Review by Hugh Spence for MPM
Ireland became the chosen land last year when it was announced that the 3Arena would be host to the European farewell show for Brazilian metal legends Sepultura, as they finish up the second European round of farewell shows as they celebrate over 40 years of Sepultura and to boot, they’ve brought an amazing line up of metal legends and newbies to help them celebrate.
With so many bands playing the celebration we have an early doors of 4pm so an early bus trip to the capital, in our wee bus we have oldish folk who have seen Sepultura loads of times and we have kids catching their first glimpse of chaos.
To open this evening’s proceedings are fellow Brazilians death metallers Crypta making their 2nd trip to Ireland in 2 years and making Crypta history as this is their very first arena show ever, a mark off the bucket list. As vocalist Fernanda Lira makes her way to the front of the stage a surge of people make their way to the front of the venue as it starts to fill up nicely.
The Other Side of Anger is the first vicious death metal assault that delights our ears, straight off the mark Fernanda, Taina and Jessica demonstrate their skill and brutality, a solid opening band. They only have a short set but make full use with songs like The Outsider, Lullaby of the Forsaken and Lord of Ruins before stopping to talk the audience as it still continues to grow with fist pumping metalheads.
Crypta pay tribute to Sepultura telling us it was them that taught them “they can be Brazilian and still live your dream” and then slamming into From The Ashes finishing with a bang and a very appreciative crowd giving them the respect they deserve.
Following a quick change over and a change of genre but still gloriously fast its thrash metal legends Sacred Reich. As Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song blares out of the PA the crowd doubles in size.
First from the back catalogue is Manifest Reality quickly followed by the catchy The American Way and the first pit of the night before going back to the Awakening album for Salvation. Phil takes a short break to ask the crowd who has seen Sacred Reich before and who hasn’t, its at this point when I realise that even though the like of Sacred Reich and Sepultura have played in Ireland loads of times over the years, this is the first time they are playing in a venue that hasn’t gotten the same age restrictions as the venues they normally play and so we have huge amounts of young people, teenagers and kids all seeing these legendary bands for the first time.
We get back to the thrashing with One Nation, Who’s to Blame and Independant, all fast paced raw energy for the crowd to sink their teeth into. Finishing off the set is Death Squad from Ignorance, which was dedicated to a fan in the crowd, and probably Sacred Reichs biggest hit Surf Nicaragua which contained a “rowing pit” in the crowd for some reason but of course no set tonight is complete without a story or tribute to Sepultura, the reason this whole gig was put on.
Next up for the very first time in Ireland is Swedish death metal supergroup Bloodbath, when this farewell show was first announced it originally had Malevolence on the line up but for whatever reason they had to pull out of the show a few months back but that sadness was quickly replaced with joy when Bloodbath was announced as their replacement, I personally hadn’t saw them since their very first gig at Wacken 2005.
As the intro plays the eager crowd cheer in anticipation as Nick Holmes strolls onto the stage with his commanding presence before hammering into So You Die to get the pit going and heads banging. For their first time in Ireland and in such a big venue the guys don’t disappoint as they plow through their long back catalogue with Breeding Death, Carved and Like Fire.
With horns in the air, we continue with the slower paced but still relentlessly heavy Outnumbering the Day from Nightmares Made Flesh followed by Cancer of the Soul from the same album. Every song gets huge cheers and applause from the ever increasing sweaty crowds.
Mock the Cross from The Fathomless Mastery is up next followed by that sweet sweet opening riff from Anders Nystrom for Cry My Name sending the pit into a frenzy. Finishing off the tremendous set is the fan favourite Eaten, getting every person in the crowd singing along. A fantastic Irish debut and hopefully with the response they received they will be back on these shores soon.
Next on tonight’s massive line up to command the stage is Brooklyn hardcore hero’s Biohazard, instantly having the crowd jumping with Urban Discipline with Billy and Evan’s intense performance, not missing a beat and even greeting the crowd by saying “whats up Baile Atha Cliath” a nice touch. Sticking with the Urban Discipline album we get Shades of Grey, keeping the hardcore classics alive. We are then treated to some new material from 2025’s Divided We Fall, Fuck The System is an instant classic with the crowd very easily knowing the lyrics and shouting every part of that glorious chorus out.
