It can be tough to stand out on a bill with some of metal gods like these, but Art Of Shock showed that they belong. As they hit the stage, the true metal fans showed the love with the hair twirling, head banging and moshing right at the start.
Crowbar was up next and it was a metal-sludge meltdown. Kirk Windstein and family brought the heavy hand of raw metal music, handing the crowd some new tracks off their recently released “Zero and Below” (MNRK Heavy) including “Chemical Godz” and “Bleeding From Every Hole”. Before Kirk started the riff for “Bleeding From Every Hole”, he stated that, “This is a new one for us live, and I’ll probably f@ck this up, but here it goes”. In my ears… THEY KILLED IT!!!
Sacred Reich is a band I sorely wanted to see, but having taken an over 20 year hiatus on touring the United States, I didn’t think it was possible. They returned to the scene in 2019 with “Awakening” (Metal Blade Records), which was their first full-length since 1996. Opening their set with that album’s singles “Divide and Conquer” and “Manifest Reality,” as well as favorites like “The American Way”, the rest of the set was like a freight train. And to top it all off, they closed with “Surf Nicaragua”. In a word… EPIC!
Now, looking into the crowd between sets, the fans were frozen, anxiously waiting for these monsters of metal to take the stage. When Sepultura took the stage the crowd erupted in thunderous applause, hearing “Policia” as the intro. The band wasted no time as they jumped immediately into “Isolation” off 2020’s “Quadra”. Vocalist Derrick Green then went on to destroy with his take on Sepultura classics “Territory” and “Propaganda”, as well as deeper cuts off “Quadra” including “Means to an End”, “Last Time” and “Guardians of Earth”. They closed the set with old school bangers “Refuse/Resist” and “Arise” then came back out for an encore of the groovy as hell “Ratamahatta” and tribal anthem “Roots Bloody Roots”.
All I have to say is… “Thank you” to these bands. You have shaped and carved out the metal scene to what it is today. Consider yourselves as gods. And “thank you” for putting on an incredible show. I felt there was no time lost since 1989. Moreover a big thx, from the deepest part of our hearts, to the original member and guitar legend, Andreas Kisser, for keeping the flame burning, also known as Sepultura!
Photos by Tricia Starr
