In 1995, Sepultura released their 5th album ‘Roots’, which would eventually become a very influential and important album. ‘Roots’ also was a game-changer in perspective to Sepultura’s music. It was more of something which was hyped at the time. The typical Nu- Metal sounding album had many hits and became an album that opened the band up to many new fans. After nearly 21 years, founding Sepultura members Max Cavalera and brother Igor Cavalera decided to come together and play the album live in its entirety as part of a Return to Roots tour. I was excited to see the Cavalera brothers play this album in its entirety. This album meant so much to me and I am sure also to those bunch of kids who grew up with the whole Nu-Metal scene during the late 90s and the early 2000s. The Return to Roots tour was initiated last year by a North American Tour, and was extended into this year by adding several shows in Europe, including their show at Musikzentrum, Hannover.
There was just one more band called Verderver from Germany opening for them on the night. Unfortunately, I didn’t know anything about this band, nor had I heard of them before, but they sounded tight and promising as a new young band. Their extra glossy makeup and the dancing style death metal gave them much attraction. Mid-way through their set it became apparent that there were a lot of stragglers coming for the headliners as the crowd in the venue slowly continued to fill, and once Verderver were finished, people began getting really excited for the headliners to hit the stage.
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The band hit the stage directly without making a grand entry and kicked off their set with “Roots Bloody Roots” which has always been a crowd favourite. As that was the first song according to the sequence of the album the crowd was filled with energy and to my surprise the venue being not that big was instantly packed. It was a straight up in your face kind of hardcore style and people were jumping, singing the lyrics aloud, moshing, crowd surfing and all kinds of things, with Max Cavalera in his typical style telling the Hannover crowd to “Bounce/Jump.”. At this point I also noticed Tony Campos of Fear Factory and Cavalera Conspiracy playing the bass which also became a highlight of the show for me. Although the band was just playing the songs from the album without any improvisations, at the same tempo, Max sounded nearly the same after all these years. It’s just that he has become a little old now so there were some glitches in his screams, but that is pretty much to be expected. Nevertheless people were in for a treat, and after “Roots Bloody Roots”, the next song to follow was “Attitude”, my personal favourite from the album. It was also really nice to see Max using his Berimbau to start the intro of “Attitude”. Some killer tracks followed with “Cut-Throat”; the legendary tribal infused “Ratamahatta”, which was played perfectly; “Look Away” which originally featured Jonathan Davis from Korn, Mike Patton from Faith No More and DJ Lethal from Limp Bizkit in the album track; “Straighthate”; “Breed Apart”; and “Spit”. While they were performing I noticed that Igor is as much of an exceptionally good drummer now as he was in Sepultura, playing very tight and efficiently. One more thing I noticed was that Max was struggling to scream sustains often, but still managed to not miss out on a single note or even on the tempo. Songs like “Dusted” and “Born Stubborn” were then played and the moshpit was getting crazier.
After these heavy tracks, some tribal infused songs were also played like “Istari” and “Jasco”, and it was wonderful to experience these as usually you won’t get to see Max and Igor play this stuff very often. The decision itself of touring ‘Roots’ in its entirety was a good decision, and shows just how much Max and Igor know and value their fans; and the reception showed how much their fans value them. Max even spoke a lot to the fans from the stage throughout the night and motivated them to keep the mosh and the crowd surfing going on.
“Ambush”, “Endangered Species” and “Dictatorshit” were the last few songs which they played, and this was where the gig ended, with the Cavalera brothers playing the entire ‘Roots’ album in full, an album which made Sepultura a commercial band of the 90s and also laid claim to the fact that the band could experiment on different styles. In short summary, the show was really nice and the responses from the fans were appropriate, making this probably one of the most memorable concerts that I have been too.