Teeny Rockers recently embarked on a series of interviews with exciting young talents from around the world which we called Rockin' Talent. We had so much fun that we thought why not go pro?
We then went way out of our comfort zone to bring to you an interview with metal titans Derrick Green and Andreas Kisser of the legendary Brazilian band SEPULTURA! So here it is folks, a full review of the 13 May, 2018 show in Christchurch with support from Death Angel, followed by our exclusive interview filmed backstage, right before the start of the show.
Sepultura With Special Guests, Death Angel
The Foundry is not the biggest venue in the world and it was a rainy Sunday night in what is usually a pretty conservative town, but the room soon filled up with a sea of black, tattoos and a healthy prescence of long, metal-ready hair. There was a definite buzz as people ordered drinks and queued to buy their merch, waiting for the opening act to begin.
It wasn't long before Christchurch locals, 'Blindfolded And Led To The Woods', hit the stage, resplendant in plaid shirts and ready to bring their brand of death metal, grindcore and mathcore to the crowd before them. They put on a solid set and certainly got the attention of the folks with heavier tastes.
Death Angel
It was clear, however, that a large portion of the crowd were keen for the main acts to come out and after a short wait we were treated to the Bay Area's legends of thrash metal, Death Angel, making their Christchurch debut.
Opening with 'Father Of Lies' from 2016s 'The Evil Divide', they instantly won over the entire room with their incendiary brand of classic thrash. There was an electric feel as the band and crowd alike revelled in a high energy wave of metal excitement.
Lead singer Mark Osegueda made for a compelling frontman. With perfect vocal delivery he worked the stage and easily earned a rapturous applause and sea of devil horns before proclaiming "We had no idea what to expect. We just hoped for something half as good as this. You guys are fucking incredible, thank you so much!"
Between Osegueda and the rest of the band (Rob Cavestany on lead guitar, Ted Aguilar on rhythym guitar, Damien Sisson on bass and birthday boy Will Carroll on drums) they delivered an absolute masterclass in how to work a stage and engage a crowd. Carroll was an absolute beast behind the kit and was treated to some front row birthday exposure from a female punter who was clearly hapy to celebrate. Cavestany and Aguilar played off each other with precision and Sisson hammed it up, posing for damn near every camera pointed in his direction, clearly loving it.
They ripped through a set of tunes with intense delivery and meticulous skill and which would have been worth the ticket price on their own merit. The set included tracks such as 'Mistress Of Pain' from their 1987 debut 'The Ultra-Violence', 'Claws In So Deep' from 2010's 'Relentless Retribution' and ending with 'The Moth'. If anyone in the crowd wasn't a fan before, they will be now.
Sepultura
The gap between the main acts was impressively short with not too long to wait between Death Angel and headline act Sepultura. Some have accussed the current line-up of being a cover-band, claiming that it's not real Sepultura without the Cavalera brothers. I would argue that those people are wrong. With vocalist Derrick Green celebrating 20 years with the band and both lead guitarist Andreas Kisser and bassist Paulo Jr being in the band since the '80s, it cannot be denied that they are just as critical to the bands history as either Max or Igor Cavalera. Drummer Eloy Casagrande is a relative newcomer but even he has been present since 2011 and his impressive skillset might even outshine that of Igor's.
The current tour is promoting their 2017 release 'Machine Messiah' and in that light they opened with the 2nd track off that album, 'I Am The Enemy' followed by 'Phantom Self', imploring the crowd to "Bow down to the Machine Messiah". The crowd was more than happy to oblige. They continued with 2011's 'Kairos' before exploding with an extremely well-received, brutal rendition of the classic 'Territory' from 1993's 'Chaos AD'.
Despite 3 of the band members being close to 50, they would have no problem outpacing a younger band. Kisser played with dexterity and passion, Paulo Jr played booming bass that went right through the body and Casagrande was an absolute machine, blasting beats with an unmatched intensity. Frontman Derrick Green cut an imposing figure, delivering vocals and providing percussion with aplomb and arguably with a better range than Max Cavalera.
Following Territory, they ripped through 'Desperate Cry' and 'Sworn Oath' before ramping up with a massive rendition of 1998's 'Against' in celebration of Green's 20th anniversary with the band. 'Choke' and 'Boycott' were next before a return to two releases off 'Machine Messiah', the title track and the excellent intrumental track 'Iceberg Dances' which saw Kisser switching between his electric Jackson and a stand-mounted classical guitar (and back again).
The crowd was already amped before they went absolutely nuts for the classic tracks 'Refuse/Resist', which proved a popular sing-along (or perhaps shout-along), and 1991's 'Arise'. There was a brief break before the encore, the pièce de résistance, beginning with 'Resistant Parasites' and closing with damn-near perfect renditions of 'Ratamahatta' (a Teeny Rockers favourite) and what was clearly the most popular song of the night, the title track off 1996's magnum opus 'Roots'. The audience didn't have to be asked to join in with the entire room erupting in the chorus of "Roooots! Bloody roots! Roots, bloody rooooooots!"
This may have been the band's first trip to Christchurch but they promised it would not be their last. Death Angel also promised a return visit so if you missed out on this show, keep an ear out for their return and don't miss it. If you do, you'll regret it.
The Interview
And now for our exclusive interview. It was our first time interviewing a major label act (or anyone outside of our Rockin' Talent series, for that matter) and due to some technical difficulties and background noise the audio isn't as good as we would like but we've captioned the entire thing for you so hopefully you'll forgive us!
We were allocated 15 minutes but could have easily gone on for hours if the tour manager wasn't telling us to wrap it up. Derrick and Andreas were wonderful to talk to, super-accommodating and a pleasure to interview. So here it is - please enjoy: