It’s fashionable to say that our scene is dying, but the chaos that erupts in the Academy before iconic Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera has even appeared says the opposite.
When the band hit the stage, it’s explosive, the rabid crowd suddenly creating a blur of motion as hair flies and circlepits open up like a vortex as they kick off with Frontlines.
The grinning Max revels in the ferocity of Blood Fire War Hate, the animalistic Tribe, and in the frenzied reaction to Sepultura’s Refuse/Resist.
The sound is tight and crushingly heavy, which is impressive given that half of the current lineup look like they get ID’d buying a packet of Starbursts. It soon transpires that the newest addition to the band is Max’s younger son, Igor Cavalera Jr, who’s clearly doing the best internship ever. There’s a lovely moment when Max swaps places with Igor Jr so that he can scream along to Bloodshed, and they both lead the crowd in singing along to the anthemic We Sold Our Souls To Metal, the reaction it provokes offering uncontestable proof of heavy metal’s tenacity. And to top it all off, when the inevitable encore of Sepultura covers rolls around, they’re joined by none other than the now London-dwelling Igor Cavalera – Senior, that is – for an insanely charged, visceral rendition of Roots, leaving every Sepultura fan in the house ecstatic.
