Sepultura, Exodus, Biohazard and Tribal Gaze performing at the House of Blues felt like the musical antithesis of Memorial Day weekend. Down in the venue’s wooden pit, metalheads young and old packed shoulder-to-shoulder for nearly five hours of breakneck noise instead of spending the holiday poolside with a hot dog in hand. And honestly, this was the correct choice, as the tour marks what’s being billed as Sepultura’s final North American run.
Before getting into the Brazilian legends themselves, credit is due to the bands that primed the room. Texas death metallers Tribal Gaze opened as one of the night’s biggest surprises. Part of the modern old-school death metal revival, the band barrels forward on thick, sludgy riffs while weaving in hardcore breakdowns and deceptively catchy grooves. They’re punishingly tight live and worthy of your attention if they’re still flying under your radar.
Then came Biohazard, Brooklyn’s long-running collision of hardcore punk, rap metal and pure street-level agitation. Their set turned the floor into a violent swarm of bodies and middle fingers aimed squarely at “the man.”
“We’ve been doing a circle pit for this song longer than you’ve been born,” vocalist Evan Seinfeld joked before launching into “Wrong Side of the Tracks.”
Next up was Exodus, still flying the flag for Bay Area thrash nearly five decades after forming in 1979. The band remains a machine built entirely from neck-snapping riffs and relentless momentum. Guitarist Gary Holt — who somehow still makes this level of technical precision look casual — was especially unreal to watch. Classics like “The Toxic Waltz” and “Bonded by Blood” transformed the floor into a giant convulsing organism.
And then came Sepultura.
Sepultura hardly needs an introduction for anyone even remotely invested in heavy music. Across more than 40 years, the band has carved out a sound that fused thrash, death metal, nu metal and Brazilian rhythmic influence into something genuinely singular. Seeing the curtain begin to fall on that legacy felt surreal.
Their 90-minute set pulled from nearly every era of its discography, treating the audience to material from Chaos A.D., Roots and even the band’s latest release, The Cloud of Unknowing. Midway through the set, Evan Seinfeld returned to the stage to help tear through the politically charged “Slave New World,” sending the already chaotic pit into overdrive.
At one point, amid a sea of patched battle vests and shirtless guys hurling themselves in circles, one mosher stood out above the rest. Clutched high in his hand was a shrunken head which he waved while screaming every lyric back at the stage. Combined with his black-and-white corpse paint, it looked like a fully committed tribute to the tribal imagery of Sepultura’s Roots era.
Longtime vocalist Derrick Green paused near the end of the night to thank fans for decades of support. He shouted out the bands sharing the tour and admitted that approaching the end of this chapter felt “very emotional.”
There wasn’t one still head as the band ripped into its highly anticipated closing track “Roots Bloody Roots.” The band gave its all and so did the room. We were left standing with goosebumps and somehow with another surge of energy after such a long show.
