Palladium, Cologne, Germany 2nd November 2024
Sepultura - “40 Years Farewell Tour ‘Celebrating Life Through Death’” - Special guests: Jinjer, Obituary, Jesus Piece
“SEPULTURA has reached the end of the road and has chosen to depart via a conscious and planned death”. This is how the press release, announcing SEPULTURA’s last tour, started with. What typically is a sad matter has not failed to ignite the fans’ interest, as the tour sold out completely. So the SepulNation (as SEPULTURA like to call their fan base) came out in force to witness the last shows of their heroes of four decades.
Jesus Piece
First up this evening was the 5-piece Metalcore band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, JESUS PIECE comprising of frontman Aaron Heard, drummer Luis Aponte, touring bassist Ben Brodie, and David Updike and John Distefano both on guitars. They released their first full-length album ‘Only Self’ in 2018, and their second full-length offering, ‘…So Unknown’ in 2023. Check out https://southernlord.com/band/jesus-piece for more info.
Music & Performance
At 6:20 pm, JESUS PIECE entered the dark stage of the Palladium to an infernal wall of noise, to kick off their set. Their Screamo-oriented Hardcore stirred up the crowd to some extent, although the security people did not get too much work in the form of incoming crowd surfers. The growling of front man Aaron, and the screaming of bassist Ben were a little monotonous. After the 30 minutes of playtime JESUS PIECE left the stage and received warm applause from the audience.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7 / 10
Obituary
Next up were Florida-based Death Metal dinosaurs OBITUARY. They formed back in 1984, and are on their eleventh album, which is titled ‘Dying of Everything’, and was released in 2023. http://obituary.cc/
Music & Performance
The band entered the stage to the blues rock track ‘Snorting Whisky’ from Pat Travers, and the contrast was just jaw-dropping. The guitar riffs of their opening song ‘Redneck Stomp’ hit the approximately 4,000 people inside the sold-out Palladium with the power of 10,000 hp steam engine locomotive.
This much more grove-oriented style did not fail to stir up crowd, who was here to party, and the first circle pits and crowd surfers started to appear instantaneously. It was awesome to get a first glimpse what energy music from four decades ago can unleash. This was underscored by the brutal assault of the sound engineering, which enabled the audience to experience the guitar riffing in the upper body. Front man John Tardy and his band mates delivered an extremely energetic show, which got lots of people inside the crowd to mosh, and the band put the pedal to the metal music-wise and gave the people in the mosh pit the heavy riffing they were waiting for. The fans thanked the band in the form of intense pit action, which underscored what an excellent addition OBITUARY have been for this line-up.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8 / 10
Jinjer
The Ukrainian band JINJER stems from the Donezk region and has received huge praise for their energetic live appearances, and for their first album ‘King of Everything’, released in July 2016. In the meantime, they have released two more albums (‘Macro’ and ‘Wallflowers’), and a fourth one (‘Duél’) has been announced for February 2025. Their musical style is best described by metalcore with influences of death metal and progressive rock. http://jinjer-metal.com
Music & Performance
JINJER’s position on the billing is a direct result of their relentless touring and reputation building. In the crowd, there were also lots of people wearing JINJER’s merchandise, so as a consequence, the Palladium hall was packed, when JINJER started their show shortly after 8pm. JINJER singer Tatiana Shmailyuk displayed an incredible talent in her alternation between singing and growling, and the instrumental fraction delivered a breathtaking, Djent infused performance, as JINJERS compositions strike a good balance between a certain amount of musical complexity and neck-breaking groove. Needless to say, Tatiana stole the show with her incredible clean vocals and demonic harsh growls, her hypnotizing dance moves, and her undeniable charisma, throwing around her braids, and creating a powerful connection with all Jinjer fans at the venue in the process. All in all, it was a very entertaining set, which certainly has yielded JINJER lots of new fans.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8 / 10
Sepultura
The band from Belo Horizonte, Brazil have formed back in 1984 by the brothers Max and Igor Cavalera. They became the pioneers of Thrash Metal. However, the band underwent several line-up changes in their long history, with all original members departing at various points in time. The latest change in line-up was the departure of drummer Casagrande (for SLIPKNOT), which resulted into the addition of Greyson Nekrutman. www.sepultura.com.br
Music & Performance
Shortly after 9pm, BLACK SABBATH’s iconic ‘War pigs’ resounded over the speakers, followed by ‘Polícia’ by TITAS. And the SEPULTURA came out firing on all cylinders with the opener ‘Refuse/Resist’, immediately followed with ‘Territory’, another timeless classic from the epic album 1993 masterpiece ‘Chaos AD’.
The crowd immediately responded by firing up the mosh pit, and SEPULTURA were more than up to the task to keep things going. The energy levels they unleashed in the crowd certainly did not fail to impress. The people kept things crazy - but in a solid, responsible way. Crowd surfers were carried towards the stage, and security did its best to pluck all of them from the hands back to the ground. Circle pits were opened and people went wild, but without some crazy shit. Last but not least, the music live performance and song selection were epic. Time flew by as the band drew a best of-selection from their long list of albums. A visual highlight was the stage setup with many large screens, displaying a mash-up of live views from the band (although with a slight but disorienting lag time) and crazy animations as well as shots from the band’s history, all in all ensuring a very immersive experience.
Another unexpected highlight was the performance of the song ‘Kaiowas’, which celebrated indigenous culture, and during which other members from the supporting bands grabbed drums and guitars and helped SEPULTURA’s guitarist Andreas Kisser to perform this incredible song. As usual, the end of the main set came a little early after only a good 80 minutes of playtime, but after a few minutes of darkness, and frantic screaming and clapping, SEPULTURA returned for an encore of two songs. The first was introduced by the new drummer showing off his incredible skill during a drum solo, which morphed into the song ‘Ratamahatta’, and the final send-off was ‘Roots, Bloody Roots’. This made a fitting farewell for the crowd, and afterwards hundreds of sweaty people (with the majority in their forties or fifties) spilled into the cold November night with the blessed feeling of having witnessed an up close and personal show with their idols, which marks the end of an incredible SEPULTURA journey.
Setlist
01. Refuse/Resist
02. Territory
03. Slave New World
04. Phantom Self
05. Attitude
06. Means to an End
07. Kairos
08. Breed Apart
09. Guardians of Earth
10. Choke
11. False
12. Escape to the Void
13. Kaiowas (with additional percussions and guitar played by members of the supporting bands)
14. Dead Embryonic Cells
15. Agony of Defeat
16. Orgasmatron (Motörhead cover)
17. Troops of Doom
18. Inner Self
19. Arise
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20. Ratamahatta (introduced by drum solo)
21. Roots Bloody Roots
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8 / 10
All Pictures by Dietmar Seifer
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