SEPULTURA – live at Sentrum Scene, Oslo, 2025
- Posted on 11-06-2025
Full photo gallery by Jonathan Mazin:
Review by Andrea C:
I can’t say I have had the chance to attend the celebration of 40 years of activity of many bands on this planet – not that there are not enough bands that have passed such an iconic age for a band, but because there are not enough of them that still have what it takes to tour. A real tour, with 40 shows (I think). I remember seeing somewhere that the band plans to record a song in each of the 40 cities where the tour stops and make a massive best off afterwards. Let’s see how that will go for Sepultura, but for now here’s some words about their presence at Sentrum Scene in Oslo on June 10th 2025 A.D.
The Brazilians, even if not with full original lineup, still deliver with style and a certain kind of evil grace. Sentrum Scene is one of Oslo’s biggest stages – not stadium size, but still big, and not always easy to be taken by storm by a four piece act. Yet, Derrick Green and Andreas Kisser enchant everyone the second they step on stage, while bass player Paulo Jr. and drummer extraordinaire Greyson Nekrutman hold an impeccable rhythm section. And they have gotten themselves one amazing light guy or girl or team. Whatever they are, they nailed each second of the show with the lights that got synched to each drumbeat and flew precisely for each part of each song. Amazing work, especially for those who got the chance to watch the whole stage show, like I did from the balcony of the venue. The sound struggled a bit the first song, but the right buttons were tweaked and the bucket sound of the drums got changed to a pleasant one, while the vocals started to be audible.
I had the chance to watch Sepultura….many times. Won’t keep track. There’s always a festival where they were on the lineup or just played together with another band that I wanted to watch. But I was also one of the few lucky ones to watch them on the cruise Barge To Hell. I shouldn’t compare the experiences but I kinda feel like any other show of theirs cannot come close to the level of majesty of this legendary act performing on a moving boat under the Caribbean night. I believe only seeing them live in Brazil can be more intense. But hey, it doesn’t mean Oslo show lacked intensity. It was surely sweaty and hot for most of the people in the first 30-40 rows, given the constant moshpitting and large amount of crowdsurfers. And Derrick hasn’t lost any inch of imposing stage presence. He’s probably one of the few vocalists I saw performing in gym-like shorts and still looking metal a.f. – as a side note, I started a train of thoughts with myself on how often I actually saw vocalists performing in non-camouflage shorts, even in extremely high temperatures. Needs a topic of its own.
The playlists tried to cover songs from most albums – good luck squeezing 40 years into under 2 hours and still delivering favorites. While Kairos and Dead Embrionic Cells triggered some cheering from the crowd, the level of insanity spiked at the end of the show when Territory/Refuse-Resist/Arise/Ratamahatta/Roots played in a row. I’m glad the venue didn’t collapse. The musicians were not very talkactive throughout the night, but the few words they said and the whole attitude on stage was rather touching. Kissinger arrived first on stage, under the spotlight and he and Derrick had moments of ‘thank you’ gestures quite often throughout the shows.
Kaiowas had 5 tom drums on stage and the band had invited guests – namely crew members, including their own photographer – to jam with them. THAT was beautiful! All the Brazilian grooves in Sepultura’s music are beautiful in the end and that’s where a lot of their charm comes from – the grooviness of the good old thrash metal. Prior to the ‘oldies’, hey also performed an insanely good song from their latest release so I’m really glad the old and the new blended in so well.
We’re thankful to have had the honor to be delighted by such musical skills for the past 40 years and now we can only look forward to the outcome of what was documented throughout the farewell tour. And follow any of the band members, should they perform in other projects.