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Sepultura is celebrating their 40th anniversary and also their farewell tour. They are playing in Montreal for their sold-out show at L’Olympia with Obituary, Agnostic Front and Harvest.

Directly of out Minnesota, Harvest was playing in Montreal for the first time in 25 years and it was not surprising to see that the venue was not fully packed. Their hardcore music is heavy and it reached some fans that pushed each other during their set. The band members are very dynamic on stage and their signer got the crowd to a circle pit towards the end of their set.

Agnostic Front was up next, and this is basically the Vinnie Stigma show. Vinnie is the sole founding member of the band and he is literally all over the place during their show. He will even go into the circle pit during the song “Friend Or Foe” to play guitar while fans circle around him. Roger Miret is very energetic and interacts with the fans as much as possible, he’ll even hand his microphone to a crowd surfer during the chorus of the song “Victim In Pain”. The band played songs from most of their discography during their short set, and fans loved every second of it. Their show ended with the hits “Peace” “Gotta Go” and “Addiction”. 

It was now Obituary’s turn to hit the stage and we could feel the excitement in the crowd as “Snortin' Whiskey, Drinkin' Cocaine” was being played. The first thing we notice is that Donald Tardy does not have his usual drum kit, the explanation behind this is that their tour bus broke down a few days prior to the show and the band was doing what they could to stay on the road. John Tardy and the boys kicked things into gear with “Redneck Stomp” and you could see that fans received this as their cue to headbang and push themselves furiously against each other. The band focused on their most recent offering with a total of three songs. They did their best to play songs from as many albums as possible during their way too short set. Their cover of Celtic Frost’s “Circle Of The Tyrants” was pure delight once again and fuelled the fans even more. Their sound was heavy and thick but still very crisp. With no time to spare, John does not interact with the fans and keeps the song coming as they ended their massacre with “Dying Of Everything” followed by the excellent “Slowly We Rot”. 

Sepultura has been playing in Montreal for as long as I can remember (since 1990). 34 years later, this show at L’Olympia would be their last one, this is sad, yet exciting at the same time because we are in for a treat. Fans were already going insane when the traditional “Polícia” introduction was playing, but that was nothing compared to their reaction when the band kicked things in high gear with “Refuse/Resist” and “Territory”. This was the signal for the crowd surfers, and they made the security guard work pretty hard for their money. The band slowed things down a bit with the song “Guardians Of Earth” before pleasing the older fans with the deep cuts “Breed Apart” and “Escape To The Void”.

The band brought guest percussionists on stage for “Kaiowas” and you could see a few members of Obituary as well as Jason Rockman (Slaves On Dope) having the time of their lives bashing on those drums. Derrick Green is in great shape and kept the show going at a ridiculously fast pace with “Dead Embryonic Cells” and their cover or Motörhead’s “Orgasmatron”. Andreas Kisser is once again amazing on guitars throughout their set and looked like he was having a blast. The band kept their heavy hitters for the end of their set and pleased many fans when they played “Troops Of Doom”, “Inner Self” and “Arise” in succession. 

Newcomer Greyson Nekrutman (ex-Suicidal Tendencies) did a fantastic job on drums and even had his moment in the spotlight with a drum solo during “Ratamahatta”. Sepultura came back on stage with “Roots Bloody Roots” as their usual set closer and fans went ballistic, as they knew, this was the end of an era.

Is this the last time we saw Sepultura in Montreal? Is this their last tour? If this is the case, this stellar retrospective concert will be remembered for a long time by the fans.