and riff fest. I like this band more when they slow it down a little, and the crowd agrees as the song dials back to a thumping groove at its end. Wait, that may have just been the bridge, or they started a new song. Who the fuck knows, who the fuck cares. It sounds great and that’s all that matters.
I’m not sure whether one of the guitarists is having technical issues after each song, or if he just needs a break from the intense riffing. Either way, they are only 3 or 4 songs in (or so it feels), and their set is about to end. This place is getting more packed by the minute, and in a strange turn of events, I think that guitarist just spewed on the side of the stage.
We are joined by DC Steffe and Scuba Steve from Snake Bite Whisky who offered to buy us some drinks because we obviously looked fucking thirsty. Either that, or they were trying to take advantage of us. We’d hate to be rude, so we gracefully accepted the drinks, but more about that later.
A short intro with some guy talking about something I can’t understand plays for a minute or so before Algor Mortis kick in with some massively heavy chugging riffs. Now, if you’re like me and can’t see the stage right at this moment, you’d swear some Corpsegrinder-looking motherfucker is growling like a possessed Koala. You’d be very wrong though, as when you get a clear line of sight, you’d spot a young brunette lass with spectacles wearing mosh shorts and a tank top ripping you a new one. This was no surprise to me as I caught this Melbourne outfit last year at Necrosonic Festival.
The riffs just get heavier and heavier, track after track, and the vocals continue to be crushingly brutal. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that this band is one of the heaviest on the Australian scene at the moment with massive breakdowns and crushing riffs. There’s even the odd Whammy squeal in there, which adds an exciting sonic tweak every now and again.
Apparently, it’s someone called Thomas’ birthday, I think it’s one of the guys from the band, well most likely. Turns out I fucked that up, and it’s Travis Stone from Cavalera’s birthday. I’m not sure if the crowd is shocked and astonished or just saving themselves for the headliners, but everyone’s eyes are locked on the stage. Well, apart from the clusters of random headbangers along the crowd barrier and balcony railings. On that note, I’m feeling like one of those guys Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets up here in our little protected corner of the world.
The last track was pretty much a series of massive breakdowns, and it opened up the pit for some very unruly behaviour. Although not a long set, it was fucking massively brutal one. Heavy, heavy stuff!
The Curse intro plays and Cavalera enter stage to massive applause. Max Cavalera announces Bestial Devastation and the band kicks into it at full throttle. It’s a belter of an opening track which makes the crowd erupt into applause and screams at the song’s demise.
Max announces “we are the only Sepultura” to another massive scream from the audience, and they kick into Antichrist. This is old-school thrash metal at its best, it’s chaotic and ruthless, but to be technical I believe this was considered death metal to some degree back in its original day. And just to clarify, I’ve got to admit here that I was a little late to the party with Sepultura and only jumped in at Chaos AD. Max stole me for a few years through Roots and then into Soufly as I became a lifelong fan.
I jumped back in time a little at some point and caught up with Arise, which really grew on me, but I never really gravitated to the older stuff. In my defence here, I was 5 when Bestial Devastation was released but hearing the updated recordings and now seeing it with today’s sound and production quality really shed a new light on things for me. This “old” stuff is banging!
Skip forward a couple of tracks and now it’s time for Morbid Visions. Max calls for a circle pit before kicking into Mayhem and the crowd frantically obliged. It’s all getting a bit chaotic down there at the moment, so Max asks for the light to go down and for everyone to shine their phone lights through the crowd to make it as evil as possible. Some guitar noises echo from the PA and a slow dooming bass line loop. The band eventually kicks into Crucifixion, and it’s an instant thrash fest again. Things slow down a little for Funeral Rites and the crowd gets the chance for a scream along.
Some more noise echoes through the PA as the into to Schizophrenia plays and the band smashes into From the Past Comes the Storms, followed by Septic Schizo and another epic circle pit. It’s probably worth a mention just in case you didn’t know that Max is joined by his brother Iggor Cavalera who is the backbone of the band laying down blast beat after blast beat and a ton of thumping fills. His pounding accuracy and consistency are arguably some of the solidest and tightest in the world.
Inquisition and Escape to the Void keep the set thrashing along, and the band momentarily stops to let the crowd participate in a massive “Oi” chant. This section of the set is finished off with Rest in Pain and the band -except for Iggor – leaves the stage.
Next up is some weird techno version of the Chaos AD intro which eventually gets the band back onstage to launch into Refuse/Resist, then Propaganda and then War for Territory as a medley of sorts. And that ends the show. Well, until they come back on for Troops Of Doom.
And as a nice and of the night, we all get to sing happy birthday to Travis, you know, the guy I talked about earlier, the kick ass lead guitarist for Cavalera. Oh, and then Max makes the mistake of yelling “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie”, and of course the bogan Brisbane crowd responds with “Oi, Oi, Oi”.
I’m not sure what happened next, but the band kicks into a riff that I am very familiar with but cannot pinpoint. They fuck around with it for a bit, and then Max asks the pit to open up for a wall of death. Um, Dois, Tres, Quatro and the pit collapses back on itself and the band launches into Dead Embryonic Cells within a medley of tracks already played tonight including Morbid Visions, Rest In Pain and Bestial Devastation.
Holy shit, what a fucking show! Max is God! That is all! (special thanks to the guys from Snake Bite Whisky for ensuring Krispy and I stayed hydrated).
