Live: KREATOR, SEPULTURA, SOILWORK & ABORTED Cause Havoc in Dublin… Posted: 07/03/2017 by Ben Cohn
Along the street a procession walked by dressed in black carrying a casket. Many wore ash on their foreheads as they solemnly marched towards the church. Onlookers were quiet and respectful including another group of people dressed in black who walked with tickets in their hands to the doors of tonight’s show.
The line-up for last week’s show at Vicar Street was packed full of metal legends from every part of the globe. KREATOR, thrash Gods from Germany headlined along with genre-crossing SEPULTURA, the Brazilian band of equal renown in the metal community. In support was SOILWORK, melodic death from Sweden and Belgium based ABORTED, infamous for their furious riffs and powerful brand of death metal. The crowd gathered slowly in front of the stage and it was clear from early on that the show was nearly sold out. Foreigners who showed up to represent their favoured band mixed with Irish locals who simply could not miss a chance to attend such show with such killer bill.
Around this time last year ABORTED opened for KATAKLYSM in Dublin’s Voodoo Lounge. Roll on twelve months and they’re back as opener for this stellar line-up. ABORTED start off with darkness and a scream. Vocalist Sven de Caluwe lead the band into their opening song with his roaring voice and impressive stage presence. Guitarists Ian Jekelis and Mendel Bij de Leij sounded off with soaring chords and call and response solos. Recent edition Stefano Franceschini provided backing bass in a relentless fashion as drummer Ken Bedene wasn’t going to let his bandmates outplay him so he put all he had into the blasting kit. The audience was pumped up by the band and the pit began to open up towards the end of their short thirty minute set. Here’s hoping that when they return next time, they’ll be elevated to a higher slot on the bill, or even headline their own show.
Next up SOILWORK came out to change the atmosphere a bit. The music mesmerised people and eyes turned to focus on them as they weaved together their sound. Keyboardist Sven Karlsson used effects to create a sound that seemed to be coming from all sides. The band changed tempos quickly and the audience responded with a combination of head banging and small pits. The two guitarists, Sylvain Coudret and David Andersson played along quickly and with great technical skill. Drummer Bastian Thusgaard brought everything together with his fancy footwork blast beats. By this time the standing room area had become completely packed as the crowd reached full capacity. The headbangers anticipated a night filled with epic performances.
SEPULTURA were a force of nature. They showed immediately why they are one of the most well known and respected Brazilian metal bands. Their drummer Eloy Casagrande was in proper form. His shirt off from the beginning, the impressively built man hammered at his set with animal ferocity. He had numerous solos and played some of the most impressive parts of the show. Next to Casagrande, vocalist Derrick Green was the most important member of the band for the night. Another physically impressive man, he resembles one of a race of giants not yet discovered by man. Brazilian flags were waved by the numerous amount of the bands countrymen and women. The crowd chanted “Se-pul-tura! Se-pul-tura” during the space between the songs and the whole place was thrown into chaos when they broke out old hits like ‘Refuse, Resist’ and ‘Arise’. Green ordered the crowd to form the walls of death and ordered two circle pits.
Part of the magic of SEPULTURA‘s performance came from the excellent guitar work of Andreas Kisser who played some really well timed solos that just turned up the heat in the room. On bass, Paulo Jr. worked well with Kisser as they blended together in a face melting combination with the unique kit of drummer Casagrande. The rhythms of the groups unique sound was made by his particular style of playing. The room moved as one during the relatively short set and the energy was pulsating going into the nights headliner.
KREATOR are not just musicians, they are performers. Their stage show is really fun to watch and it’s clear that they put a lot of thought into how they want people to feel when they listen to their music. The band originated back in 1984 and is considered to be one of the greatest bands of German thrash. Mille Petrozza is the original vocalist and he still has the chops to lead the band. He is also the director of the stage show and told the crowd how much he loved to play in Ireland.
Other original member Jurgen Reil was on drums and played elegantly and aggressively. Christian Giesler’s bass playing started most of the trouble in the middle of the crowd with his intros to songs and drove them around in a circle the whole time. Sami Yil-Sirnio shredded on guitar, playing at a increasingly rapid pace the whole night. It seemed like with each solo he drove the audience closer to the deep dark pits of hell.
Petrozza broke out the “flag of hate” for the last two songs and lead the crowd in chants of “flag of hate!” until he had the whole crowd doing it. The powerful playing of the band and the great show that they have put together shows how much experience they have had in their careers. It was an amazing show, it almost felt historical, and it was strange that it was overlooked as a bill of legendary importance.