More classics are next with Wrong Side of the Tracks and Black and White and Red All Over before heading back to new material with Eyes on Six. A crowd favourite, Five Blocks to the Subway keeps the jump, running and moshing along with the sing a longs before we get the Bad Religion cover We’re Only Gonna Die.
To end off tonights huge performance in front of their biggest Irish crowd is Punishment, a cracking setlist that had the crowd eating out of their hands, Billy and Evan are pro’s and know how to wrong a crowd.
Every band tonight has been phenomenal and deserving of their places on the bill for this important show but next up is the legends we are here to celebrate, Sepultura, opening the set with Inner Self from Beneath the Remains, straight away getting the fists pumping and pits started with help from Derrick Green, who controls the crowd like no one else.
The crowd tonight is a great mix of the old school generation and the young generation making their metal discoveries in their journey to becoming fully fledged metalheads. So tonight’s set covers Sepultura’s history, with a great mix of Sepultura classic’s and new songs, well, anything in the last 20 years is new in the world of Sepultura, although the next song All Souls Rising is from their EP, The Cloud of Unknowing, so it really is new.
Classics like Desperate Cry and Kairos follow along with modern classics like Means to an End from the Quadra album. The sweat is pouring off Derrick and Andreas as it is with the rest of the crowd, the venue is packed and hot. This is easily the biggest venue Sepultura have played in Ireland with an audience of around 4,000. Derrick ask’s the crowd that age old question of “Who’s seen Sepultura before and who hasn’t” and when the latter gets a larger than expected cheer Derrick says “Guys, we’ve been going for 42 years, where have you been?” but once again that comes from the younger crowd witnessing the legends for the first time as its always been 18+ venues.
Another modern classic is up next with Phantom Self from Machine Messiah, with Derrick doing what he does best, engaging the crowd and even though we are in a huge venue it felt like a small club. Attitude, Against and Choke all follow suite with chants of “ole ole” in between songs, much to the bands delight. The Place from the new EP is next, keeping that blend of old and new, decades of metal history all rolled into one mighty jaw dropping set.
Escape to the Void is next before a very special moment as several drums are brought out to the stage as the first of many celebratory moments is about to happen with Kaiowas, as loads of members from other bands as well as friends of Sepultura come onto the stage to play the drums along with them, it was quite the sight to behold and definitely memorable moment from the show.
We quickly get back into the rhythm of heaviness with Dead Embryonic Cells from the classic Arise whipping the pits back up into a frenzy. Afterwards Evan Seinfield from Biohazard comes out on stage and pays a loving tribute to the guys as well as telling us all how much he loves them, he joins them in singing Slave New World which was written with Biohazard for Chaos AD.
We have one more new song, Beyond the Dream, a beautiful song with a whole different range of vocals, before being hit by a string of classics to close out the night. Taina from Crypta joins the guys on stage for Territory, no doubt a dream for her.
As we make our way towards the end of the set, you can see the realisation of what is happening starting to hit Derrick as his eyes swell up as he stares over his adoring fans. Refuse/Resist and Arise finish off the first part of the set, followed by a drum solo by Sepultura’s newest member Greyson Nekrutman who only joined the band in 2024, the young talent will have a bright future after Sepultura do finally pack it in.
The encore starts with Ratamahatta, the crowd are still energetic and giving it their all, knowing this could be it. It’s a heart wrenching moment as we get to Roots Bloody Roots, although I love the song, it was hard to hear this time as I knew it was the end of the set, so I did what any good parent would do and sent my 14 year old daughter off crowd surfing, my son had spent his whole night in the various pits so he was red faced and sweaty by the end of the night.
I thought tonight would just be another Sepultura show, I’ve seen them many times before but this show was just a step above every other show they’ve done in Ireland or any other time I’ve seen them. Hats off to every band that played tonight and did Sepultura proud and a huge amount of appreciation to the promoters MCD and DME for putting this masterpiece of a line up together.
As we left the 3Arena and gathered around our waiting bus we were all still buzzing and exchanging stories of the night. What a night it was for both old and young folk, truly a night to remember.
Photography by Eamonn Smyth for MPM – Full Gallery Link Below
https://eamonnsmythphotography.pixieset.com/sepultura3arenadublin
