Sepultura, Hidden Intent, DepriVation @ The Gov, Adelaide 28/11/2023
In a genre of heavy, crushing guitars some names stand out above all. Brazilian giants Sepultura are one such name. Forty years of dropping album after album of intense aggressive, thought-provoking music and this band show no sign of relenting.
Over here for a run at Good Things Festival, Adelaide is treated to a sideshow that has three bands forged deep in the world of thrash metal. Supported by Canberra’s DepriVation and Adelaide’s Hidden Intent, the Sepul-nation is treated to a night of epic solos, headbanging riffs and drumming quicker than the eye can see.
DepriVation open the night and the room is heavily stocked with battle vests, black shirts and long hair waving around to the bands full on groove thrash metal. Burn, Blood Money and Deceiver swing between the fury of riffing, pounding head jolting riffs as vocalist Ben Weber stalks the stage ready to pounce on every snarling lyric.
Hidden Intent have been tearing stages apart here and in Europe in 2023 and a killer slot on this national tour is just reward for how hard they work. Opening with A Place Of Horror, the band are precision tight and waste no time showing what they are about. Phil Bennett’s guitar playing is virtuoso, Paul Lewis drumming like a battering ram and all held together by Chris McEwan’s rumbling bass rhythms underneath.
Hidden Intent bring their own dedicated following to shows who help whip up a storm in the crowd, and with a strong setlist featuring Drop Bears Are Real, We Are The End Of Us, Dead End Destiny and finish with Slayer’s Altar of Sacrifice – which is circle pit approved – they win over many more tonight.
Sepultura are imperious. Led by the giant that is Derrick Greene, the vocalist towers over The Gov as the band tear into Isolation from recent album Quadra. Eloy Casagrande’s drumming is on another level that you’re having to keep fixated on him to make sure he isn’t an octopus in disguise.
Old favourite Territory and its slow grooving riff has the crowd chanting back ‘war for territory!’ in a rallying cry to all metalheads as the setlist switches between classics such as Attitude with modern songs like Kairos and Guardians Of The Earth displaying the bands catalogue is still as vibrant and razor sharp.
Propaganda is the mother all of breakdowns before breakdowns were a thing while Ali sways and swings as Andreas Kisser displays everything that is great about his work. His solos intricate and sublime, his riffs like a ten-ton hammer and his ability to relate to the crowd (yes we did bring the energy Andreas) are godlike. This is a man who has stayed true to his – wait for it – roots for forty years and we are all the happier for it.
The final flurry of the bands arsenal of sonically beating you to a pulp include Arise, the drums of Refuse Resist and wait for it, more drums with Ratamahatta all having the venue and crowd dancing in a thrash metal heaven party before ultimately the finish of Roots Bloody Roots. Arguably the mid-90s most iconic thrash metal song it stills sounds as strong as ever and after ninety minutes of musical beatdown after another, the fact Sepultura can still bring that with such ferocity, well, that’s why they’ve been going forty years.
Live Review By Iain McCallum